What is speaking in tongues according to the Bible?

This gift was in the early church, and was a sign 'to them that believed not,' in fulfilment of Isa. 28:11-12: cf. 1 Cor. 14:21. The gift was exhibited in a special way on the day of Pentecost, when people of many lands heard the wonderful things of God each in his own language. In the assembly these gifts were not to be exercised unless there was present an interpreter, that the saints might be edified. Paul thanked God that he spake with tongues more than all at Corinth; but in the assembly he would rather speak five words through his understanding, that he might teach others, than ten thousand words in a tongue. 1 Cor. 12:10, 28, 30; 1 Cor. 13:1, 8; 1 Cor. 14:2-39.

The expression 'unknown tongue' is unhappy, because it has led some to think that the gift of tongues consisted of a sort of unintelligible gibberish. The word 'unknown' has been added in the A.V., where it should read simply 'tongue.' At Pentecost it was shown that the gift of 'tongues' was in a person speaking a language which he had never learnt, but which was at once understood by those who knew it.

I would call attention to the fact that the Greek word "glossa" used here means language as well as tongue. When, for example, the tongue is mentioned in the Epistle of James, this word is used. But it is also used for language, as in 1 Corinthians 13, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels," and in Revelation 5:9; 7:9; 10:11; 11:9; 13:7; 14:6; 17:15, "Out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation," etc.

In the same epistle to the Corinthians we have used the expression, "speaking with tongues," and our excuse is that the thing designated by this term is as unusual as the term itself. To speak languages, or in different languages, is not at all the apostle's meaning. The divine gift, by which they spoke divers languages without having learnt them, required a name of its own.

Then they spoke in different languages. The speaking in other languages was a miracle produced by the Holy Spirit, who had come upon them in mighty power. These Galileans spoke in different tongues, sixteen at least, if not more. "By a sudden and powerful inspiration of the Holy Spirit, these disciples uttered, not of their own minds, but as mouthpieces of the Holy Spirit, the praises of God in various languages hitherto, and possibly at the time itself, unknown to them" (Dean Alford in Greek Testament).

The significance of this miracle speaking in other tongues is not hard to discover. It was the oral manifestation of the parted tongues of fire, which had come upon each. Besides this it proclaimed the great fact that the Holy Spirit had come to make known the blessed Gospel to all nations under heaven, and though no Gentiles were present when this took place, the languages of the Gentiles were heard, and that from Jewish lips, showing that the Gospel should go forth unto the uttermost part of the earth. But did they utter all an orderly discourse, preaching the truth concerning Christ, or was their speech of an ecstatic nature, in the form of praising God? We believe the latter was the case. We look in vain through this book for the evidences that these believers continued speaking these different languages.

Now, while it is true that there was such a gift as speaking in an unknown tongue in the apostolic age, and no Christian believer would doubt the power of God to impart to a person the gift to preach the Gospel in a foreign tongue, we do not believe that this gift of speaking in an unknown tongue was to abide in the church. Repeatedly claims were made in years gone by that it had been restored (for instance during the Irvingite delusion in England), but in every case it was found to be spurious or emanating from the enemy. The present day "apostolic or pentecostal movement" with its high pretensions and false doctrines, lacking true scriptural knowledge and wisdom, creating new schisms in the body, with its women leaders and teachers, has all the marks of the same great counterfeiter upon it. (For a closer examination of the speaking in tongues see our larger work on Acts.)

Having received the Holy Spirit, and the power, the disciples began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them to speak forth. The rumour of what had taken place having spread, the multitude came together, and were confounded because each one heard the disciples speaking in his own language. This was a complete reversal of what happened at the tower of Babel (Gen. 11), where the Lord confounded the language of the people that they might not understand one another's speech. Nor was it only that each heard in his own tongue, but in his own dialect.

From this follows that the Holy Spirit - in accord with the announcement by the Lord Jesus (John 15:26; 16:7-14) - manifests Himself in the character of a testimony: "Parted tongues, as of fire." It is not one, but rather parted tongues. The testimony thus will no longer be limited to one language as before Pentecost (see, for example, Matt. 10:5), but rather will go out to many peoples. And as a consequence of this they speak in other languages, and all the foreign Jews hear them speaking in their own languages the great things of God. This gives us to know the purpose of the speaking in tongues, namely that the glad tidings of God's grace is breaking through the boundaries of Israel and is now going out to all peoples and nations and tongues, and is thereby being used of the Holy Spirit as the means to take away the hindrance existing since the confusion of tongues at Babel (Gen. 11:1-9), the hindrance to preaching the Gospel to all peoples (Acts2:7, 8). The disciples, who were unlettered and uninstructed men (Acts 4:13), speak of God to men of strange tongue in the languages. Through this the supernatural divine character of their message is demonstrated. And convinced thereby, the men listen devoutly as Peter speaks to them, and three thousand souls are converted.

The object of this was by no means their own personal enjoyment. In fact, those of many nationalities were present and heard them speak in their own tongues "the wonderful works of God". The disciples were given power to speak their own thoughts in bearing witness to the reality of the death and resurrection of Christ, but in a language they had never learned. They knew what they were saying, for they were witnesses. And they spoke that which was intended for the true, pure blessing of all who heard it.

It is important that we should, even at the risk of a charge of repetition, ask our readers to note very carefully the nature of the evidence at this stage. The narrative in Acts 2 clearly indicates that the general public in Jerusalem heard the witnesses of Christ proclaiming their message concerning the “works of God” in a variety of foreign languages and dialects, which the hearers recognised as those with which they had been familiar from their birth. Moreover, they were able to judge that what they heard was not the speech of fools and knaves, but sane utterances by sensible men. The Spirit by whose aid they spoke was, and is, the Spirit of a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7), and the “devout” persons who listened said, “We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” We can ignore the stupid remark of some enemies of Christ and partisans of the Pharisees and Sadducees who said, “These men are full of new wine.” Its absurdity calls for no serious reply today, since Peter answered the insinuation on the spot.

Verse 2 is by no means a doctrinal statement of what is properly true in God's giving the gift of tongues; but speaks of the case of one speaking in the assembly, where the Corinthians were all of one language (Greek). If one should use the gift of tongues there, no one would understand him. He would be speaking to God, no doubt, and to himself, for only God and himself would understand. Compare verse 28. In the Spirit he would be speaking mysteries - not mysteries to himself or to God, but to the assembly. And I must seriously remember that gift is not given merely for my own blessing, but for the help of others. We shall understand much better the force of this chapter if we keep in mind that we are here considering the gathering of the assembly, and that which is becoming as regards ministry for the sake of all.

How much more valuable then was prophecy, which brings edification (building up), exhortation (stirring up), and comfort (binding up), all of which are so necessary for the assembly. For one who spoke in a tongue edified himself because he understood, but did not edify the assembly, because the assembly did not understand. The tongue here is a genuine language, just as is seen in Acts 2:6, but one which the speaker did not normally understand. The wonder of the gift was that God gave him ability to speak his own thoughts, by the power of the Spirit, in this foreign language, he himself being in thorough control of his words. The value of this in speaking to a foreigner whose language this was, is evident, as Acts 2 shows; and in this respect Paul spoke with tongues more than others; but in the assembly, where aIl understood Greek, other tongues were unnecessary (vv. 18,19).

Verses 10 and I1 show that whatever tongue it was with which God gifted a man, it was a genuine language, of which there were many kinds in the world, and all of them significant to someone, but not to everyone. For if one did not know the meaning of my voice, 1 should be to him as a barbarian, and he to me: there is no fellowship because no understanding.