NOTES for Co1 14:1-3

Paul clearly distinguishes ordinary ecstasy with glossolalia from prophecy. The difference is clear: glossolalia, 'speaking in tongues,' is only a kind of unusual ecstatic state in which the boundary between consciousness and the unconscious is erased, including the unconscious dimension of language. The structures of a native language are rooted deeply in the subconscious of its speaker, but normally a person does not notice this linguistic subconscious.

When a person enters ecstasy, the boundaries of perception expand, and what is not perceived in an ordinary state becomes perceptible. This applies fully to language as well: in a state of ecstasy a person at times begins to 'utter' something in an incomprehensible 'language.' In reality, of course, this should be called quasi-speech activity, when the linguistic subconscious brings to the surface what normally serves only as the phonetic and grammatical matrix for meaningful and conscious speech.

Sometimes such a matrix can be taken for speech in an unknown and incomprehensible language. In ecstasy a person often does not keep track of what he is saying and can take such meaningless muttering for speech. Such quasi-speech activity can sometimes testify to real ecstasy, though not always, but for those around the speaker, and also for the speaker himself, it is useless.

Prophecy is different: here we are speaking of a conscious revelation received by a person, as a rule not for himself alone but also for others, sometimes even for the whole community to which he belongs. Such prophecy truly serves for edification. But that is not the only point. The point is also that conscious revelation is itself a way of deeper communion with God than a half-conscious, or even entirely unconscious and therefore uncontrolled, ecstasy, even if such ecstasy is real and connected with the action of God.

This is simply because in communion with God and in spiritual life the main thing is awareness: only awareness changes a person truly deeply and durably. Unconscious spiritual states either pass without a trace or have only a small effect on human nature. That is why the apostle notes the importance of the prophetic gift, of conscious spiritual life: life in the Kingdom is not a series of ecstasies with gaps between them, but stable communion with God. In sound mind and firm memory.