speaks a real language, therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice (i. e. the language), I shall stand in the relation of a foreigner to him and he to me. Otherwise it would not be so. If a man utters incoherent, inarticulate sounds, which no man living could understand, that would not make him a foreigner. It might prove him to be deranged, but not a stranger. The word barbarian means simply one of another country. AU other people, whether civilized or not, were barbarians to the Greeks, or to the Romans. As ancient civilization came to be confined to those nations, not to be a Greek or Roman, was to be uncivilized, and hence barbarian or foreigner came to mean without civihzation. Just as the true religion being confined to the Jews, Gentile (one not a Jew) came to be synonomous with heathen. In this passage, however, barbarian means simply foreigner. Comp. Rom. 1, 14. Acts 28, 24. Col. 3, 11.
12. Even so ye, forasmucli as ye are zealous of spiritual (gifts), seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.
Even so ye. That is, as the man who speaks a language which I do not understand, is a foreigner to me and I to him, so are ye. You too are foreigners to those who do not un- derstand the language which you use. As all such unintelli- gible speaking is worthless, the apostle exhorts them to seek to edify the church. As ye are zealous of spiritual gifts ; literally, of spirits. The most probable explanation of this expression is to be sought from 12, 7, where it is said that " to every one is given a manifestation of the Spirit." One and the same Spirit manifests himself in different ways in dif- ferent persons ; and these different manifestations are called spirits. Somewhat analogous are the expressions, " spirits of the prophets," v. 32; "discernment of spirits," 12, 11 ; "try the spirits," 1 John 4, 1 ; and " the seven Spirits of God," spoken of in the Apocalypse. In all these cases spirits mean manifestations of the Spirit, or forms under which the Spirit manifests himself. It is not an unusual metonomy when the effect receives the name of its cause. Comp. Gal. 5, 17, "The spirit lusteth against the flesh," where spirit may mean the renewed principle produced by the Spirit.
Seek that ye may excel (or abound) to the edifying of the church. This is the common explanation of this clause. But