The word akarpos is an adjective, in the nominative case, gender is masculine, number is singular (not plural).
The singular masculine relates back to my understanding. The understanding of the person speaking in tongues is unfruitful.
Yes, that’s correct.
Again, from the New Living Translation: For if I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don't understand what I am saying
If, as you keep insisting, akarpos referred to others (plural) present, the number would be plural (not singular).
No, because it refers back to the noun ‘nous’, so it must have grammatical concordance.
The argument is whether ‘akarpos’ is used in the active or passive sense – doesn’t have anything to do with being singular or plural.
In the example above form the NLT version, it’s being translated in the passive sense.
Where does a person's mind bear fruit or produce understanding? The charismatic response is, 'In the person's own mind.' The text however identifies the fruit of a person's mind as being the understanding that occurs in the mind of others, not their own! The usage is active, not passive.
As Renton Maclachlan comments in his book Tongues Revisited – A Third Way:
“In v14 Paul equates 'my spirit prays' with 'my mind is unfruitful'. The terms are effectively addressing the same thing. In v15 he says that to have his 'mind unfruitful' is unacceptable and then addresses what he prefers. He wants to pray or sing 'with his spirit' as well as 'with his mind'. The context requires that praying or singing 'with his mind' is understood to mean praying or singing 'with his mind bearing fruit or being fruitful'. He omits words such as those I've added because the idea has already been defined negatively in v14.
In v16 Paul speaks of someone praising God 'with their spirit' and indicates that when they do this, some people do not understand and so cannot say 'Amen' to their comments. The text clearly says some hearers do not know what the speaker is saying. Praying or singing 'with their spirit' therefore means praying or singing that at least some others do not understand. Since it is a contrast that Paul is addressing, and since speaking, praying, singing 'with his spirit' refers to speaking that some people don't understand, to do these things 'with his mind bearing fruit' must refer to speaking others do understand.
Now what is the fruit that a person's mind bears? The answer is 'understanding'. I don't think anybody would disagree with this. The next question however is the important one. Where does a person's mind bear fruit or produce understanding? The charismatic response is, 'In the person's own mind.' However this answer is clearly wrong. The text identifies the fruit of a person's mind as being the understanding that occurs in the mind of others, not their own! This is an extremely important point as virtually the whole charismatic view of 'tongues' finally swings on the word 'unfruitful' referring to the speaker's own mind. To nail it down really securely, I'll run through it several more ways. Firstly, by analysing the verses that follow v14, and then by looking at those before it.
In the verses 13 through 17, there are numerous synonymous terms or ideas used. The initial statement of these ideas is in v13:
v13. For this reason anyone who speaks in a language should pray that he may interpret what he says.
Verse 14 then explains v13 in different words assuming there is no interpretation:
v14. For if I pray in a language, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
In v14, 'my mind is unfruitful' parallels the idea in v13 regarding interpretation. Verse 15 then assumes interpretation does occur:
v15. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.
In v15 the phrases 'pray with my mind' and 'sing with my mind'114 relate to the idea of interpretation in v13.
Verse 16 is parallel to v14:
v16. If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say "Amen" to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying?
In v16 the term 'praising God with your spirit' assumes a situation where no interpretation occurs, leaving the other person without understanding.
Verse 17 then parallels v16 and relates all these ideas to the edification of others.
v17. You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified.
Clearly then the terms 'my mind is unfruitful' and its unstated opposite, 'my mind bears fruit', refer to the languages spoken either being understood by others (through interpretation), or not being understood. The interpretation is for the other person, not the speaker. The context is all about getting edification, that is, the production of fruit (understanding) in others, through the languages spoken being interpreted for them. Therefore, 'my mind is unfruitful', does not refer to the speaker not understanding, but rather to the hearers not understanding. So to clarify the contrast Paul is making between 'spirit' and 'mind': one half of the contrast, the 'mind' side, refers to both the speaker and the hearers understanding the language that was spoken. The other half, the 'spirit' side, refers to the speaker understanding but the hearers not understanding.
Now let's look at the verses before v14. Verse 13 sets the scene for vv.14-19. In fact v14 starts with 'For...' pointing back to what has gone before. Verse 14 is an explanation of v13. Verse 13 also starts with 'For this reason...' pointing back even further for a reason. For what reason? Answer: that they should seek to edify the church (v12).
Verse 12 is in turn the conclusion from the six-verse discussion about there being all sorts of languages in the world, not one of them without meaning. In that discussion it is argued that if you don't understand another person's language, nor they yours, then you are foreigners to each other. Why? Because you don't understand each other. As a consequence, edification cannot occur. Because this is so and you are keen to be 'spiritual', make sure you speak so the church is edified. Therefore (v13), when you pray in a language, pray that you may be able to interpret - not for your own benefit but for the benefit of the congregation. 'For (v14), if I pray in a language, my spirit prays - that is, 'I pray' - but my mind is unfruitful - that is, 'the church is not being edified by my prayer.'
'So (v15), what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit and I will pray with my mind.' In other words, not only will I pray and be edified through my own prayer - which I understand but others don't - I will also pray so that fruit is produced in the congregation to their edification. The same goes for singing. In yet other words, either I will interpret or I will ask someone else to interpret, so that edification can occur.
To say it again, the place where understanding - fruit-bearing - fails to occur, is not the person's own mind but the mind of people in the congregation who need to be edified. They cannot be edified if they do not understand the language spoken. This thought is then extended and clarified in v16 and v17 where a person who doesn't understand the praise being given to God can't say 'Amen' to your thanksgiving. He doesn't know what you are saying. You're giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified.
Paul then goes on to indicate how strongly he feels about this and the uselessness of foreign languages spoken without interpretation to people who don't know them. He says he knows more languages than any of them, but in the church - that is, a church as a particular multi-lingual community - he would rather speak five words that were understood by the hearers, than ten thousand in a language they did not understand.
The meaning of the term 'my spirit' can be illuminated by a somewhat similar term used earlier in the letter. Paul says,
1 Cor. 2 11. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Thought and spirit here are related. The term 'spirit' is relating to the inner person. There is an analogy being established. Just as no one else knows us like we know ourselves, so only God knows himself fully. The charismatic says, however (on the basis of their misunderstanding of chapter 14), that our 'spirit' can function independently of our thoughts - as though our spirit is somehow a separate person inside our being which is independent of our 'thinking' person. The apostle Paul does not fragment our being in this way. The term 'spirit' here simply refers to the intangible 'me': the inner 'me' that can only be known by others through revelation, that is, through 'me' 'revealing' myself to others, usually by means of verbal communication. 'My spirit prays' simply means 'I pray', which in the particular context of chapter 14 happens to be prayer in a language others don't understand.”
Inasmuch as the manifestation of tongues was first introduced to mankind on day of Pentecost, is that what you consider "a relatively recent phenomenon"?
Look, it's relatively straightforward: The people gathered for Pentecost (Jews and converts) came from Judea and the Diaspora (Eastern and Western). Even though there were many different lands, there were only two languages spoken by Jews in those lands: Greek and/or Aramaic. No need for a language miracle, the apostles were familiar with both. The ‘manifestation of the Spirit’ at Pentecost was the inspiration to preach to the people in these languages as well as perhaps inspiration on what to say. These languages as opposed to the correct language (culturally and religiously) to use in this situation: Hebrew. To use anything else but Hebrew in this situation would amount to a breaking a cultural and religious taboo – as silly as it may sound today, it just wasn’t done (although, Greek was slowly gaining acceptability as a viable alternative to Hebrew) - people were expecting to hear Hebrew, instead they got their native languages of Greek and Aramaic. Hence the amazement, confounding and accusations of drunkenness. What many also fail to observe is that despite there being Jews “from every nation under heaven” (idiomatic for “from all over the place”), nowhere in the entire narrative does it even remotely suggest that communication was ever an issue to begin with.
What modern tongue speakers are doing is nothing remotely similar to what happened on Pentecost. Glossolalia (modern T-speech) entered the world of Christianity relatively recently (within about 150 years or so); it’s just not as old as you want it to be.
You can disagree all you want and you can find all your naysayers to support your belief to make yourself comfortable in your denial of Scripture. That still does not convert the manifestation from the manifestation into your so-called NCNLU's, or your author's insistence that there was any "synthesis trying to make sense of the experience in light of the narrative of Scripture".
That is your opinion. Another blanket statement made by you with absolutely no proof as to the accuracy of your claim.
It seems though that this is exactly what is happening – modern T-speech just doesn’t exist in the Bible, I don’t know why there’s such an insistence on equating “tongue(s)” to something other than what the word actually means – a (real) language. You have to justify/legitimize/proof what you’re doing in light of Scripture. What you’re looking for though, just isn’t there; it never was. But some Pentecostalism/Charismatic denominations without tongues fall rather flat; so what is in the Bible is reinterpreted to make it there.
1 Cor.14 focuses on the proper use of tongues, not its nature. In Acts 2, it is clear tongues referred to known languages.
It strikes no Christian practitioner of speaking in tongues as odd that every single controlled example of speaking in tongues has produced “private prayer language”, (NCNLU’s) never a real identifiable language. Indeed, no one who has ever spoken in tongues in a controlled, observed setting has ever produced a language that was recognized by a Linguist and unknown to the speaker.
I’ll say it again – record yourself speaking tongues for about a minute and then play it back over and over and actually listen to what your producing. Is it really language, or something that just mimics language?