Barnes on ‘tongues’ in I Corinthians 14:23
Said Paul: ‘If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues….’ Here, comments Barnes, Paul meant — if “all speak with a variety of unknown tongues; [if] all speak foreign languages.”
Continues Barnes: The various members of “the church would usually speak the same language, [when speaking] with the people among whom they dwelt…. If they made use [or were to make use] of foreign languages…unintelligible to their visitors — it would leave the impression that the church was a bedlam!”
What kind of an impression, asks Paul, would that then make on ‘un-learn-ed’ persons visiting the church? By ‘un- learn-ed’ –comments Barnes — Paul here meant “those that are un-acquaint-ed with foreign languages, and to whom, therefore, what was said would be unintelligible.” Indeed, “the honour of Christianity should have led them [namely such Christians who could speak foreign languages] to abstain from the use of such languages in their worship when it was needless.”
