* When I said I didn’t know anyone who you would accept as a scholar I was thinking of several people who DO understand the Greek, but have not been to Bible college and so will probably be rejected for the purpose of this discussion. An article written by one of them suggested that the negative form used in the Greek actually causes the questions to read ‘don’t all speak in tongues ? don’t all interpret ? But earnestly desire the best gifts’, a suggestion that I believe stops the last sentence in ch 12 from being a nonsense,

.. which only goes to show how totally ignorant of Greek this person was.

Let me spell it out clearly: when a question in Greek uses the word “mE” (mu eta), the question expects the answer no. This is a basic rule of Greek. There is no other way to interpret it.

You don’t have to be an expert in Greek to know this. I’m no expert, but I learnt this in early in my first year of studying Greek.

Chris, you talk about “context”. But context can only take you so far! If I say “no”, you can’t argue from context that I mean yes! No is No!

Here’s a challenge: look up an introductory text on Greek. Any text at all. Then look up the use of “mE” in a question. It will tell you that “mE” expects the answer “no”.

If Paul had expected the answer yes, he would have used “ou”, which is the usual word for “not” (i.e. “Don’t all speak in tongues?”).

If Paul was unsure of the answer, he would have used neither “ou” nor “mE”. (i.e. “Do all speak in tongues?”).

But Paul used “mE”. “mE” in a question means the answer “no” is expected. So the NASB is accurate when it translates it as “Not all speak in toungues, do they?”. It is rather clumsy English (which is why most translations don’t say that). But it is correct.

To summarise: 1 Cor 12:30 clearly says “Not all speak in tongues”.

There is no other way to interpret it. None at all. Case closed.

Peter Ballard