哥林多前书 14:11

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

我若不明白某一種語言的意思，在那講的人來看，我就是個外國人；在我來說，那講話的人也是個外國人。

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
我 若 不 明 白 那 声 音 的 意 思 ， 这 说 话 的 人 必 以 我 为 化 外 之 人 ， 我 也 以 他 为 化 外 之 人 。

Contextual Overview

⁶ Brothers and sisters, will it help you if I come to you speaking in different languages? No! It will help you only if I bring you a new truth or some new knowledge, or prophecy, or teaching. ⁷ It is the same as with lifeless things that make sounds—like a flute or a harp. If they do not make clear musical notes, you will not know what is being played. ⁸ And in a war, if the trumpet does not give a clear sound, who will prepare for battle? ⁹ It is the same with you. Unless you speak clearly with your tongue, no one can understand what you are saying. You will be talking into the air! ¹⁰ It may be true that there are all kinds of sounds in the world, and none is without meaning. ¹¹ But unless I understand the meaning of what someone says to me, we will be like foreigners to each other. ¹² It is the same with you. Since you want spiritual gifts very much, seek most of all to have the gifts that help the church grow stronger. ¹³ The one who has the gift of speaking in a different language should pray for the gift to interpret what is spoken. ¹⁴ If I pray in a different language, my spirit is praying, but my mind does nothing.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I shall: 1 Corinthians 14:21, Acts 28:2, Acts 28:4, Romans 1:14, Colossians 3:11

Cross-References

Genesis 12:5
He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and everything they owned, as well as all the servants they had gotten in Haran. They set out from Haran, planning to go to the land of Canaan, and in time they arrived there.

Genesis 14:16
Then Abram brought back everything the enemy had stolen, the women and the other people, and Lot, and everything Lot owned.

Genesis 14:21
The king of Sodom said to Abram, "You may keep all these things for yourself. Just give me my people who were captured."

Deuteronomy 28:31
Your ox will be killed before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you, and it will not be brought back. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will save you.

Deuteronomy 28:35
The Lord will give you sore boils on your knees and legs that cannot be cured, and they will go from the soles of your feet to the tops of your heads.

Deuteronomy 28:51
They will eat the calves from your herds and the harvest of your field, and you will be destroyed. They will not leave you any grain, new wine or oil, or any calves from your herds or lambs from your flocks. You will be ruined.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice,.... The force and power of a language, the signification of it, the ideas its words convey, but only hear the sound of it:

I shall be to him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me: like one of those rude and uncultivated people that inhabit deserts and wild places, who can neither understand the language of others, nor be understood by others; and indeed may be meant of any sort of people, that do not understand one another's language: the word בר, "bar", and ברא, "bara", in the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic languages, not only signifies a field, a wood, or desert place, but also without, or any thing extraneous; and being doubled, signifies one that lives without, in another land; a stranger, and that speaks a strange language; so all other nations of the world were barbarians to the Hebrews, and particularly the Egyptians; see the Targum on Psalms 114:1 and so were all other nations to the Greeks, see Romans 1:14 and also to the Romans: and the sense is, that where the signification of a language and the sense of words are not known, the speaker is like a man that lives in a strange country to him that hears him; and the hearer is like to one that lives in a strange country to him that speaks, since they cannot understand one another. The word sometimes is used for men, αφωνοι η ανκοοι, z, "that can neither speak nor hear", men dumb and deaf; and when words cannot be understood, the case is all one as with such persons.

z Scholia in Aristoph. in Avibus, p. 550.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The meaning of the voice - Of the language that is uttered, or the sounds that are made.

I shall be unto him ... - What I say will be unintelligible to him, and what he says will be unintelligible to me. We cannot understand one another any more than people can who speak different languages.

A barbarian - See the note at Romans 1:14. The word means one who speaks a different, or a foreign language.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Corinthians 14:11. If I know not the meaning of the voice — την δυναμις της φωνης, The power and signification of the language.

I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian — I shall appear to him, and he to me, as a person who had no distinct and articulate sounds which can convey any kind of meaning. This observation is very natural: when we hear persons speaking in a language of which we know nothing, we wonder how they can understand each other, as, in their speech, there appears to us no regular distinction of sounds or words. For the meaning and origin of the word barbarian, Acts 28:2.