1 Corinthians 14:19
But in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may instruct others also; than ten thousand words in a tongue.
Open 1 Corinthians 14:19 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sed in ecclesia volo quinque verba sensu meo loqui, ut et alios instruam : quam decem millia verborum in lingua.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- ἀλλὰ ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ θέλω πέντε λόγους τῷ νοΐ μου λαλῆσαι, ἵνα καὶ ἄλλους κατηχήσω, ἢ μυρίους λόγους ἐν γλώσσῃ.
Haydock's commentary
But in the Church. The apostle here condemns the vanity of the Corinthians, who made a parade of their gift of tongues. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXXV
Ver. 19 . “Howbeit in the Church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also.” What is that, “speak with my understanding, that I might instruct others also?” “Understanding what I say,” and “words which I can both interpret to others, and speak intelligently, and teach the hearers.” “Than ten thousand words in a tongue.” Wherefore? “That I may instruct others,” saith he. For the one hath but display only; the other, great utility: this being what he everywhere seeks, I mean the common profit. And yet the gift of tongues was strange, but that of prophecy familiar and ancient and heretofore given to many; this on the contrary then first given: howbeit it was not much cared for by him. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Paulinus
8. Genesis, we shall be told, needs no explanation; its topics are too simple, the birth of the world, the origin of the human race, the division of the earth, the confusion of tongues, and the descent of the Hebrews into Egypt! Exodus, no doubt, is equally plain, containing as it does merely an account of the ten plagues, the decalogue, and sundry mysterious and divine precepts! The meaning of Leviticus is of course self-evident, although every sacrifice that it describes, nay more every word that it contains, the description of Aaron’s vestments, and all the regulations connected with the Levites are symbols of things heavenly! The book of Numbers too, are not its very figures, and Balaam’s prophecy, and the forty-two camping places in the wilderness so many mysteries? Deuteronomy also, that is the second law or the foreshadowing of the law of the gospel, does it not, while exhibiting …
St Gregory Nazianzen On His Father's Silence, Because of the Plague of Hail
2. I have not yet alluded to the true and first wisdom, for which our wonderful husbandman and shepherd is conspicuous. The first wisdom is a life worthy of praise, and kept pure for God, or being purified for Him Who is all-pure and all-luminous, Who demands of us, us His only sacrifice, purification, that is, a contrite heart and the sacrifice of praise, and a new creation in Christ, and the new man, and the like, as the Scripture loves to call it. The first wisdom is to despise that wisdom which consists of language and figures of speech, and spurious and unnecessary embellishments. Be it mine to speak five words with my understanding in the church, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue, and with the unmeaning voice of a trumpet, which does not rouse my soldier to the spiritual combat. This is the wisdom which I praise, which I welcome. …