1 Corinthians 14:18

THE MESSAGE

I'm grateful to God for the gift of praying in tongues that he gives us for praising him, which leads to wonderful intimacies we enjoy with him. I enter into this as much or more than any of you. But when I'm in a church assembled for worship, I'd rather say five words that everyone can understand and learn from than say ten thousand that sound to others like gibberish.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I thank God that I speak in other tongues more than all of you;

King James Version (1611)
I thanke my God, I speake with tongues more then you all.

King James Version
I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:

English Standard Version
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.

New American Standard Bible
I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all;

New Century Version
I thank God that I speak in different kinds of languages more than all of you.

Amplified Bible
I thank God that I speak in [unknown] tongues more than all of you;

New American Standard Bible (1995)
I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all;

Legacy Standard Bible
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all;

Berean Standard Bible
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.

Contemporary English Version
I thank God that I speak unknown languages more than any of you.

Complete Jewish Bible
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you,

Darby Translation
I thank God I speak in a tongue more than all of you:

Easy-to-Read Version
I thank God that my gift of speaking in different kinds of languages is greater than any of yours.

Geneva Bible (1587)
I thanke my God, I speake languages more then ye all.

George Lamsa Translation
I thank God, that I speak with tongues more than you all:

Good News Translation
I thank God that I speak in strange tongues much more than any of you.

Lexham English Bible
I give thanks to God that I speak with tongues more than all of you,

Literal Translation
I thank my God that I speak more languages than all of you.

American Standard Version
I thank God, I speak with tongues more than you all:

Bible in Basic English
I give praise to God that I am able to make use of tongues more than you all:

Hebrew Names Version
I thank my God, I speak with other languages more than you all.

International Standard Version
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.

Etheridge Translation
I praise Aloha that more than all of you I speak with tongues;

Murdock Translation
I thank God, that I speak with tongues more than all of you.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
I thanke my God, I speake with tongues more the ye all.

English Revised Version
I thank God, I speak with tongues more than you all:

World English Bible
I thank my God, I speak with other languages more than you all.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
I thank God, that I speak with tongues more than you all.

Weymouth's New Testament
I speak in a tongue, thank God, more than all of you;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Y thanke my God, for Y speke in the langage of alle you;

Update Bible Version
I thank God, I speak with tongues more than all of you:

Webster's Bible Translation
I thank my God, I speak in languages more than ye all:

New English Translation
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you,

New King James Version
I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all;

New Living Translation
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than any of you.

New Life Bible
I thank God that I speak in special sounds more than all of you.

New Revised Standard
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
I give thanks unto God! - More than ye all, am I speaking with tongues;

Douay-Rheims Bible
I thank my God I speak with all your tongues.

Revised Standard Version
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all;

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
I thanke my god I speake with toges moare then ye all.

Young's Literal Translation
I give thanks to my God -- more than you all with tongues speaking --

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I thanke my God, that I speake with tunges more then ye all.

Mace New Testament (1729)
I thank God, I speak more languages than you all:

Simplified Cowboy Version
No one talks in tongues more than me.

Contextual Overview

¹⁸I'm grateful to God for the gift of praying in tongues that he gives us for praising him, which leads to wonderful intimacies we enjoy with him. I enter into this as much or more than any of you. But when I'm in a church assembled for worship, I'd rather say five words that everyone can understand and learn from than say ten thousand that sound to others like gibberish. ²⁰To be perfectly frank, I'm getting exasperated with your infantile thinking. How long before you grow up and use your head—your adult head? It's all right to have a childlike unfamiliarity with evil; a simple no is all that's needed there. But there's far more to saying yes to something. Only mature and well-exercised intelligence can save you from falling into gullibility. It's written in Scripture that God said, In strange tongues and from the mouths of strangers I will preach to this people, but they'll neither listen nor believe. So where does it get you, all this speaking in tongues no one understands? It doesn't help believers, and it only gives unbelievers something to gawk at. Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the heart of believers and doesn't get in the way of unbelievers. If you come together as a congregation and some unbelieving outsiders walk in on you as you're all praying in tongues, unintelligible to each other and to them, won't they assume you've taken leave of your senses and get out of there as fast as they can? But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God's truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth and probe their hearts. Before you know it, they're going to be on their faces before God, recognizing that God is among you.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

1 Corinthians 1:4-6, 1 Corinthians 4:7

Reciprocal: Acts 2:4 - began 1 Corinthians 1:14 - thank 1 Corinthians 14:4 - edifieth the 2 Corinthians 12:12 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 14:10
The Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into the tar pits, but the rest escaped into the mountains. The four kings captured all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, all their food and equipment, and went on their way. They captured Lot, Abram's nephew who was living in Sodom at the time, taking everything he owned with them.

Genesis 14:22
But Abram told the king of Sodom, "I swear to God , The High God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, this solemn oath, that I'll take nothing from you, not so much as a thread or a shoestring. I'm not going to have you go around saying, ‘I made Abram rich.' Nothing for me other than what the young men ate and the share of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; they're to get their share of the plunder."

Ruth 3:10
He said, " God bless you, my dear daughter! What a splendid expression of love! And when you could have had your pick of any of the young men around. And now, my dear daughter, don't you worry about a thing; I'll do all you could want or ask. Everybody in town knows what a courageous woman you are—a real prize! You're right, I am a close relative to you, but there is one even closer than I am. So stay the rest of the night. In the morning, if he wants to exercise his customary rights and responsibilities as the closest covenant redeemer, he'll have his chance; but if he isn't interested, as God lives, I'll do it. Now go back to sleep until morning."

Psalms 7:17
I'm thanking God, who makes things right. I'm singing the fame of heaven-high God .

Micah 6:6
How can I stand up before God and show proper respect to the high God? Should I bring an armload of offerings topped off with yearling calves? Would God be impressed with thousands of rams, with buckets and barrels of olive oil? Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child, my precious baby, to cancel my sin?

Acts 7:48
"Yet that doesn't mean that Most High God lives in a building made by carpenters and masons. The prophet Isaiah put it well when he wrote, "Heaven is my throne room; I rest my feet on earth. So what kind of house will you build me?" says God. "Where I can get away and relax? It's already built, and I built it."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all. This the apostle says, to observe to them that he did not despise speaking with tongues: nor did he endeavour to beat them off, and dissuade them from desiring them, or envied their having them, because he was destitute of them himself; for he had this gift in a very eminent manner, and oftentimes made use of it, and was frequently under a necessity of so doing; he could speak with more tongues than any of those that had them, and spoke them oftener than they did; having occasion for them through his travelling into different countries, and preaching the Gospel to people of divers languages; and this he mentions also not in a boasting manner, but in great humility, giving thanks to God, and acknowledging him to be the author of this gift.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I thank my God - Paul here shows that he did not undervalue or despise the power of speaking foreign languages. It was with him a subject of thanksgiving that he could speak so many; but he felt that there were more valuable endowments than this; see the next verse.

With tongues more than ye all - I am able to speak more foreign languages than all of you. “How many” languages Paul could speak, he has no where told us. It is reasonable, however, to presume that he was able to speak the language of any people to whom God in his providence, and by his Spirit, called him to preach. He had been commissioned to preach to the “Gentiles,” and it is probable that he was able to speak the languages of all the nations among whom he ever traveled. There is no account of his being under a necessity of employing an interpreter wherever he preached.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 18. I speak with tongues more than ye all — He understood more languages than any of them did: and this was indispensably necessary, as he was the apostle of the Gentiles in general, and had to preach to different provinces where different dialects, if not languages, were used. In the Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, and Latin, he was undoubtedly well skilled from his education; and how many he might understand by miraculous gift we cannot tell. But, even literally understood, it is very probable that he knew more languages than any man in the Church of Corinth.