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NASB | 1 Corinthians 14:23 Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Corinthians 14:23 So then, if the whole church gathers together and all of you speak in [unknown] tongues, and outsiders or those who are not gifted [in spiritual matters] or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? |
Subject: should all we be speaking tongues aloud |
Bible Note: Hello, Psalm 25 - It's rare to be writing to a chapter of Scripture; I still feel a bit awkward in doing so, but I'll try to adjust to it -- not an easy task for a septuagenarian. :-) ....... I've never been numbered in that company of believers who are popularly known as the charismatics, and the relatively recent emergence of this phenomenon of "tongue speaking (glossolalia) and the fascination and absorption with it that not infrequently accompanies it poses a puzzle to me. Even if this ecstatic babbling were entirely sanctioned by Scripture, which I do not for a moment believe it to be, the promoters and practitioners of glossolalia attach far more importance to it than any Scripture they can cite that even remotely appears to them to validate it. ....... Once someone asked me whether I had ever spoken in tongues, to which, without hesitation, I answered in the affirmative, saying that I had been using at least one tongue, English, as a means of communication since I was a toddler. Later on in my attempts to soak up a little learning, I studied Latin, French and German so that now, after a fashion, I speak in four different tongues. It's singularly unfortunate that the King James Bible and certain other English translations, before and after it, used "tongues" by and large to express the idea of "languages." I've often wondered whether the course of denominational history would have been altered had tongues never been used as a synonym for languages, because there is a certain mystique attached to the word "tongues," something esoteric and supernatural, that has never been assigned to the word "languages." A careful reading of Paul's first Corinthian letter (especially Chapter 14) indicates that there was, in fact, a practice of "speaking in a tongue" (singular), which was indicative of the false gibberish of the counterfeit pagan ecstatic speech. John MacArthur makes a sharp distinction between the singular and plural usages of "tongue" in Paul's discourse in 1 Corinthians 14, calling it foundational to the proper interpretation of the chapter. It is easy to fall into an eisegetical ditch in attempting to interpret the concepts inherent in this difficult and complex subject of tongues. But one is hard pressed to wrap Scripture around the modern practice of glossolalia. Exegetical, orthodox support simply isn't there. --Hank |