1 Corinthians 14:21

This O.T. citation is adduced not by way of Scriptural proof, but in solemn asseveration of what P. has intimated, to his readers' surprise, respecting the inferiority of the Glossolalia; cf. the manner of quotation in 1 Corinthians 1:19 1 Corinthians 2:9, 1 Corinthians 3:19. The passage of Isaiah reveals a principle applying to all such modes of speech on God's part. The title ὁ νόμος Jewish usage extended to Scripture at large; see Romans 3:19; John 10:34. P. shows here his independence of the LXX: the first clause, ὅτι … τούτῳ, follows the Heb., only turning the prophet's third person (“He will speak”) into the first, thus appropriating the words to God (λέγει Κύριος); Origen's Hexapla and Aquila's Gr [2123] Version run in almost the same terms (El [2124]). Paul's second clause, καὶ οὐδʼ οὕτως εἰσακούσονταί μου, is based on the latter clause of 1 Corinthians 14:12 (translated precisely in the LXX, καὶ οὐκ ἠθέλησαν ἀκούειν), but with a new turn of meaning drawn from the general context: he omits as irrelevant the former part of 1 Corinthians 14:12. The original is therefore condensed, and somewhat adapted. Hf [2125] and Ed [2126] discuss at length the Pauline application of Isaiah's thought. According to the true interpretation of Isaiah 28:9 ff. (see Cheyne, Delitzsch, or Dillmann ad loc [2127]), the drunken Israelites are mocking in their cups the teaching of God through His prophet, as though it were only fit for an infant school; in anger therefore He threatens to give His lessons through the lips of foreign conquerors (1 Corinthians 14:11), in whose speech the despisers of the mild, plain teaching of His servants (1 Corinthians 14:12) shall painfully spell out their ruin. The ὅτι (κῖ) is part of the citation: “For in men of alien tongue and in lips of aliens I will speak to this people; and not even thus will they hearken to me, saith the Lord“. God spoke to Israel through the strange Assyrian tongue in retribution, not to confirm their faith but to consummate their unbelief. The Glossolalia may serve a similar melancholy purpose in the Church. This analogy does not support, any more than that of 1 Corinthians 14:10 f. (see notes), the notion that the Tongues of Corinth were foreign languages. εἰσακούω, to hear with attention, effect, shares the meaning of ὑπακούω (obedio) in the LXX and in cl [2128] Gr [2129]

[2123] Greek, or Grotius' Annotationes in N.T.

[2124] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[2125] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[2126] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

[2127] ad locum, on this passage.

[2128] classical.

[2129] Greek, or Grotius' Annotationes in N.T.