τοῖς

Alphabet Analysis

The word

1. word🔊 τοῖς

   tois

   to the
2. sentence🔊 ὥστε αἱ γλῶσσαι εἰς σημεῖόν εἰσιν οὐ τοῖς πιστεύουσιν ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἀπίστοις ἡ δὲ προφητεία οὐ τοῖς ἀπίστοις ἀλλὰ τοῖς πιστεύουσιν

   HŌ-ste hai GLŌS-sai eis sē-MEI-on EI-sin ou tois pis-TEU-ou-sin al-LA tois a-PI-stois hē de pro-phē-TEI-a ou tois a-PI-stois al-LA tois pis-TEU-ou-sin

   therefore the tongues for a sign are not to the believing but to the unbelieving the but prophecy not to the unbelieving but to the believing

Exegesis

The negated dative phrase ou tois pisteuousin {οὐ τοῖς πιστεύουσιν | ou toîs pis-teú-ou-sin} uses a substantival participle ‘the ones believing’ to mark the group for whom tongues are not intended, followed by the adversative alla tois apistois {ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἀπίστοις | al-lá toîs a-pí-stois} ‘but for the unbelievers’, a parallel dative phrase indicating the actual target group.

alla tois pisteuousin {οὐ τοῖς ἀπίστοις ἀλλὰ τοῖς πιστεύουσιν | ou toîs a-pí-stois al-lá toîs pis-teú-ou-sin} creates a chiastic contrast between tongues and prophecy regarding their respective audiences. The dative constructions are best rendered with English prepositional phrases “for …” and substantival participles as “those who believe / unbelievers” to maintain the distributive force and preserve the sharp rhetorical contrast.

Root and etymology

apistos🔊 ἄπιστοςalpha–pi–iota–sigma–tau–omicron–sigma

“unbelieving, faithless”

• 🔊 ἀπιστίαalpha–pi–iota–sigma–tau–iota–alphaunbeliefMark 6:6
• 🔊 ἄπιστοςalpha–pi–iota–sigma–tau–omicron–sigmaunbeliever2 Corinthians 6:14