1 Corinthians 14:16

1 Corinthians 14:16

14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.

15 What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. ^aI will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing ^bwith the understanding.

16 Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say “Amen” ^aat your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say?

17 For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified.

18 I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all;

Commentaries:

Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)

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Else if thou bless with the spirit (epei ean euloghv en pneumati). Third class condition. He means that, if one is praying and praising God (I Corinthians 10:16) in an ecstatic prayer, the one who does not understand the ecstasy will be at a loss when to say "amen" at the close of the prayer. In the synagogues the Jews used responsive amens at the close of prayers (Nehemiah 5:13; Nehemiah 8:6; I Chronicles 16:36; Psalms 106:48).

He that filleth the place of the unlearned (o anaplhrwn ton topon tou idiwtou). Not a special part of the room, but the position of the idiwtou (from idiov, one's own), common from Herodotus for private person (Acts 4:13), unskilled (II Corinthians 11:6), uninitiated (unlearned) in the gift of tongues as here and verses I Corinthians 14:23 f.

At thy giving of thanks (epi th sh euxaristiai). Just the prayer, not the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper, as is plain from verse I Corinthians 14:17.

**Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing 1 Corinthians 14:16:**

Matthew 13:14
Acts 2:4
Acts 10:46
2 Corinthians 1:20
2 Corinthians 11:6
Galatians 6:2

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