<p>14:16 <i>Else if you bless with the spirit, how shall he that is in the place of the unlearned say the Amen at your giving of thanks, seeing he does not understand what you say?</i>- We note the practice of saying &quot;Amen&quot; at the end of prayers. It could be that the &quot;unlearned&quot; sat separately from the baptized members. The Lord invited sinners and unbelievers to His table, and this separate seating arrangement reflects the pagan practice of making those not yet affiliated or initiated into the cult to sit separately in a specific &quot;place of the unlearned&quot;. Paul's hope was that the visitor would say &quot;Amen&quot;, in agreement to the blessings / prayers spoken. This of itself indicates Paul's hope that the unbelieving visitor would have some participation in the worship. But if they were speaking in ecstatic utterances, it would not be possible nor legitimate for a visitor to express agreement, to utter the Amen, because the visitor would not have understood what was being said. However, the &quot;unlearned&quot; could refer to believers who didn't understand- they were &quot;unlearned&quot; in the sense that they were unlearned in the language being spoken. We note however that :23,24 speak of the &quot;unlearned&quot; as those entering the congregation, but they are differentiated from the &quot;unbelievers&quot;. Perhaps they referred to those still undergoing teaching. The references there to 'coming in' certainly suggest a literal entrance to the church and having to literally sit in a particular &quot;place&quot;.</p>