1 Corinthians 14:5

“Now I would that ye all spake in tongues, and rather that ye prophesied; but greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the Church may receive edifying.”

The following is the result of 1 Corinthians 14:1-4: the gift of tongues is a good thing; but prophecy is superior to it, unless by interpretation the discourse in a tongue be transformed into prophecy. The first δέ is progressive, now: “Now I do not reject glossolalia, I desire that it should abound; but I desire still more earnestly the development of the gift of prophecy.”

The γάρ, for, which, in the Greco-Lat. and Byz. texts, connects the second part of the verse with the first, has been substituted for the much more difficult δέ, which is the reading of the Alex. The δέ is adversative; it is well explained by Holsten: “ But yet there is a case in which the man who speaks in a tongue is as great as the prophet.” The term great is used here from the standpoint of utility. The measure of this greatness is borrowed from the principle of charity.

In the form ἐκτὸς εἰ μή, unless...not, the μή, not, is a pleonasm arising from the mixing of the two following constructions: excepting if (ἐκτὸς εἰ), and: if not (εἰ μή).

The subject of except he interpret can be no other than the glossolalete himself. No doubt, failing him, some other might do it (comp. 1 Corinthians 14:27). But, as a rule, Paul expected that he should do it himself (1 Corinthians 14:13; 1 Corinthians 14:15). There was thus less room left for arbitrariness. By way of analogy, we may imagine a man coming out of a dream and explaining what he has seen and heard, and so giving account of the broken exclamations and words which the bystanders had heard without understanding them.

The διά, in the verb, indicates the detailed, discursive element of the contents of the brief and summary sayings uttered in a tongue.

The complete uselessness of tongues without interpretation is demonstrated in what follows by a series of examples, 1 Corinthians 14:6-12.