the Third Week after Easter
Click to donate today!
Bible Dictionaries
Tongues, Gift of
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or Mark 16:17; Acts 2:1-13; Acts 10:46; Acts 19:6; Acts 19:1 Corinthians 12,14. The Alexandrinus manuscript confirms Mark 16:9-20; The Sinaiticus and Vaticanus manuscripts, omit it; "they shall speak with "new" ("not known before", kainais ) tongues"; this promise is not restricted to apostles; "these signs shall follow them that believe." a proof to the unbelieving that believers were under a higher power than mere enthusiasm or imagination. The "rushing mighty wind" on Pentecost is paralleled in Ezekiel 1:24; Ezekiel 37:1-14; Ezekiel 43:2; Genesis 1:2; 1 Kings 19:11; 2 Chronicles 5:14; Psalms 104:3-4. The "tongues like as of fire" in the establishing of the New Testament church answer to Exodus 19:18, at the giving of the Old Testament law on Sinai, and Ezekiel 1:4 "a fire enfolding itself"; compare Jeremiah 23:29; Luke 24:32.
They were "cloven" (diamerizomenai ), rather distributed to them severally. The disciples were "filled with the Holy Spirit"; as John the Baptist and our Lord (Luke 1:15; Luke 4:1). "They began to speak with "other" (heterais , different from their ordinary) tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Then "the multitude were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language; and they marveled saying, Behold are not all these which speak Galileans? and how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born, the wonderful works of God?" This proves that as Babel brought as its penalty the confusion of tongues, so the Pentecostal gift of tongues symbolizes the reunion of the scattered nations. Still praise, not teaching, was the invariable use made of the gift. The places where tongues were exercised were just where there was least need of preaching in foreign tongues (Acts 2:1-4; Acts 10:46; Acts 19:6; Acts 19:1 Corinthians 14).
Tongues were not at their command whenever they pleased to teach those of different languages. The gift came, like prophesying, only in God's way and time (Acts 2:1-18; Acts 10:46; Acts 19:6). No express mention is made of any apostle or evangelist preaching in any tongue save Greek or Hebrew (Aramaic). Probably Paul did so in Lycaonia (Acts 14:11; Acts 14:15; he says (1 Corinthians 14:18) "I speak with tongues (the Vaticanus manuscript, but the Sinaiticus and the Alexandrinus manuscripts 'with a tongue') more than ye all." Throughout his long notice of tongues in 1 Corinthians 14 he never alludes to their use for making one's self intelligible to foreigners. This would have been the natural use for him to have urged their possessors to put them to, instead of interrupting church worship at home by their unmeaning display.
Papias (in Eusebius, H. E. iii. 30) says Mark accompanied Peter as an "interpreter," i.e. to express in appropriate language Peter's thought, so that the gift of tongues cannot have been in Papias' view a continuous gift with that apostle. Aramaic Hebrew, Greek, and Latin (the three languages over the cross) were the general media of converse throughout the civilised world, owing to Alexander's empire first, then the Roman. The epistles are all in Greek, not only to Corinth, but to Thessalonica, Philippi, Rome. Ephesus, and Colosse. The term used of "tongues" (apofthengesthai , not only lalein ) implies a solemn utterance as of prophets or inspired musicians (Septuagint 1 Chronicles 25:1; Ezekiel 13:9). In the first instance (Acts 2) the tongues were used in doxology; but when teaching followed it was in ordinary language, understood by the Jews, that Peter spoke.
Those who spoke with tongues seemed to beholders as if "full of new wide," namely, excited and enthusiastic (Acts 2:13; Acts 2:15-18), in a state raised out of themselves. Hence, Paul contrasts the being "drunk with wine" with being "filled with the Spirit, speaking in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" (Ephesians 5:18-19). The ecstatic songs of praise in the Old Testament, poured out by the prophets and their disciples, and the inspired musicians of the sanctuary, correspond (1 Samuel 10:5-13; 1 Samuel 19:20-24; 1 Chronicles 25:3). In 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14 tongues are placed lowest in the scale of gifts (1 Corinthians 12:31; 1 Corinthians 14:5). Their three characteristics were:
(1) all ecstatic state of comparative rapt unconsciousness, the will being acted on by a power from above;
(2) words uttered, often unintelligible;
(3) languages spoken which ordinarily the speaker could not speak.
They, like prophesyings, were under control of their possessors (1 Corinthians 14:32), and needed to be kept in due order, else confusion in church meetings would ensue (1 Corinthians 14:23; 1 Corinthians 14:39). The tongues, as evidencing a divine power raising them above themselves, were valued by Paul; but they suited the childhood (1 Corinthians 14:20; 1 Corinthians 13:11), as prophesying or inspired preaching the manhood, of the Christian life. The possessor of the tongue "spoke mysteries," praying, blessing, and giving thanks, but no one understood him; the "spirit" (pneuma ) but not "understanding" (nous ) was active (1 Corinthians 14:14-19). Yet he might edify himself (1 Corinthians 14:4) with a tongue which to bystanders seemed a madman's ravings, but to himself was the expression of ecstatic adoration. "Five words" spoken "with the understanding" so as to "teach others" are preferable to "ten thousand in an unknown tongue."
In Isaiah 28:9-12 God virtually says of Israel, "this people hear Me not though I speak to them in their familiar tongue, I will therefore speak to them in other tongues, namely, that of the foes whom I will send against them, yet even then they will not hearken to Me." Paul thus applies it: ye see it is a penalty to encouuter men of a strange tongue, yet this you impose on the church by abusing instead of using the tongue intelligibly. Speakers in foreign tongues speak like "children weaned from the milk, with stammering lips," ridiculous because unintelligible to the hearers (Isaiah 28:14), or like babbling drunkards (Acts 2:13), or madmen (1 Corinthians 14:20-23).
Thus, Isaiah (Isaiah 28:9-14) shows that "tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not." Tongues either awaken to spiritual attention the unconverted or, if despised, condemn (compare "sign" in a condemnatory sense, Ezekiel 4:3-4; Matthew 12:39-42), those who, like Israel, reject the sign and the accompanying message; compare Acts 2:8; Acts 2:13; 1 Corinthians 14:22; "yet, for all that will they not hear Me," even such miraculous signs fail to arouse them; therefore since they will not understand they shall not understand. "Tongues of men" and "divers kinds of tongues" (1 Corinthians 12:10; 1 Corinthians 12:28; 1 Corinthians 13:1) imply diversity, which applies certainly to languages, and includes also the kind of tongues which was a spiritual language unknown to man, uttered in ecstasy (1 Corinthians 14:2). It was only by "interpreting" that the "understanding" accompanied the tongues.
He who spoke (praying) in a tongue should pray that he might (be able to) interpret for edification of the church (1 Corinthians 14:13; 1 Corinthians 14:26-27). Hebrew and Aramaic words spoken in the spirit or quoted from the Old Testament often produced a more solemn effect upon Greeks than the corresponding Greek terms; Compare 1 Corinthians 16:22, Μaranatha , 1 Corinthians 12:3; Lord of sabaoth , James 5:4; Αbba , the adoption cry, Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6; Alleluia, Revelation 19:1; Revelation 19:6; Hosannah, Matthew 21:9; Matthew 21:15. "Tongues of angels" (1 Corinthians 13:1) are such as Daniel and John in Revelation heard; and Paul, when caught up to paradise (2 Corinthians 12:4).
An intonation in speaking with tongues is implied in Paul's comparison to the tones of the harp and pipe, which however he insists have distinction of sounds, and therefore so ought possessors of tongues to speak intelligibly by interpreting their sense afterward, or after awakening spiritual attention by the mysterious tongue they ought then to follow with "revelation, knowledge, prophesying or doctrine" (1 Corinthians 14:6-11); otherwise the speaker with a tongue will be "a barbarian," i.e. a foreigner in language to the hearer. A musical tone would also be likely in uttering hymns and doxologies, which were the subject matter of the utterance by tongues (Acts 2:11). The "groanings which cannot be uttered" (Romans 8:26) and the "melody in the heart" (Ephesians 5:19) show us how even inarticulate speech like the tongues may edify, though less edifying than articulate and intelligible prophesying or preaching.
Either the speaker with a tongue or a listener might have the gift of interpreting, so he might bring forth deep truths from the seemingly incoherent utterances of foreign, and Aramaic, and strange words (1 Corinthians 14:7; 1 Corinthians 14:11; 1 Corinthians 14:13; 1 Corinthians 14:27). When the age of miracle passed (1 Corinthians 13:8) the tongues ceased with it; the scaffolding was removed, when the building was complete as regards its first stage; hymns and spiritual snugs took the place of tongues, as preaching took the place of prophesying. Like all God's gifts, tongues had their counterfeit. The latter are morbid, the forerunners or results of disease. The true tongues were given to men in full vigour, preceded by no fanatic madness, and followed by no prostration as the reaction. Practical, healthy religion marked the daily walk of the churches in which the tongues were manifested. Not these, but the confession of Jesus as Lord with heart and tongue was the declared test of real discipleship (1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 John 4:2-3).
These files are public domain.
Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Tongues, Gift of'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/t/tongues-gift-of.html. 1949.
