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NASB | Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 2:4 And they were all filled [that is, diffused throughout their being] with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues (different languages), as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out [clearly and appropriately]. |
Bible Question: What does the "SPEAKING IN TONGUES MEAN" as according 1 Corinthians chapter12. |
Bible Answer: What did it mean? That was the question on the day of Pentecost. They were confounded, because people who knew only one language were speaking a message and everyone was hearing it in his own language (Acts 2:6). Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, each group heard them speak in their own language the wonderful works of God. They were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, “What does this mean?” (v. 12). What did it mean? It was a sign (1 Corinthians 14:12). What was it signaling? It was signaling the fact that the Holy Spirit had been given (v. 16). For the Jew there was the additional fact that the Gentiles would be included as recipients. The Holy Spirit was for “all flesh” and not for Jews only. What was the importance in the life of a believer? Tongues were for a sign. They were for a sign, not to them that believed, but to them that believed not (1 Corinthians 14:22). Those who did not believe needed a sign. They were “children in understanding” (v.20). The appeal to the Corinthians was that they should grow up. Paul had had to treat them as babies, though they had been in Christ for some time (1 Corinthians 3:2). He had had to feed them with the milk of the word. But he was warning them that the baby things must pass away. The sign of new believers speaking in language unknown to themselves would fade away (1 Corinthians 13:8). When would that happen? It would happen when they were mature enough to do without it. Again, his appeal to them was to grow up, to cease being “children in understanding”. For the mature church there is no more milk, no more signs, no more “tongues”. The Jews desired a sign (1 Corinthians 1:22) but what God had for them instead was the Gospel (v. 23). Seems they had always hankered for a sign (Matthew 12:38, John 2:18, John 6:30, etc). But Jesus had said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas” (Matthew 12:39). Now to the early church he said they could have the sign of tongues for a while, but then it would cease. When the Jews understood that the Gentiles were being grafted in, (as in Acts 11:18), when they had grown up and ceased to be children in their understanding of that fact, then “tongues” had served their purpose, and they were ready to pass away. Do we need “tongues” today then, people being enabled supernaturally to speak in unknown languages? Brethren, be not children in understanding. In malice be children, but in understanding, be men. |