γλῶσσα,
-ης,
ἡ, [from Homer down],
the tongue;
1. the tongue, a member of the body, the organ of speech:
Mark 7:33,
35;
Luke 1:64;
Luke 16:24;
1 Corinthians 14:9;
James 1:26;
James 3:5,
6,
8;
1 Peter 3:10;
1 John 3:18; [
Revelation 16:10]. By a poetic and rhetorical usage, especially Hebraistic, that member of the body which is chiefly engaged in some act has ascribed to it what belongs to the man; the
tongue is so used in
Acts 2:26 (ἠγαλλιάσατο ἡ γλῶσσά μου);
Romans 3:13;
Romans 14:11;
Philippians 2:11 (the tongue of every man); of the little tongue-like flames symbolizing the gift of foreign tongues, in
Acts 2:3.
2. a tongue, i. e. the
language used by a particular people in distinction from that of other nations:
Acts 2:11; hence, in later Jewish usage (
Isaiah 66:18;
Daniel 3:4;
Daniel 5:19 Theodotion;
Daniel 6:25;
7:14 Theodotion; Judith 3:8) joined with
φυλή,
λαός,
ἔθνος, it serves to designate people of various languages [cf. Winer's Grammar, 32],
Revelation 5:9;
Revelation 7:9;
Revelation 10:11;
Revelation 11:9;
Revelation 13:7;
Revelation 14:6;
Revelation 17:15.
λαλεῖν ἑτέραις γλώσσαις to speak with other than their native
i. e. in foreign
tongues, Acts 2:4, cf.
Acts 2:6-11;
γλώσσαις λαλεῖν καιναῖς to speak with new tongues which the speaker has not learned previously,
Mark 16:17 [but Tr text WH text omit; Tr marginal reading brackets
καιναῖς]; cf. De Wette on Acts, p. 27ff [correct and supplement his references by Meyer on
1 Corinthians 12:10; cf. also
B. D. under the word
Tongues, Gift of]. From both these expressions must be carefully distinguished the simple phrases
λαλεῖν γλώσσαις,
γλώσσαις λαλεῖν,
λαλεῖν γλώσσῃ,
γλώσσῃ λαλεῖν (and
προσεύχεσθαι γλώσσῃ,
1 Corinthians 14:14),
to speak with (
in)
a tongue (the organ of speech),
to speak with tongues; this, as appears from
1 Corinthians 14:7ff, is the gift of men who, rapt in an ecstasy and no longer quite masters of their own reason and consciousness, pour forth their glowing spiritual emotions in strange utterances, rugged, dark, disconnected, quite unfitted to instruct or to influence the minds of others:
Acts 10:46;
Acts 19:6;
1 Corinthians 12:30;
1 Corinthians 13:1;
1 Corinthians 14:2,
4-6,
13,
18,
23,
27,
39. The origin of the expression is apparently to be found in the fact, that in Hebrew the tongue is spoken of as the leading instrument by which the praises of God are proclaimed (
ἡ τῶν θείων ὕμνων μελῳδός, 4 Macc. 10:21, cf. Psalm 34:28 (
Ps. 35:28); Psalms 65:17 (
Ps. 66:17); Psalms 70:24 (
Ps. 71:24);
Psalm 125:2 (
Ps. 126:2);
Acts 2:26;
Philippians 2:11;
λαλεῖν ἐν γλώσσῃ,
Psalm 38:4 (
Ps. 39:4), and that according to the more rigorous conception of inspiration nothing human in an inspired man was thought to be active except the tongue, put in motion by the Holy Spirit (
καταχρῆται ἕτερος αὐτοῦ τοῖς φωνητηρίοις ὀργάνοις,
στόματι καὶ γλώττῃ πρὸς μήνυσιν ὧν ἂν θέλῃ, Philo, rer. div. haer. § 53 [i. 510, Mang. edition]); hence, the contrast
διὰτοῦνοὸς [critical editions
τῷ νοἲ)
λαλεῖν,
1 Corinthians 14:19 cf.
1 Corinthians 14:9. The plural in the phrase
γλώσσαις λαλεῖν, used even of a single person (
1 Corinthians 14:5f), refers to the various motions of the tongue. By metonymy, of the cause for the effect,
γλῶσσαι tongues are equivalent to
λόγοι ἐν γλώσσῃ (
1 Corinthians 14:19)
words spoken in a tongue (
Zungenvorträge):
1 Corinthians 13:8;
1 Corinthians 14:22;
γένη γλωσσῶν,
1 Corinthians 12:10,
28, of which two kinds are mentioned viz.
προσευχή and
ψαλμός,
1 Corinthians 14:15;
γλῶσσαν ἔχω, something to utter with a tongue,
1 Corinthians 14:26. [On 'Speaking with Tongues' see, in addition to the discussions above referred to, Wendt in the 5th edition of Meyer on Acts (
Acts 2:4);
Heinrici, Korinthierbriefe, i., 372ff;
Schaff, Hist. of the Chr. Church, i. 234-245 (1882);
Farrar, St. Paul, i. 95ff.]
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