Comments Hodge: “The obvious design of the illustration, is to show the uselessness of making sounds which are not understood…. The simple point of the analogy is that, as we cannot know what is piped or harped, or be benefited by it, unless we can discriminate the sounds emitted — so we cannot be benefited by listening to one who speaks a language which we do not understand.”
Barnes on ‘tongues’ in I Corinthians 14:6-9
Barnes comments: “If he [Paul] should come among them [the Corinthians] speaking foreign languages — it could be of no use unless it were interpreted to them…. Paul had the power of speaking foreign languages [I Cor. 14] ver. 18. But he did not use this power for ostentation or display, but merely to communicate the gospel to those who did not understand his native tongue….
