[3.] Having said then, that a tongue profited not, and having again qualified this statement by turning the charge upon the Jews, he proceeds to signify that it even doth injury. “And wherefore was it given?” That it might go forth with interpretation: since without this, it hath even the contrary effect among them that are without understanding. “For if,” saith he, “all speak with tongues, and there come in unbelievers or unlearned, they will say that ye are mad;” as indeed even the Apostles incurred the suspicion of being drunken: for “these men,” it saith, “are filled with new wine: (Acts ii. 13.) but it is not the fault of the sign, but of their unskilfulness; therefore he added, “unlearned and unbelievers,” to show that the notion belongs to their ignorance and want of faith; for, as I before said, his object is to rank that gift not among things that are disparaged, but among those which do not greatly profit, and this, in order to repress them, and bring them to a necessity of seeking for an interpreter. For since the greater part looked not to this, but made use of it for display and rivalry, this is what he especially withdraws them from, intimating that their credit is injured, they bringing on themselves a suspicion of madness. And this especially is what Paul continually attempts to establish, when he wants to lead men away from any thing: he shows that the person suffers loss in respect of those very things which he desires.