Comments Hodge: “This proves that the speaker must have understood what he [himself] said…. If it was necessary that they [the listeners] should understand, in order [for them] to be edified — it was no less necessary that he [the speaker] should understand what he said, in order [for him] to be benefited [or ‘edified’]!
“This verse is therefore decisive against all theories of the gift of tongues which assume that those who used them, did not understand their own words. The Scriptures recognize no unintelligent worship of God!”
Barnes on ‘tongues’ in I Corinthians 14:16-17
What does Paul mean by the ‘unlearned’ language-listener? In Acts 4:13, ‘unlearned’ (and ‘ignorant’) apparently means ‘unschooled’ or ‘untutored.’ On the same word ‘unlearned’ in I Cor. 14:16f, Barnes comments: “Here it means one who was unacquainted with the foreign language spoken by him who gave thanks. It [‘unlearned’] properly denotes…a man who is ignorant and unlettered, as such men generally were….
