Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 22:85 (Jan 1865)
Article: The Gift Of Tongues
Author: David Greene

BSac 22:85 (Jan 1865) p. 99

The Gift Of Tongues

David Greene

To the reader of the New Testament, who desires and aims to get clear and satisfactory views of all which is there recorded respecting the early history of Christianity, few matters probably, present themselves more indistinctly before him, or occasion more perplexity, than what is denominated, in both scriptural and common language, the Gift of Tongues. What was it? On whom and for what purpose was the gift bestowed? In what manner, in what circumstances, and under what limitations, was it exercised? These and many other similar inquiries arise in the mind of the thoughtful reader; and some of them, at least, are not readily answered, so as to put the mind at rest. To all such inquiries- it is easy to answer generally, that this gift was an ability miraculously imparted to the apostles, and to some extent to others in the early Christian churches, to speak and teach in languages not vernacular to them, and of which they had not acquired a knowledge in any ordinary method. Perhaps most readers, and not a few who should be students, of the New Testament, are satisfied with such an answer as this; but as the subject is presented by the inspired writers in various aspects, in connection with predictions, narratives, precepts, exhortations, and rebukes, many points are suggested on which the inquiring mind asks for something more specific and definite.

As no important principle in the economy of redemption seems to be involved in this matter, and probably nothing that bears very directly on the duties of the Christian life, at least not in these later ages of the world, we must not expect to find all that light shed upon it, by which the fundamental doctrines and precepts of our religion are rendered luminous.

BSac 22:85 (Jan 1865) p. 100

Still we may, perhaps, be able, and if so, it is desirable, to obtain such views as shall be in harmony with all the facts and statements which the New Testament presents in connection with the subject. Let us, at least, seek to have views as well-defined and consistent as the case admits.

Most commentators on the New Testament have written more or less fully respecting the gift of tongues, proposing various and inconsistent theories for harmonizing the statements and phenomena presented in the several passages relating to it; but as nearly or quite all our knowledge, and the grounds for forming opinions on the subject, must be derived from what the sacred writers have themselves recorded in these passages, and as the language employed presents no special difficulties, mere learning is of little avail for arriving at correct conclusions.

Writers on this subject may be arranged in two classes— those who assert, and those who deny, the...