The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
The sense then is: God, speaking by Isaiah, says : “My exhortation to repentance, given by Isaiah and other prophets, seemed to you, O Jews, troublesome and ridiculous, just as if I had spoken to you with inarticulate sounds or in a foreign tongue ; hence you imitate what seem to you the meaningless sounds of the prophets, and you repeat in mockery their words. Wherefore, by the Chaldeans, who seem to you stammerers and lispers, will I punish you, that they, as the ministers of My righteousness, may restrain your unbelief by the strange sounds of their foreign tongue, and may ridicule you as their captives, and in their language mock and condemn your Hebrew words ; and they shall serve as a type of the Apostles, whom in the time of Christ I will send to reprove your equal unbelief then, by the gift of unknown tongues, and they shall seem to you as men that lisp or speak indistinctly, and they shall be scoffed at by you and the wise of this world as foolish preachers of the Cross of Christ.”
The literal meaning of Isaiah refers to his own time, and to the Chaldeans who were to overthrow Jerusalem; the allegorical refers to the gift of tongues given to the Apostles for a sign, not to the faithful, but to unbelievers, of the malediction with which God punishes the incredulous, not of the benediction with which He teaches His own servants. This verse of S. Paul shows the sense of Isaiah. Cf. S. Jerome and Cyril on Isa. xxviii.
Ver. 22. — Wherefore tongues are for a sign . . . to them that believe not. Viz., to the unbelieving Jews, both here and in Isaiah xxviii, rather than to the Gentiles. This sign must therefore not be used by the faithful for vain glory.
Prophesying serveth not for them that believe not , but for them which believe . The teaching of the word of God and exhortation are a sign of the blessing with which God trains up His servants, and stirs them up to every good work (see ver. 3). Sign here is not the same as “ miracle,” for the Chaldeans worked no miracle when in their own tongue they chided the Jews; but sign stands for a symbol, and mark of reproof, teaching, and exhortation. But understand what has been said of the believing and unbelieving, as applying to them primarily and principally; for in a secondary sense tongues serve for a sign to the faithful, and prophecy to the unbelievers. Cf. vers.
Vers. 23, 24. — If therefore the whole church, . . . he is judged of all. If all speak together confusedly and noisily, they will seem to be mad; but if all teach the faith from the Scriptures and other authorities, and preach of the way to lead a right life, the outsider will be convinced of, and reproved for, his unbelief and evil life, by all the teachers and preachers.
Ver. 25. — And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest. Out of the gift of discerning of spirits, or because God directs the tongue of the prophet, i.e., the preacher, the most hidden sins of his heart will be described and reproved, and the man will think that the preacher speaks as a prophet to him in particular. It is evident from this that this was a common occurrence ; it is also evident that these teachers and preachers were, strictly speaking, real prophets.
There is a parallel case in the life of S. Augustine by Possidius (c. 15), where it is said that on one occasion S. Augustine left the subject that he had decided to speak on, and discoursed on Manichaeism. This led to the conversion of a certain Manichaean, who chanced to be present, as S. Augustine afterwards learnt. He believed it to be due to the direct guidance of God. Hence (de Doct. Christ, lib. iv. c. 15) he says that prayer should always be offered to God before preaching, that He would direct the mind and tongue of the preacher suitably to the capacity and disposition of the audience.
Others, however, understand “ the secrets of his heart ” to mean the sins which the unbeliever or unlearned has, but which he does not know to be sins, e.g., when he does not know that idolatry and fornication are sinful. He will learn this when he hears the prophet discoursing about them, and condemning them as sinful. But the first meaning is the best.
Ver. 26. — How is it then , brethren ? . . . Let all things be done unto edifying. “ Every one of you ” is, of course, distributive. It is not meant that each one had all these things, but one had one thing, another another. Whoever of you has a psalm, or a doctrine, or a revelation, or an interpretation, or the gift of tongues, let him sing the praises of God, or pour forth his prayers and other devotions.
Hath a psalm. The grace of composing and singing psalms or hymns. So Pliny writes to Trajan that the Christians were wont to sing hymns before dawn to Christ as God.
Hath a revelation . A revelation and exposition, either of some difficult passage of Holy Scripture, or of some future or unrevealed event.
We should notice from this passage that in the Primitive Church the rites and order of Divine Service, instituted by Paul and the other Apostles, were somewhat as follows : (1.) Psalms were sung by all ; (2.) the Holy Scriptures were read; (3.) the Bishop preached; (4.) then followed the Eucharist, which at that time consisted of simply the oblation, the consecration, communion, the canon and Lord’s Prayer, and some collect to which the people answered, “Amen.” (5.) All communicated ; (6.) some, inspired by the Holy Spirit, would utter or sing, in different tongues, psalms or hymns to the praise of God, others would prophesy; (7.) some, after the Jewish fashion, would interpret the Holy Scriptures or give an exhortation , and that by two or three, especially prophets or men full of the Spirit ; others would listen and then ask questions about what had been said. This was done even by the women, though this was an abuse corrected by S. Paul ; and when anything particularly good or pious was said, they would all exclaim together, " Amen, amen ! ” (8.) All was concluded with the agape, which was a common feast and a symbol of brotherly love, after which prayers and hymns again were used. Justin, in the passage quoted below, enumerates all these in order. He says: “In all the oblations which we offer we praise with thanksgiving ” (the first part) “the Maker of all , through His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit ; and on the day called Sunday there is an assembly of all who live in town or country, and the commentaries of the Apostles or writings of the Prophets are read” (the second part). “ Then when the reader ceases , he who presides delivers a sermon , in which he instructs the people, or exhorts them to practise the good things they have heard ” (the third part). “ Upon this we all rise together and offer up prayers, and as I have said, when the prayers are finished, bread is offered with wine and water ; and the same president, as far as he can, offers up prayers and thanksgivings , and the people answer with acclamation, ‘Amen!’ ” (the fourth part). “ Then there is made a distribution, and communication with thanksgiving to each one present, of the gifts, and the same is sent by means of the deacons to the absent ” (the fifth part) — Justin (Apol. ii. ad Ant.). The sixth, seventh, and eighth parts are described indiscriminately by Tertullian ( Apol. xxxix.) : “ Our supper shows its nature by its name of agape , which denotes love. We do not sit down to it without first praying to God. Then follows washing of the hands , lights are brought in , and as each one is able from the Holy Scriptures or his own gifts , he utters praise aloud , and the feast is ended also with prayer.” Philo (de Essaeis) gives a similar account.
We must notice, secondly, that these gifts and this fervour were of short continuance. Still, the Church has retained as far as possible the order and method then observed. Hence our present customs are the legitimate descendants of the eight mentioned above.
1. To the saying of psalms, &c., have succeeded the Hours of Mattins, Lauds, and Prime.
2. To the prophecies, readings with exposition and homilies, not only in the Hours, but also in the Mass, in the form of the Epistle and Gospel.
3. After the Gospel comes the sermon.
4. Now as then we have the Mass, in which, at the end of the collect, a clerk says “Amen!” for the people.
The fifth, as well as the sixth, seventh, and eighth, have fallen somewhat into abeyance, except that hymns and the Lesser Hours are sung after Mass, and that monks, in their assemblies for worship, are wont to discourse of spiritual things, as Cassian relates ( Collat. Patrum).
Ver. 27. — If any man speak in an unknown tongue. ... let one interpret. This verse depends on the foregoing clause, “Let all things be done to edifying.” If any one sing, or teach, or speak with a tongue, let all be done to edifying, so that, e.g., if tongues are used, then let only two, or at the most three, in each assembly speak, and that in their turns, so that there may be no confusion ; and let one interpret, so that the hearers may understand what is said.
Ver. 29. — Let the prophets speak two or three, viz., their prophecies or revealed truths, or intuitions or exhortations inspired into them by God. See what was said at the beginning of the chapter.