Barnes on ‘tongues’ in I Corinthians 14:18
Said Paul: I thank my God that I speak with tongues more than all of you do!’ Barnes comments: “Paul here shows that he did not undervalue or despise the power of speaking foreign languages. It was with him a subject of thanksgiving that he could speak so many…. ‘I am able to speak more foreign languages than all of you’ [said Paul].
“How many languages Paul could speak, he has nowhere told us…. He had been commissioned to preach to the Gentiles, and it is probable that he was able to speak the languages of all the nations among whom he ever travelled. There is no account of his being under a necessity of employing an interpreter wherever he preached!” Compare, however, I Cor. 14:5,18-19,27-28 with Acts 14:11-14 & I Pet. 5:13!
