Pauline Linguistics

Peter J. Leithart, January 29, 2007

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.