1 Corinthians 14:28
But if there be no interpreter, let him hold his peace in the church, and speak to himself and to God.
Open 1 Corinthians 14:28 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Si autem non fuerit interpres, taceat in ecclesia : sibi autem loquatur, et Deo.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ᾖ διερμηνευτής, σιγάτω ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ, ἑαυτῷ δὲ λαλείτω καὶ τῷ θεῷ.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXXVI
Ver. 28 . “But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the Church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.” What sayest thou, tell me? Having spoken so much of tongues, that the gift is a thing unprofitable, a thing superfluous, if it have no interpreter, dost thou command again to speak with tongues? I do not command, saith he, neither do I forbid; as when he saith, “if any of them that believe not bid you to a feast and ye be disposed to go,” he saith it not laying down a law for them to go, but not hindering them: so likewise here. “And let him speak to himself and to God.” If he endure not to be silent, saith he, but is so ambitious and vain-glorious, “let him speak by himself.” And thus, by the very fact of so permitting, he greatly checked and put them to shame. …
St Gregory Nazianzen In Defence of His Flight to Pontus, and His Return, After His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office
7. For nothing seemed to me so desirable as to close the doors of my senses, and, escaping from the flesh and the world, collected within myself, having no further connection than was absolutely necessary with human affairs, and speaking to myself and to God, to live superior to visible things, ever preserving in myself the divine impressions pure and unmixed with the erring tokens of this lower world, and both being, and constantly growing more and more to be, a real unspotted mirror of God and divine things, as light is added to light, and what was still dark grew clearer, enjoying already by hope the blessings of the world to come, roaming about with the angels, even now being above the earth by having forsaken it, and stationed on high by the Spirit. If any of you has been possessed by this longing, he knows what I mean and will sympathise with my feelings at that time. …
St Gregory Nazianzen On the Great Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria
19. In this case then it is not wonderful, if George had the advantage of Athanasius; nay it would be more wonderful, if the righteous were not tried in the fire of contumely; nor is this very wonderful, as it would have been had the flames availed for more than this. Then he was in retirement, and arranged his exile most excellently, for he betook himself to the holy and divine homes of contemplation in Egypt, where, secluding themselves from the world, and welcoming the desert, men live to God more than all who exist in the body. Some struggle on in an utterly monastic and solitary life, speaking to themselves alone and to God, and all the world they know is what meets their eyes in the desert. …