The gift of tongues: divers kinds of tongues
Jerusalem, the feast of Pentecost. The city is full of pilgrims from half the world: Parthians, Medes, people from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome, Arabia. Out of a house comes a group of Galileans, uneducated people with a provincial accent, praising God. And each foreigner hears them in the language in which they learned to speak with their mother.
“And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
Acts 2:4
“And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?” (Acts 2:8). That was the first day of the gift of tongues, probably the most debated of them all. For some Christians it is the sign of having received the Spirit; for others, something that ended with the apostles; many are simply afraid of it. Paul, who wrote more about it than anyone, neither despised nor exalted it. This article is part of the series The nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. We will look at what this gift is, how it appears in Acts and at Corinth, what it is for, what rules the apostle gave, what the different traditions think, and what to do whether you have it or not. At the end there is a prayer.
What the gift of tongues is
The Greek word glossa means “tongue” in both senses: the organ and the language. The gift consists in speaking—praying, praising, giving thanks—in a language the person has not learned, moved by the Holy Spirit. Paul calls it “divers kinds of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:10), which suggests that it does not always show itself in the same way.
Babel in reverse
To understand Pentecost we must remember Babel. There people wanted to make a name for themselves and reach heaven with their tower, and God said: “let us… there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” (Genesis 11:7). Humanity scattered, unable to understand one another. At Pentecost the opposite happens: God comes down, and people of every language hear the same thing, “the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:11). The languages do not disappear: each hears in their own. The unity the Spirit gives does not erase differences; it gathers them.
The book of Revelation shows the end of that road: “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne” (Revelation 7:9). The gift of tongues is, above all, a sign that the Gospel is for all peoples and that no human language is left out of the praise. Read The tower of Babel and the nations.
Tongues in the book of Acts
They appear three times, and each time at a threshold. In Jerusalem, when the Spirit comes upon the first Jewish disciples. In Caesarea, in the house of the centurion Cornelius, when Gentiles receive him for the first time: the Jewish believers “were astonished… because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God” (Acts 10:45-46). And in Ephesus, with some disciples who knew only John’s baptism: “the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied” (19:6).
Each time the Gospel crosses a frontier, God gives the same sign, so that no one may doubt that the newcomers have received the same Spirit. In other conversion accounts—the three thousand at Pentecost, the Ethiopian, Lydia, the Philippian jailer—the text does not mention tongues.
Tongues at Corinth
In the church at Corinth the gift was frequent, and had become a source of pride and disorder. Paul begins by describing it:
“For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.”
1 Corinthians 14:2
Several features follow from this. The one who speaks in tongues addresses God, not people: it is prayer and praise. No one understands, unless there is interpretation. And the speaker’s own understanding is left aside: “if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful” (14:14).
Is that a bad thing? Paul does not say so. “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself” (14:4): it is a real edification, even if a personal one. “I would that ye all spake with tongues” (14:5). And of himself: “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all” (14:18). What he does is put each thing in its place: “I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also” (14:15). Both, not one against the other.
Human languages or a language of prayer?
It is an honest question, and Christians answer it in two ways. At Pentecost it was undoubtedly a matter of real human languages, which the hearers recognised. At Corinth, on the other hand, no one understands without interpretation, and Paul mentions “the tongues of men and of angels” (13:1). Some conclude that the gift always consists of real languages, miraculously given. Others hold that it may also be a language of prayer granted by the Spirit which does not necessarily correspond to a known language, close to what Paul describes elsewhere: “the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26). The Bible does not quite settle the question, and it is unwise to be more categorical than it is.
What they are for
- To praise and pray beyond one’s own words. There are moments when what is in the heart does not fit into language: a gratitude too great, a pain too deep. Paul speaks of blessing “with the spirit” and of “giving of thanks” (14:16-17).
- For the personal edification of the one who prays (14:4).
- As a sign to those who do not believe (14:22), as they were at Pentecost, where they drew the crowd that then heard Peter preach.
- To build up the church, when there is interpretation (14:5).
Paul’s rules for the meeting
For prayer alone, Paul sets no limit. For the gathering of the church he sets several, and all spring from the same principle: that others be built up.
“If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.”
1 Corinthians 14:27-28
Two or three, in turn, with someone to interpret. If there is no one, silence in the meeting, and prayer in private. This presupposes something important: the person with the gift is able to keep quiet. It is not a trance or a force that sweeps one away; the Spirit of God does not cancel self-control. Paul is very practical: “If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?” (14:23). And he gives his own preference:
“I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.”
1 Corinthians 14:18-19
Five words that are understood are worth more, in the assembly, than ten thousand that are not. But the chapter’s conclusion keeps the balance: “forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order” (14:39-40). Neither forbid nor disorder.
Must everyone speak in tongues?
Paul asks: “do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” (1 Corinthians 12:30), and the form of the question expects a “no,” just as for apostles and prophets. The Spirit distributes “as he will.” At the same time he says: “I would that ye all spake with tongues.” On these texts the churches have reached different conclusions, and it is right to set them out respectfully.
Classical Pentecostal churches teach that speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit, as in the accounts in Acts, and distinguish it from the gift of tongues for public use, which not all receive.
Many charismatic communities, among them the Catholic charismatic renewal, regard it as one gift among others: frequent and valuable for prayer, but neither necessary nor proof of anything.
Many Reformed and historic evangelical churches understand it to have been a sign for the apostolic age, which ceased with it.
What Scripture leaves beyond doubt is this: everyone who is Christ’s has the Spirit (Romans 8:9); “no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Corinthians 12:3); and the sign of his presence that the Bible asks of all is the fruit: love, joy, peace. No believer is second-class for having or not having a gift.
What this gift is not
It is not a measure of spirituality. The church that spoke most in tongues was also the church of divisions, lawsuits and tolerated immorality. And Paul begins the chapter on love precisely here: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass” (13:1).
It is not a requirement for being saved or for being loved by God.
It is not loss of control. Whoever exercises it can begin, stop and be silent.
It is not manufactured. Repeating syllables under pressure, or because “otherwise you do not have the Spirit,” is not receiving a gift: it is giving in to manipulation. No one should leave a meeting feeling defective.
It is not for showing off.
Nor is it something to mock. At Pentecost there were those who said: “These men are full of new wine” (Acts 2:13). One can disagree with how other Christians understand this gift without ridiculing their prayer.
If you have this gift, and if you do not
If you have it, use it gratefully in your private prayer, as one more way of being with God. Do not stop praying with the understanding too, and with the Bible open. In the meeting, follow the apostle’s rules and those of your church. Ask, as he advises, to be able to interpret (14:13). And beware of thinking it makes you more than anyone else.
If you do not have it, you are no less a child of God, nor less filled with the Spirit. If you desire it, you may simply ask; the Father gives good things to his children, and distributes as he wills. Do not let anyone pressure you. And seek, above all, the Giver. Read Set apart by the Holy Spirit: the filling of our lives and How to learn to pray.
“Tongues… shall cease”
“Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away” (1 Corinthians 13:8). Christians debate when: whether at the completion of the New Testament or when we see God “face to face.” But on the essential point the text is clear: tongues are provisional, like our whole present way of knowing and speaking. One day no gift will be needed for us to understand one another or to praise. The only thing that crosses that frontier is love.
Frequently asked questions
Can speaking in tongues be learned? No. A gift is received. What is taught or imitated is not what the New Testament describes.
Is it right for everyone to pray in tongues at once in a service? Paul asks that in the assembly people speak in turn and with interpretation. Churches that practise simultaneous prayer understand it as personal prayer and not as a message to the congregation. Each community should examine its practice in the light of 1 Corinthians 14 and take care of the outsider who comes in.
How do I know whether what I hear comes from God? In the same way as any other manifestation: it leads to Jesus, produces love and humility, submits to order and builds up. Read The discerning of spirits.
Great Christians in history never spoke in tongues. Were they lacking something? They abounded in fruit. God gives to each generation and each person what he wills for the task he entrusts to them.
Series “The nine gifts of the Holy Spirit”: Introduction · previous: The gift of prophecy according to the Bible · next: The interpretation of tongues.
Prayer
Father, there are days when my words are not enough. I want to thank you and I fall short; I want to tell you my pain and I cannot name it. Thank you that you understand what I do not know how to say, and that your Spirit prays in me when I can only groan. Come, Holy Spirit, as at Pentecost. Give me whatever you wish to give me for praying and praising you: with my words, with yours, or in silence. If you give me this gift, let me use it humbly; if you do not, let me not feel less loved or look down on anyone. Forgive your Church for having made your presents a cause of division. Undo our Babel: let us understand one another, let us love one another. And bring us to the day when people of every tongue, together at last, will say with one voice: “Salvation to our God, and unto the Lamb.” Amen.