Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaks a foreigner, and he that speaks shall be a foreigner unto me.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian. As Ovid says:—
"A barbarian here am I, and understood by none."
The word "barbarian" is onomatopoetic, and was first applied by the Greeks to any one who spoke another language than Greek; then by the Romans to one who spoke neither Greek nor Latin; afterwards it denoted any one who spoke any other tongue but that of his native country. Hence Anacharsis the Scythian, when ridiculed as a barbarian by the Athenians, well replied, "The Scythians are barbarians to the Athenians, the Athenians just as much barbarians to the Scythians."
If then I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be to him that speaks a barbarian. For suppose not, says he, that this happens only in our case; rather in all one may see this taking place: so that I do not say this to disparage the voice, but to signify that to me it is useless, as long as it is not intelligible. Next, that he may not render the accusation unpalatable, he makes his charge alike for the two, saying, He shall be unto me a barbarian, and I to him. Not from the nature of the voice, but from our ignorance. Do you see how little by little he draws men to that which is akin to the subject. Which is his use to do, to fetch his examples from afar, and to end with what more properly belongs to the matter. For having spoken of a pipe and harp, wherein is much that is inferior and unprofitable, he comes to the trumpet, a thing more useful; next, from that he proceeds to the very voice itself. So also before, when he was discoursing to show that it was not forbidden the Apost...
