---
title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation"
author: "Adam Clarke"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 520 of 769
url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/520/
cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 520. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/520/"
---

# Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation

*Adam Clarke*

Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2.

## 520. 1 Corinthians · 29 of 42

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/520/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/520/#p-N

[¶0] Gyf I speke with tungis of men and aungels sotheli I have not charitee: I am maad as brasse sounynge, or a symbale tynking. And gif I schal habe prophecie and habe knowen alle mysteries and alle hunynge or science. and gif I schal have al feith so that I oder bere hills fro oo place to an other. forsothe gif I schal not have charite: I am nought. And gif I schal deperte al my goodid into metis of pore men. And gif I schal bitake my body so that I brenne forsothe gif I schal not have charite it profitith to me no thing. Charite is pacient or suffering. It is benyngne or of good wille. Charite envyeth not. It doth not gyle it is not inblowen with pride it is not ambyciouse or coveitouse of wirschippis. It seeketh not the thingis that ben her owne. It is not stirid to wrath it thinkith not yvil. it joyeth not on wickidnesse forsothe it joyeth to gydre to treuthe. It suffreth all thingis. it bileeveth alle thingis. it hopith alle thingis it susteeneth alle things. Charite fallith not doun. Whether prophecies schuln be bolde eyther langagis schuln ceese: eyther science schul be distruyed. Forsothe of the party we ban knowen: and of partye prophecien. Forsothe whenne that schal cum to that is perfit: that thing that is of partye schal be avoydid. Whenne I was a litil chiilde: I spake as a litil chiilde. I understode as a litil chiilde: I thougte as a litil chiild. Forsothe whenne I was a maad a mam: I avoydid tho thingis that weren of a litil chiild. Forsothe we seen now bi a moror in dercness: thanne forsothe face to face. Nowe I know of partye: thanne forsothe I schal know and as I am knowen. Nowe forsothe dwellen feith hoope charite. These three: forsothe the more of hem is charite.

[¶1] This is the whole of the chapter as it exists in the MS., with all its peculiar orthography, points, and lines. The words with lines under may be considered the translator's marginal readings; for, though incorporated with the text, they are distinguished from it by those lines.

[¶2] I had thought once of giving a literal translation of the whole chapter from all the ancient versions. This would be both curious and useful; but the reader might think it would take up too much of his time, and the writer has none to spare.

[¶3] The tongues of men - All human languages, with all the eloquence of the most accomplished orator.

[¶4] And of angels - i.e. Though a man knew the language of the eternal world so well that he could hold conversation with its inhabitants, and find out the secrets of their kingdom. Or, probably, the apostle refers to a notion that was common among the Jews, that there was a language by which angels might be invoked, adjured, collected, and dispersed; and by the means of which many secrets might be found out, and curious arts and sciences known.

[¶5] There is much of this kind to be found in their cabalistical books, and in the books of many called Christians. Cornelius Agrippa's occult philosophy abounds in this; and it was the main object of Dr. Dee's actions with spirits to get a complete vocabulary of this language. See what has been published of his work by Dr. Casaubon; and the remaining manuscript parts in the Sloane library, in the British museum.

[¶6] In Bava Bathra, fol. 134, mention is made of a famous rabbin, Jochanan ben Zaccai, who understood the language of devils, trees, and angels.

[¶7] Some think that the apostle means only the most splendid eloquence; as we sometimes apply the word angelic to signify any thing sublime, grand, beautiful, etc.; but it is more likely that he speaks here after the manner of his countrymen, who imagined that there was an angelic language which was the key to many mysteries; a language which might be acquired, and which, they say, had been learned by several.

[¶8] Sounding brass - Χαλκος ηχων· That is, like a trumpet made of brass; for although; χαλκος signifies brass, and aes signifies the same, yet we know the latter is often employed to signify the trumpet, because generally made of this metal. Thus Virgil, when he represents Misenus endeavoring to fright away the harpies with the sound of his trumpet: -

[¶9] Ergo, ubi delapsae sonitum per curva dedere

[¶10] Littora, dat signum specula Misenus ab alta

[¶11] Aere cavo: invadunt socii, et nova praelia tentant,

[¶12] Obscoenas pelagi ferro faedare volucres.

[¶13] Aeneid, lib. iii. ver. 238.

[¶14] Then as the harpies from the hills once more

[¶15] Poured shrieking down, and crowded round the shore,

[¶16] On his high stand Misenus sounds from far

[¶17] The brazen trump, the signal of the war.

[¶18] With unaccustomed fight, we flew to slay

[¶19] The forms obscene, dread monsters of the sea.

[¶20] Pitt.

[¶21] The metal of which the instrument was made is used again for the instrument itself, in that fine passage of the same poet, Aeneid, lib. ix. ver. 603, where he represents the Trojans rushing to battle against the Volsciane: -

[¶22] At tuba terribilem sonitum procul aere canoro

[¶23] Increpuit: sequitur clamor, caelumque remugit.

[¶24] And now the trumpets, terrible from far,

[¶25] With rattling clangour rouse the sleepy war.

[¶26] The soldiers' shouts succeed the brazen sounds

[¶27] And heaven from pole to pole their noise rebounds.

[¶28] Dryden.

[¶29] And again, in his Battle of the Bees, Geor., lib. iv. ver. 70: - - namque morantes

[¶30] Martius ille aeris rauci canor increpat, et vox

[¶31] Auditur fractos sonitus imitata tubarum.

[¶32] With shouts the cowards' courage they excite,

[¶33] And martial clangours call them out to fight;

[¶34] With hoarse alarms the hollow camp rebounds,

[¶35] That imitate the trumpet's angry sounds.

[¶36] Dryden.

[¶37] Examples of the same figure might be multiplied; but these are sufficient.

[¶38] Tinkling cymbal - "The cymbal was a concavo-convex plate of brass, the concave side of which being struck against another plate of the same kind produced a tinkling, inharmonious sound." We may understand the apostle thus: "Though I possessed the knowledge of all languages, and could deliver even the truth of God in them in the most eloquent manner, and had not a heart full of love to God and man, producing piety and obedience to the One, and benevolence and beneficence to the other, doing unto all as I would wish them to do to me were our situations reversed, my religion is no more to my salvation than the sounds emitted by the brazen trumpet, or the jingling of the cymbals could contribute intellectual pleasure to the instruments which produce them; and, in the sight of God, I am of no more moral worth than those sounds are. I have, it is true, a profession; but, destitute of a heart filled with love to God and man, producing meekness, gentleness, long-suffering, etc., I am without the soul and essence of religion."

[¶39] I have quoted several passages from heathens of the most cultivated minds in Greece and Rome to illustrate passages of the sacred writers. I shall now quote one from an illiterate collier of Paulton, in Somerset; and, as I have named Homer, Horace, Virgil, and others, I will quote Josiah Gregory, whose mind might be compared to a diamond of the first water, whose native splendor broke in various places through its incrustations, but whose brilliancy was not brought out for want of the hand of the lapidary. Among various energetic sayings of this great, unlettered man, I remember to have heard the following: "People of little religion are always noisy; he who has not the love of God and man filling his heart is like an empty wagon coming violently down a hill: it makes a great noise, because there is nothing in it."

### Verse 2

[¶41] And though I have the gift of prophecy - Though I should have received from God the knowledge of future events, so that I could correctly foretell what is coming to pass in the world and in the Church: -

[¶42] And understand all mysteries - The meaning of all the types and figures in the Old Testament, and all the unexplored secrets of nature; and all knowledge - every human art and science; and though I have all faith - such miraculous faith as would enable me even to remove mountains; or had such powerful discernment in sacred things that I could solve the greatest difficulties, see the note on [Mat 21:21], and have not charity - this love to God and man, as the principle and motive of all my conduct, the characteristics of which are given in the following verses; I am nothing - nothing in myself, nothing in the sight of God, nothing in the Church, and good for nothing to mankind. Balaam, and several others not under the influence of this love of God, prophesied; and we daily see many men, who are profound scholars, and well skilled in arts and sciences, and yet not only careless about religion but downright infidels! It does not require the tongue of the inspired to say that these men, in the sight of God, are nothing; nor can their literary or scientific acquisitions give them a passport to glory.

### Verse 3

[¶44] And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor - This is a proof that charity, in our sense of the word, is not what the apostle means; for surely almsgiving can go no farther than to give up all that a man possesses in order to relieve the wants of others. The word ψωμιζω, which we translate to feed the poor, signifies to divide into morsels, and put into the mouth; which implies carefulness and tenderness in applying the bounty thus freely given.