The Protestant Reformation’s John Calvin was quite the greatest of all post-apostolic Presbyterians. States Calvin, in the introductory Theme of his Commentary on First Corinthians: “It is well-known that Corinth was a rich and a famous city of Achaia…. It was near the Aegean Sea on one side, and the Ionian Sea on the other, and…on the isthmus linking Attica and the Peloponnesus.”
Situated on the Grecian isthmus in perhaps the greatest international trading centre of the ancient world, Corinth — continues Calvin — was a truly multilingual citadel of “bombastic language” and “chattering speechmakers.” Yet the Christian congregation there “had gone wrong in the use of spiritual gifts.” Many demeaned the most excellent gift of prophecy, and “thought that tongues were more valuable.” So Paul “condemns the fault of holding forth noisily in unknown tongues” — alias languages unknown to the listeners.
