In 1 Corinthians 14:10-11, Paul supports a point about tongues and prophecy with a bit of linguistics. Meaning, he notes, functions within a linguistic community. Languages have significance (v 10), but only for those who know that significance (v 11). Language boundaries are community boundaries, so that if we speak a language that’s not understood we seem a “barbarian” (NASB; Greek, barbaros ). Without common language, speakers remain barbarians to one another (v. 11).
Paul’s is a fairly simple observation, but it shows that Paul had some sense of the communal dimension of meaning. And it also raises the intriguing prospect that 1 Corinthians 14 might be plundered for more insights into language and meaning.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Natural Law Needs Revelation
Natural law theory teaches that God embedded a teleological moral order in the world, such that things…
Letters
Glenn C. Loury makes several points with which I can’t possibly disagree (“Tucker and the Right,” January…
Visiting an Armenian Archbishop in Prison
On February 3, I stood in a poorly lit meeting room in the National Security Services building…
