1 Corinthians 14:16,17

“Since, if thou blessest in spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the stranger say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? 17. For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified.”

The ἐπεί, since, relates to this thought understood: “And indeed we must act thus (add interpretation to speaking in a tongue), since if...” Paul here substitutes the second person (thou) for the first, because in 1 Corinthians 14:15 he states what he thinks he ought to do himself, whereas in 1 Corinthians 14:16 he supposes an interlocutor acting in an opposite way whom he wishes to convince of his mistake.

It was customary in the synagogue, at the close of a prayer, for all the audience to appropriate the contents of it, solemnly adhering to it by the Amen (Deu 27:15 seq.; Neh 8:6). Justin (1 st Apol.) affirms the continuance of this usage in the Church: “After the president has closed the prayers and thanksgivings, all the people present express their assent by saying: Amen! Now the Amen in Hebrew signifies: So let it be!” See in Edwards the similar passages from Tertullian, Cyril, Jerome, etc. This form of worship became an empty formality when the congregation had not understood the meaning of the benediction pronounced.

On benediction, as the matter of ecstatic discourses, compare the expressions in the Acts: “speaking the wonderful works of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11); “magnifying God” (Acts 10:46).

The expression: he that occupieth the room of, ὁ ἀναπληρῶν τὸν τόπον, must not be referred, as several interpreters have done, to this or that special portion of the audience, whether heathen who had come out of curiosity or from religious interest, or immature Christians, catechumens (Heinrici). Paul thus designates all the members of the Church, because in this situation they play the part of unintelligent hearers in relation to the glossolalete. The word ἰδιωτής strictly designates the purely private individual, in opposition to the man in office; hence, in all domains, the man who is unacquainted with the business on hand, the apprentice, the private soldier, the ignorant man. Heinrici mentions the fact that it was used in the language of the religious corporations of Greece to denote one who was not yet a member of the society. Paul therefore means that the glossolalete who speaks without interpreting, makes the congregation play a part similar to that of the strangers or semi-strangers who were sometimes present at their assemblies, and did not understand the ordinary Christian addresses. Now this, according to him, is to be wanting in courtesy (ἀσχημονεῖν, 1 Corinthians 13:5). The word τόπος, room, place, does not point to a fixed place occupied by non-Christians in the assemblies. It is here taken figuratively: to fill the function, to play the part of; comp. Acts 1:25 (λαβεῖν τὸν τόπον); and in Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians, c. 63: τὸν ὑπακοὴς τόπον ἀναπληροῦν, to fill a position of dependence (Edwards). Such is also the meaning of the corresponding Hebrew expression (male mekom). Josephus (Bell. Jude 1:5; Jude 1:5:2, Jude 1:5) says, in speaking of Titus, who, in a surprise, had required to draw his sword and do the part of a private soldier, that his friends begged him “not στρατιώτου τάξιν ἀποπληροῦν, him, their commander and the lord of the earth.” The military term τάξις, rank, naturally takes the place in this passage of the ordinary word τόπος. The impropriety of which the glossolalete is thus guilty toward the Church (1 Corinthians 13:5) comes out clearly from the question at the close of the verse. The article τό should be remarked before ἀμήν : “ the Amen,” the Amen by which the whole assembly is accustomed to appropriate the prayer of one of its members. If the Church is thus to give its assent to the thanksgiving uttered, it must understand it. The term εὐχαριστία, thanksgiving, is the equivalent of εὐλογία, benediction. If there is a shade of difference in their meaning, it is this, the first refers rather to Divine benefits personally received; the second, to the Divine perfections considered in themselves and celebrated for their own sublimity.

Vv. 17 The σύ, thou, and the καλῶς, well, are slightly ironical. The expression the other denotes all the members of the congregation taken individually.

The apostle, in 1 Corinthians 14:6, put his own case to prove the uselessness of tongues without prophecy; here he alleges it again in proof of the uselessness of tongues unaccompanied with interpretation.