Thanks for your response presidente. I agree that I am treatiing the Bible as if it is written as a parable rather than surface text. The Bible says that about itself. "Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable" and again, "But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples." I am simply saying that to 'prophesy' means to share the gospel and to have the hearer understand and receive it.
I don't see this definition in scripture or examples that support the use of the word to mean this.
Look at this verse
Matthew 13:14
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
We see here that what Isaiah said was a 'prophecy.' What did he prophesy? That his audience would be every hearing, but not understanding, etc. This was a prophecy, but the people did not hear or understand.
Therefore prophesying does not mean that the hearer understands and receives the message. Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied and the people rejected the message. Isaiah prophesied and the people did not understand or perceive.
That is why prophesying is greater than having the hearer not understand (to speak in an unknown tongue).
Are you saying the word 'tongue' doesn't mean tongue at all? Do you think the Corinthians would have interpreted all of Paul's letters as an allegorical code, where the meanings of the actual words do not correspond with what Paul meant?
The one who prophesies is greater than he who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, because the one who prophesies in the language the people understand edifies them. But the one who speaks in tongues speaks in a tongues they do not understand and they are not edified. If he interprets, they can be edified. There is no need for an elaborate code.
Do you believe the passage is NOT saying what it actually literally says, or that there is another layer of allegory on the literal level.
I really don't understand how this means, as you say, to love your brother means to not eat chocolate.
I could just redefine the words to mean that. For example, I could reinterpret 'I really' in the quote above to mean, "Tomorrow, let's go" and "dont' understand" to mean "to Disneyland." It is a little more extreme than what you are doing, but similar, right?
I guess you feel I am arbitrarily assigning a meaning to the surface text.
Yes. Of course, yours takes something literal and makes it metaphorical, and isn't as extreme as my chocolate or Disney land examples. But it doesn't make sense that the Corinthians would have interpreted the passage metaphorically as you do.
However, you can look for 'prophesying' in any Bible verse and find that the meaning is consistent. Consider one that someone above just mentioned: "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book". Notice that the term prophecy occurs and it is in relation to hearing it, and that means receiving it spiritually with those kind of spiritual ears.
But Isaiah prophesied and people did not understand. Peter described the prophesying of prophets in the Old Testament as 'holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.'