1 Corinthians 14:6
But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, unless I speak to you either in revelation, or in knowledge, or in prophecy, or in doctrine?
Open 1 Corinthians 14:6 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Nunc autem, fratres, si venero ad vos linguis loquens : quid vobis prodero, nisi vobis loquar aut in revelatione, aut in scientia, aut in prophetia, aut in doctrina ?
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- Νῦν δέ, ἀδελφοί, ἐὰν ἔλθω πρὸς ὑμᾶς γλώσσαις λαλῶν, τί ὑμᾶς ὠφελήσω, ἐὰν μὴ ὑμῖν λαλήσω ἢ ἐν ἀποκαλύψει ἢ ἐν γνώσει ἢ ἐν προφητείᾳ ἢ ἐν διδαχῇ;
Haydock's commentary
If I come to you, speaking with tongues in this manner, what shall I profit you, unless in revelation, &c. that is, unless I reveal, and expound to you the meaning, by some other gift, as in knowledge, in prophecy, in doctrine? To speak tongues only without interpreting, is no ways instructive. He that speaks to me, what I understand not, is no better than a barbarian to me, (so the Greeks called those that spoke not their language.) He amplifies this inconvenience of not being understood, by the example of instruments, pipes, harps, trumpets, which would not move persons to different affections, nor excite them to different actions, unless the sound, and manner they were played upon, were different; seek, then, and endeavour to make use of the gifts of the Spirit, to the edification of the Church, or of the hearers. (Witham)
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
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter X. Steps to Perfection
The first mode of the Lord’s operation mentioned by us is an exhibition of the recompense resulting from piety. Of the very great number of testimonies that there are, I shall adduce one, thus summarily expressed by the prophet David: “Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord , or who shall stand in His holy place? He who is guiltless in his hands, and pure in his heart; who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, or sworn deceitfully to his neighbour. He shall receive blessing from the Lord , and mercy from God his Saviour. This is the generation of them that seek the Lord, that seek the face of the God of Jacob.” The prophet has, in my opinion, concisely indicated the Gnostic. David, as appears, has cursorily demonstrated the Saviour to be God, by calling Him “the face of the God of Jacob,” who preached and taught concerning the Spirit. …
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXXV
Ver. 6 . “But now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, unless I speak to you either by way of revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching?” “And why speak I,” saith he, “of the rest? Nay, let the person who speaketh with tongues be Paul: for not even so will any good come to the hearers.” And these things he saith to signify that he is seeking their profit, not bearing any grudge against them that have the gift; since not even in his own person doth he shrink from pointing out its unprofitableness. …
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII, Chapter VIII. Of spiritual knowledge
But to return to the explanation of the knowledge from which our discourse took its rise. Thus, as we said above, practical knowledge is distributed among many subjects and interests, but theoretical is divided into two parts, i.e., the historical interpretation and the spiritual sense. Whence also Solomon when he had summed up the manifold grace of the Church, added: “for all who are with her are clothed with double garments.” But of spiritual knowledge there are three kinds, tropological, allegorical, anagogical, of which we read as follows in Proverbs: “But do you describe these things to yourself in three ways according to the largeness of your heart.” And so the history embraces the knowledge of things past and visible, as it is repeated in this way by the Apostle: “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman, the other by a free: but he who was of the bondwo …