(6) G(jspel of St. Mark. — In the doubtful appen- dix to this Gospel (IG"), among the wonders wliich are to follow tliose who believe, it is said ' they shall speak with [new] tongues.' The word 'new' is of verj' questionable genuineness ; if it be rejected, the passage is a bare reference to ' speaking with tongues,' and throws little light upon the nature of the utterances.
(c) First Epuitle to the Corinthians. — In clis. 12-14, especially the last-named chapter, we have the most circumstantial reference to the iihenom- enon. In 1'2''" St. Paul eiiuiiierates iliUcri'iit gifts, which in their diversity proceed from the self-same Spirit. I'irst come gifts of ordin.iry tea<:hing (Xcryos (ro^t'as, X. yvihonidi), then faith, healings, and other miracles, then at the end |iroiiliecy and the discerning of spirits, followed, in the last place of all, by 'kinds of tongues' (yif-n), a new (lualilication, and 'interpretation of tongues,' whicli al.so ajipears in these chapters alone. The enumeration of oiSces and gifts in
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TONGUES, GIFT OF
TONGUES, GIFT OF
w.'*"*' corresponds to that of gifts in vv.''"". The teaching otlices come lirst (apostles, prophets, teachers), tlicn miracles and healings, then 'helps' and 'guidances,' then, again last of all, ' kinds of tongues.' Prophecy and ' discernings of spirits' are evidently omitted here because of the insertion of 'prophets' after 'apostles.' Then, in the in- terrogative clauses that follow, the 'tongues,' this time with the added mention of ' interpreta- tion,' but without the mention of yivri, again bring up the rear : ' Do all speak with tongues ? do all interpret?' In ch. 13 the tongues, which St. Paul has put last in the order of jjrecedence, come first in the order of depreciation. ' Tongues of men and of angels' may be taken as a climax, for this purpose, upon the less rhetorical yivr] ■y\wiT- aCiv (see below, § iii. (6)). Apart from charity, not only tongues (however wonderful), but even pro- phecy, even works of charity, are worthless. Com- paretl with it, prophecy, tongues, knowledge itself, all belong to our childhood, to our ignorance, to the sphere of things temporal. Then in ch. 14, after a closing reminder of the subordinate place which Tvev/j-aTiKo. are to occupy in our desires as compared with charity, the apostle enters in detail upon a comparison between the two most con- spicuous irveviJ.aTi.Ka., viz. prophecy and tongues. Prophecy is the more desirable of the two, because it is addressed to men, and benefits them, whereas ' tonnes ' are addressed to God, and beneft the speaker only (vv.'"''). The only exception to this is when the speaker (or some other person, v.""-) can interpret his utterances. This would enable the rest of those present to join in with their ' Amen ' (v.'*), and so derive some benefit from the prayer. Without going into details of exegesis, which in this chapter are full of difficulty, it is sufficient to emphasize certain points upon which the apostle speaks without anj' obscurity. Firstly, as already remarked, the speaker with tongues speaks to God only ; his utterance is not a sermon but a prayer or 2)srdm (w."- '^^ "• "), or a thanksgiving (v.'°). Secondly, the utterance is unintelligible to the hearers, and even to the speaker. The spirit is in prayer, but the mind takes no part, it is unfruitful (vv."-") ; the speaker 'edifies himself apparently by his attitude of ecstatic devotion, not by con- scious expression or reception of ideas. Thirdly, while ' interpretation ' is thought of as possible, its absence seems to have been the rule, its presence the exception (w.°- ''). Accordingly (fourthly), the impression which ' tongues ' pro- duce upon a visitor, especially on a non-believer (v.''^), is that of an assembly of madmen (cf. Ac 2") ; whereas, in the case of prophecy, the non- believer, or at any rate the visitor, will be pro- foundly stirred, probably to conversion (vv.**- ^).
The closing section of the chapter (v.*"') shows the iKaraaraala, which had resulted at Corinth from the childish (r2'»-=» 13" 14'-'--"») desire of too many of the members of the Church to excel in the exercise of abnormal gifts, and from their dangerous tendency to value spiritual gifts in pro- [lortion to their abnormal features. The apostle exactly inverts this principle.
ii. Classification- of the Data.— There is no possible doubt that the phenomena of the Church of Corinth are homogeneous with those which meet us at Ca-sarea (Ac 10") and at Ephesus (Ac 19"). These two passages are linked together by the reference to baptism, and the close relation of the tongues to projihecy connects the latter pas- sage with the phenomena of Corinth. We may therefore conclude that one feature of the life of the Apostolic Churches was the correlation be- tween the perceptible presence of the Holy Spirit, which bei'an at baptism, but was continued in the assem'ilies and corporate acts of the Churches
(see vol. ii. pp. 407'', 409'), and certain ntterancei on the part of members of the Churches, some- times intelligible and less ecstatic (prophecy), some- times more ecstatic and not intelligible (tongues). On the border-line between the two classes of utter- ance would come the interpretation of tongues, a gift apparently known to St. Paul, but assumed by him to be exceptional, and passed over in the more occasional notices of the Acts of the Apostles. With these data we can without difficulty class the reference in St. Mark 16 (above, i. (6)). It has been not infrequently laid down, that whUe these passages refer to one homogeneous group of phenom- ena, tliat group is separated from the phenomena of Ac 2 by a dili'erence in kind. This assumption, however, is in too direct conflict with the words of St. Peter (Ac 11") to be admitted. The homo- geneity of the later phenomenon with that of Pentecost, here asserted, can be denied only by undermining the credit of the Acts as a source. But, while we are thus obliged to class the phenom- ena of Ac 2 with those of the other passages of the NT, it must be recognized that with the features common to all passages certain peculiari- ties are combined in the narrative of Pentecost. First, there is the sound of the rushing wind ; second, the vision of the fiery tongues ; thirilly, the intelligibility of the utterances without t/ie 'interpretation,' which to St. Paul \a necessary if the ' tongues ' are to be understood. But in Ac 2, as in 1 Co 14, the 'tongues' are utterances of worship, not of a didactic character, not addressed to the Jews (whose attention is attracted by the utterances only after they have begun) ; the association with prophecy, implied in the quota- tion from Joel, is, to St. Peter apparently, as to St. Paul, due simply to identity of origin ; and in both passages (Ac 2'^ 1 Co U'^) the impres- sion produced upon less sympathetic hearers is similar. In the attempt, therefore, to interpret correctly the data of the NT relating to the subject of 'tongues,' the only sound method to adopt will be to begin from the most circumstan- tial account we have,— that of St. Paul, — but, in applying the results to other passages, to bear in mind any peculiar features which distinguish their account of what is certainly in substance the same phenomenon.