1 Corinthians 13:1

This way will be described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, but first its necessity must be proved: this is shown by the five parl [1961] hypotheses of 1 Corinthians 13:1 ff., respecting tongues, prophecy, knowledge, and devotion of goods or of person. The first supposition takes up the charism last mentioned (1 Corinthians 12:30) and most valued at Cor [1962] : ἐὰν τ. γλώσσαις … λαλῶ, ἀγάπην δὲ μὴ ἔχω (form of probable hypothesis too prob. at Cor [1963]), “If with the tongues of men I be speaking, and of angels, but am without love,” in that case, “I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” I have gained by this admired endowment the power of making so much senseless noise (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:6-11; 1 Corinthians 14:23; 1 Corinthians 14:27 f.). With love in the speaker, his γλωσσολαλία would be kept within the bounds of edification (1 Corinthians 14:6; 1 Corinthians 14:12-19; 1 Corinthians 14:27), and would possess a tone and pathos far different from that described. “Tongues of men ” does not signify foreign languages (so Or [1964], Hf [1965], Al [1966], Thiersch), such as are supposed to have been spoken on the Day of Pentecost (see note on 1 Corinthians 12:10); they are, in this whole context, ecstatic and inarticulate forms of speech, such as “men” do sometimes exercise: “tongues of angels” (καὶ of the climax : “aye, and of angels!”) describes this mystic utterance at its highest (cf. λαλεῖ Θεῷ, 1 Corinthians 14:2) a mode of expression above this world. Possibly P. associated the supernatural γλῶσσαι, by which he was himself distinguished (1 Corinthians 14:18), with the ἄρρητα ῥήματα heard by him “in paradise” (2 Corinthians 12:4); cf. the “song” (Revelation 14:2 f.) which only “those redeemed out of the earth” understand. The Rabbis held Hebrew to be the language of the angels. χαλκὸς denotes any instrument of brass; κύμβαλον, the particular loud and shrill instrument which the sound of the “tongues” resembled.

[1961] parallel.

[1962] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[1963] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[1964] Origen.

[1965] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[1966] Alford's Greek Testament.