Summary

The word unknown in 1 Corinthians 14:2 is not in the original Greek from which the King James Bible was translated. The Emphatic says, “Foreign languages.” The word tongues means languages all through the Bible. “Utterance” in Acts 2:4 is the act of uttering words, pronounciation, and manner of speaking. “As the Spirit gave them utterance”; this was the gift. They prophesied in about sixteen different languages, no interpreter was needed. To “prophesy” is to speak unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:3). “Understanding” in the 19th verse is intelligence between two or more persons, agreement of minds, unity of sentiments. From Webster, “intelligence” means information communicated, intelligible, capable of being understood. Paul’s “own understanding,” others could not understand so that he taught them by his “voice,” his language (1 Corinthians 14:19). Adam Clarke, quoting Bishop Pierce, says that “spirit” in this 14th chapter is from the Greek words “own understanding” and the word “understanding” from the Greek “understandability.” “For if I pray in a foreign language my spirit [myself, my own understanding] is praying, but my meaning is unintelligible [KJV, ‘unfruitful’] to others” (verse 14, Greek). I will pray with the understanding (understandability by others). Also the Holy Ghost speaks through us (Mark 13:11). The words of the Holy Ghost were understood (Luke 3:22; 12:12). Salvation the only theme (John 7:38-39). They tarried for “power,”* (Acts 1:8) to utter, to declare, to speak, to express, to explain the gospel to about sixteen different nationalities (Acts 2:4-11). The Holy Ghost always speaks intelligently (Hebrews 3:7-8; 1 Peter 1:12; 1 Corinthians 12:3).

There are only three places mentioned in the New Testament where they spoke in tongues when they received the Holy Ghost and each time their utterance was understood. At Pentecost (circa AD 33) about sixteen different nationalities heard and understood. At Cesarea, eight years after, those six Jews heard the Gentiles speaking in tongues (languages) and magnify, exalt, extol and praise God in the language the Jews understood—hence, their own language. At Ephesus, fifteen years after the second occurrence, when they received the Holy Ghost “they spake with tongues, and prophesied.”* (Acts 19:6) From Webster, “to prophesy” is to instruct in religious doctrines; to interpret or explain Scriptures on religious subjects, or to exhort. No interpreter was needed in either of these three places.

“There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world and none of them is without signification.”* (1 Corinthians 14:10) All have their meaning, all understood by the speaker. The Emphatic has it: “Many kinds of languages.” Now the Bible teaches that there is such a thing as the gift of tongues (“different languages,” from Greek), but for some reason it is hardly ever heard of anymore. But as God gives all these precious gifts to us “to profit withal,”* (1 Corinthians 12:7) where it is needed, He will still give it to those He can trust with it—but if He does, it will be to benefit someone. I believe the last Bible evidence we have of the gift of tongues was at Ephesus in Acts 19, about twenty-three years after Pentecost. The gift of tongues is another language given to us and does not have to be learned. It is given us as a sign and the speaker knows what he is talking about, hence, is able to prophesy, to instruct, and to proclaim the glad tidings as in Acts 19, Acts 2, and Acts 10. It is a fulfillment of Isaiah 28:11-12 and Joel 2, and was the qualification necessary to go into all the world and prove to the unbeliever and the unlearned the mighty power of God to save from all sin. The mother tongue (language) is given to us to express our desires and converse with those of our own language. Foreign languages (foreign to us) are those which may be learned, so that we may converse with, or preach to, people of other tongues (or languages), and are not signs like the gift, as it was not learned, but God-given.

—George E. Harmon