1 Corinthians 14:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Do not think, he says, that this happens only among us. The same thing happens among all people. Thus, in saying this, I do not blame the language. I show that it is useless to me while it remains unclear. Then, so that the rebuke would not be harsh, he makes the blame equal. I shall be, he says, "a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker a foreigner to me," not because of the nature of the language, but because of our ignorance. Do you see how, little by little, he brought the discourse to the essential point? This is his usual way. He takes examples from afar and ends with what properly belongs to the matter. After speaking of the pipe and the harp, where there was much that was incomplete and unnecessary, he passed to the trumpet, a most useful instrument.

If I do not understand the meaning of the words, the speaker will seem to me a foreigner, that is, one speaking unintelligibly. I shall seem the same to him, not because the words are bad, but because we do not understand them.

Verses 10-11. "Kinds of voices." Here "voice" stands for language. The Apostle uses φωνὴ, that is, sounds, instead of the usual γλῶσσα, because the latter in his usage means a language miraculously given. "None of them is without meaning," ἄφωνον. There is an evident play on words: a voice without voice, that is, without meaning. The Apostle wished to answer the Corinthians' objection that speech in an unknown language cannot be considered irrational merely because no one understands it. Having shown, through the example of the trumpet, how unknown sounds make even good instruments useless, the Apostle now gives another example from language. The use of an unknown language leads one to suppose that the speaker is a foreigner.

Speaking in unknown tongues for those present in church, though inspired by the Spirit, is useless. It may be compared to discordant and confused sounds from various instruments instead of pleasant music. Or it is like the uncertain sound of a military trumpet instead of clear signals for soldiers (1 Cor 14:7-8). Again, it is speaking into the air (1 Cor 14:9), or one foreigner speaking to another foreigner like himself (1 Cor 14:11).

So as not to grieve any of those who were abusing the gift of tongues, the Apostle says that it would not be good if, for example, he himself came and began speaking among them in an incomprehensible language. Of course, this could not and did not happen, as they knew well. Further, persuading them not to abuse the gift of tongues, the Apostle shows that even soulless objects, which serve as means for expressing human thoughts and feelings, produce intelligible sounds. Such are the pipe, the harp, and the trumpet. Still more does the human throat express an endless multitude of concepts in articulate sounds and words.

"If I do not know the meaning of the voice," that is, if I do not understand the language of the one addressing speech to me, then I am a foreigner to him, βαρβαρος, and he is the same to me.

By speaking unintelligibly, you have made it seem as though you had entered a foreign land and were moving among people of another race. You have made yourselves the same to them. Since they do not understand your speech, others have the right to regard you as foreigners.

See what absurdity results! This is the thought of Photius in Oecumenius.