Hodge also comments (on I Cor. 12:10), that the passages in I Cor. 14:14-15, “naturally mean only that the understanding of the speaker was unprofitable to others” — if his uttered message was not translated for them. “Paul in I Cor. 14:14-19 does not place speaking with tongues and speaking in one’s own language in opposition…. ‘Speaking with tongues’ was not an involuntary, incoherent, ecstatic mode of speaking!”
Hodge on the word ‘unfruitful’ in I Cor. 14:14
Declares Paul: ‘If I pray in a foreign language, my own spirit indeed prays; but my understanding is unfruitful.’ Comments Hodge: “What is meant by saying, ‘my understanding is unfruitful?'” There are those, comments Hodge (on I Cor. 14:14), who says that these words mean: ‘my understanding is not profited; gains no fruit’ — that is, I do not understand what I say!’
