---
title: "1 Corinthians 13 - Study King James Bible with trapps complete commentary"
description: "Read 1 Corinthians 13 with trapps complete commentary commentary. 1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2 And though I have the"
image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/trapps-complete-commentary/1-corinthians/13"
---

[ Read](/kjv/1-corinthians/13)[ Commentary](/study/1-corinthians/13)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/1-corinthians/13) Audio

 1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become *as* sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

 2 And though I have *the gift of* prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed *the poor*, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

 4 Charity suffereth long, *and* is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 8 Charity never faileth: but whether *there be* prophecies, they shall fail; whether *there be* tongues, they shall cease; whether *there be* knowledge, it shall vanish away.

 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

 10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

 13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these *is* charity.
 
[1 Corinthians 12](/study/1-corinthians/12) [1 Corinthians 14](/study/1-corinthians/14)

## Commentary

 To verse 1
 
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become *as* sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. **** 

Ver. 1. **Though I speak with the tongues** ] The Corinthians gloried much in this gift of tongues; but this a man may have, and yet perish, as Mithridates, who is said to have spoken two and twenty languages. And Cleopatra was a great linguist, she could give answers to Ethiopian, Hebrew, Arabic, Syrian, Median, and Parthian ambassadors, saith Plutarch; yea, she could turn and tune her tongue as an instrument of many strings to what dialect she pleased, την γλωτταν ωσπερ οργανον τι πολυχορδον ευπετως τρεπουσα .. 

**And of angels** ] Not that angels have tongues; as neither have they wings, though they are said to fly, and even unto weariness of fight, [Daniel 9:21](/kjv/daniel/9/21) . A certain friar undertook to show to the people a feather of the angel Gabriel’s wing, and so verified the old proverb, "a friar, a liar." But the apostle here useth a high kind of expression, such as is used [Acts 6:15](/kjv/acts/6/15) ; [Psalms 78:25](/kjv/psalms/78/25) . Unless, perhaps, saith Chrysostom here, the angels have *suo modo sua colloquia.* The schoolmen have great disputes about it, and tell us that when an angel hath a conceit in his mind of anything, with a desire that another should understand it, it is enough, it is done immediately. But are not these they that intrude into those things that they have not seen? [Colossians 2:18](/kjv/colossians/2/18) , understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm, [1 Timothy 1:7](/kjv/1-timothy/1/7) . Like unto these are our new millenaries, that upon a mistake of some high expressions in Scripture, which describe the judgments poured out upon God’s enemies in making a way to the Jews’ conversion by the pattern of the last judgment, think that Jesus Christ shall come from heaven again, and reign here upon earth a thousand years. (See Mr Cotton’s Sixth Vial.) 

**Or a tinkling cymbal** ] Sounding only for pleasure, but signifying nothing. Tiberius the emperor was wont to call Apion the grammarian *cymbalum orbis,* the cymbal of the world, for his much prattle. (Sueton.) And Jerome inveighs against some in his time, *qui verbis tinnulis et emendicath utebantur,* that used only tinkling and tickling words, without weight or worth.

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