LALEIN - 1 Cor 14:34
Harold R. Holmyard III
hholmyard at ont.com
Sun May 28 23:36:07 EDT 2000
Dear Brian,
You ask:
>Does LALEIN in 1 Cor 14:34 refer to some practice such as ululation, not
>otherwise attested to in the NT?
Why would it do such a thing? Of course, LALEIN means to speak, and
ululation is a word referring to howling or wailing, which is a form of
speech. So LALEIN could refer to ululation, but it does not in 1 Cor 14:34,
IMO, because the word LALEIN permeates this whole section of 1 Corinthians
14. Elsewhere it simply means "to speak"; see verses 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11,
13, 18, 19, 21, 23, 27, 28, 29, 35, 39. Although most often it refers to
speaking in a tongue, or foreign language, LALEIN receives qualification by
the word GLWSSH ("with a tongue") or by the context when it does. The word
LALEIN has a clear non-tongues orientation in verses 3, 11, 19, and 29. It
seems absurd that LALEIN would have a special sense in 14:34 when Paul
would not have defined the special sense by any contextual indicators that
I can perceive. That is why the term LALEIN in 14:30 cannot even refer
merely to speaking in tongues, IMO.
Yours,
Harold Holmyard
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