1 Corinthians 14:2-3

The reason for preferring Prophecy, on the principles laid down, is that one's fellows receive no benefit from the Tongues: except God, “no one hears” the latter i.e. hears understandingly (cf. Ephesians 1:13; Ephesians 4:29, etc.). There was sound enough in the glossolalia (1 Corinthians 13:1), but no sense (1 Corinthians 14:23). πνεύματι δὲ λαλεῖ κ. τ. λ., “but in spirit he is speaking mysteries”; δὲ points a contrast to the οὐδεὶς … ἀκούει : there is something worth hearing deep things muttered by those quivering lips, that should be rationally spoken. For μυστήριον, see note on 1 Corinthians 2:7, and Cr [2020] s.v.: mystery in Scripture is the correlate of revelation; here it stops short of disclosure, tantalizing the Church, which hears and hears not. πνεύματι, dat [2021] of manner or instr., “with the spirit,” but without the “understanding” (νοῦς : 1 Corinthians 14:14 ff.; cf. note to 1 Corinthians 12:8). “But he who prophesies does speak to men edification and exhortation and comfort.” παράκλησις and παραμυθία are distinct from οἰκοδομή : prophetic speech serves for (a) “the further upbuilding of the Christian life, (b) the stimulation of the Christian will, (c) the strengthening of the Christian spirit” (Hf [2022]). παραμυθία has ref [2023] to sorrow or fear (see parls.); παράκλησις (far commoner) to duty; οἰκοδομή, in the widest sense, to knowledge and character and the progress of the Church: this last stands alone in the sequel.

[2020] Cremer's Biblico-Theological Lexicon of N.T. Greek (Eng. Trans.).

[2021] dative case.

[2022] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[2023] reference.