"And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way."
Today's quote is taken from an earlier lesson. I thought it important to go back and cover this part of that lesson a bit more closely seeing that I neglected to cover it in detail.
In this quote, Paul lists "diversities of tongues" as a gift that could be given to the children of God through the Holy Spirit.
Oddly and even sadly, there are some today who, by wrongly applying the intent of this text, contend that there are a few in the Church who are given a special gift of speaking in "unknown tongues" whereas the speaker makes some vocal utterances that only the Holy Spirit and an interpreter can understand. The supposed purpose of speaking in such "tongues" varies from "church" to "church" and person to person, none of which can be verified by New Testament text.
It is reasonably obvious that when Paul spoke of the gift of "tongues" he was talking about those who were then, and those who are today, capable of speaking in more than one language so as to be able to communicate with the many different peoples of that region at that time. The "gift", or talent, of being multi-lingual was very important in that area where several different languages were commonly spoken among a relatively small population. Some examples are Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin.
Strong's bible dictionary defines the word tongues as it is applied in this text as: "a tongue the language or dialect used by a particular people distinct from that of other nations"
Therefore for today's purpose, as it was then, when the gift of "tongues" was/is mentioned in the New Testament, it is simply a reference to someone who is able to speak in more that one language, or dialect.~
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