The interpretation of tongues: the gift of understanding

Imagine receiving a letter written in a language you do not know. You know it is for you. You know it comes from someone who loves you. But until someone reads it to you, it stays closed. Something like that was happening in the church at Corinth: there was prayer and praise in tongues, perhaps very sincere, and most of those present were left outside, neither understanding nor able to say “Amen.” For that purpose the Spirit gives the last gift on Paul’s list, “the interpretation of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:10). And the apostle tells us to ask for it:

“Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? 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.”
1 Corinthians 14:13-15

This article closes the series The nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. We will look at what this gift is, why it is needed, how Scripture orders it, how it is discerned and what it teaches all believers, whether they have it or not. At the end there is a prayer.

What the interpretation of tongues is

The Greek word is hermeneia, from which “hermeneutics” comes: to explain, to make the meaning understood. The gift is the capacity given by the Holy Spirit to express, in the community’s language, the content of what has been said in tongues. It is not a knowledge of languages: the interpreter does not understand the tongue through having studied it. And the word suggests something broader than a word-for-word translation: it conveys the sense.

It is the last on the list, and it is a hinge. Without it, the gift of tongues remains in the personal prayer of the one who has it. With it, it becomes a blessing for everyone. Paul puts it precisely: the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, “except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying” (1 Corinthians 14:5).

Why it is needed

Paul’s reasoning in 1 Corinthians 14 is admirably sensible. A pipe or a harp that does not distinguish its notes makes no music. “If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” (14:8). There are many languages in the world, and all mean something; but “if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me” (14:11): two foreigners, face to face, in the same church. And he thinks of the simple brother sitting at the back:

“Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified.”
1 Corinthians 14:16-17

“Thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified.” Paul does not doubt the sincerity of the one praying; what pains him is the one left outside. That is the criterion of the whole chapter: in the gathering of the church, what is not understood does not build up. The community’s “Amen”—that small word by which each person makes the prayer their own—needs understanding.

A God who wants to be understood

This gift is not an oddity: it expresses something that runs through the whole Bible. God does not speak in order to hide, but in order to be understood. When the people came back from exile and many no longer understood the Hebrew of the Law well, Ezra and the Levites did something very simple and very great:

“So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.”
Nehemiah 8:8

They “gave the sense.” The people wept on understanding, and afterwards they feasted. On the road to Emmaus the risen Jesus did the same with two disheartened disciples: “he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27), and later “opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (24:45). An Ethiopian official was reading Isaiah in his chariot, and Philip asked him: “Understandest thou what thou readest?” The answer is that of half of humanity: “How can I, except some man should guide me?” (Acts 8:30-31).

And at Pentecost the Spirit saw to it that each one heard “in our own tongue, wherein we were born.” The incarnation itself is God translating himself: the eternal Word spoken in flesh, in one language, in one village. None of these passages speaks of the gift of interpretation of tongues; but all show the same heart from which that gift proceeds.

Interpreters in the Old Testament

Joseph and Daniel did not interpret tongues, but dreams and a mysterious writing. Even so, they leave us the portrait of the true interpreter.

Joseph, in prison, before two anxious prisoners: “Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you” (Genesis 40:8). And before Pharaoh, who was treating him as an expert: “It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace” (41:16).

Daniel, summoned to read the writing on the wall, hears the king’s offer—scarlet, a chain of gold, third place in the kingdom—and replies: “Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king” (Daniel 5:17). And he told the king what the king did not want to hear.

Three features, then: the interpreter attributes to God what he receives, makes no profit from it, and tells the truth even when it is unwelcome. Read Joseph, from slave to governor and Daniel in Babylon.

How Scripture orders it

Paul’s instructions are brief and clear. In the meeting, if anyone speaks in a tongue, let it be two or at most three, in turn, “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). Several things follow:

Interpretation is a condition for the public use of tongues. Without it, prayer in tongues is kept for the secret place.
The one who spoke may interpret—“pray that he may interpret” (14:13)—or someone else: “to another the interpretation of tongues.”
It is a distinct gift: not everyone who speaks in tongues interprets. “Do all interpret?” (12:30).
Everything serves one end: “when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying” (14:26).

What does an interpretation contain? Paul says that whoever speaks in a tongue “speaketh not unto men, but unto God,” and describes that prayer as blessing and thanksgiving. For that reason many understand that what is interpreted will normally be a prayer or a praise put into intelligible words, to which the church answers “Amen.” In other communities it has also been experienced as a message that builds up, close to prophecy. In either case the same rule applies as for everything said in the assembly: “let the other judge” (14:29).

What it is for

So that all may be built up and not just one. So that no one is left out: neither the newcomer, nor the simple, nor the person there for the first time. To keep the church from elitism, where a few “spiritual” people speak and the rest look on. To turn an individual experience into common worship. At bottom, it is a gift in the service of unity.

How to discern an interpretation

Does it agree with Scripture? No interpretation can teach what the Bible does not teach.
Does it exalt Christ? What proceeds from the Spirit glorifies him.
Does it build up, encourage, comfort? Or does it frighten, humiliate, confuse?
Is it sober? The Spirit has no need of drama.
Who gives it? A person known for humility and fruit, subject to those responsible for the community.
Does it leave people free? God does not use this gift to issue orders about anyone’s private life.

The abuse peculiar to this gift should be named: the invented “interpretation,” which in reality conveys the speaker’s own opinion and dresses it in divine authority in order to direct the church or an individual. When an interpretation always serves someone’s interests, not much discernment is required.

How to ask for it and exercise it

Ask for it. It is the only one of the nine gifts for which there is so direct a command: “pray that he may interpret.”
Seek understanding together with the spirit. “I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also.” Paul does not want divided believers.
Begin small and under pastoral care. First share with those responsible what you believe you are receiving.
If you are not sure, keep silent. Silence does not offend the Spirit; invention does.
Accept being tested and corrected without taking offence.
Do it all out of love for the one who does not understand.

A lesson for everyone: the love that translates

Most Christians will never exercise this gift in the strict sense. But its principle binds us all. Paul put it this way: “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 14:19).

There are many ways of speaking in “an unknown tongue” without having any gift at all: religious jargon no outsider understands, sermons full of terms that are never explained, customs we take for granted. The person coming to a church for the first time, the teenager, the neighbour who has never opened a Bible, sit in “the room of the unlearned” and cannot say Amen. To love is to translate: to explain the Gospel to a child in a child’s words, to a sick person in few words, to a friend without faith in the words of their own world.

The Church has understood this many times in her history. Those who translated the Bible into the language of the people understood it, often at the risk of their lives. The churches of the Reformation understood it when they held worship in the people’s language, and the Catholic Church when she brought the liturgy into the languages of every nation. Translators understand it today, spending years so that a small people may hear God speak in their own language for the first time. It is the same Spirit of Pentecost. Read The hope of the nations and Bibles.

Frequently asked questions

Is it a word-for-word translation? Not necessarily. The word indicates giving the sense, so an interpretation may be shorter or longer than what was said in tongues.

Can the same person who spoke in tongues interpret? Yes; Paul tells them to ask for it. Someone else may also do so.

Can one have this gift without speaking in tongues? The text presents it as a distinct gift, given “to another.” It is possible.

What is done if no one interprets? What the apostle says: the one who speaks in tongues keeps silence in the meeting and prays alone.

Tongues are not practised in my church. Does this gift say anything to me? Yes: that everything done in the gathering must be capable of being understood, and that the one who knows least sets the pace.

Series “The nine gifts of the Holy Spirit”: Introduction · previous: Divers kinds of tongues. This article ends the series; you can go back to the beginning with The word of wisdom.

Prayer

Lord, you do not speak in order to hide. You became flesh so that we might understand you; you spoke our language, told stories of seeds and sheep, and sat down to explain the Scriptures to two sad travellers. Thank you for those who translated your Word for me, and for every person who once explained to me what I did not understand. Forgive me the times I spoke of you in words no one could follow, to seem more than I am. Come, Holy Spirit, and give me your love for the one left outside. If you wish to give me this gift, let me exercise it truthfully and with trembling, adding nothing of my own. And give it to me, in any case, in its simplest form: let me know how to speak your Gospel in five clear words to the child, to the sick, to the doubter. Open the understanding of your people, as at Emmaus, and let your whole Church be able to say together: Amen. Amen.