What is speaking in tongues in the Bible?

The Holy SpiritIn theological review

The short answer

Speaking in tongues in the Bible is speech given by the Holy Spirit, first seen at Pentecost when the disciples declared God's works in languages their hearers understood. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul describes tongues speech directed to God that needs interpretation in church and must never crowd out clear teaching. Christians differ on exactly what the gift involved and how it should be practised, and those main readings are set out fairly below.

The fuller answer

The gift first appears in Acts 2, and the details there are plain. The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance, and visitors to Jerusalem each heard the mighty works of God declared in their own language, in Acts 2:4-11. Whatever else is debated later, Luke's first picture is of real languages, understood by real hearers, given for proclamation. Pentecost reversed the confusion of tongues into a single message of praise heard across the nations gathered in the city.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Acts 2:4 (BSB)

Paul's long treatment in 1 Corinthians 14 must be read whole, not in fragments. He describes a believer speaking to God in a tongue, uttering mysteries, edified personally but not building up the church unless someone interprets. He values prophecy in the assembly precisely because it is intelligible, and he insists that everything be done decently, in turn, and for building others up, even saying he would rather speak five words with his mind than ten thousand in a tongue during gathered worship, in 1 Corinthians 14:39 and the verses around it.

So, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.

1 Corinthians 14:39 (BSB)

Christians read these chapters in more than one faithful way, and the differences should be stated plainly. Some hold that the gift is always known human languages, pointing to Acts 2 as the pattern. Others hold that Paul also describes a prayer language directed to God, pointing to his words about speaking to God and praying with the spirit. Churches also differ over how the gift should be ordered or expected today. What all sides share from the text itself is Paul's rule: intelligibility in the assembly, interpretation for tongues, and love as the measure of every gift.

‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

Acts 2:17 (BSB)

Peter's own explanation of Pentecost frames the whole subject. Quoting Joel, he announced that God had poured out his Spirit on all flesh, so that sons and daughters would prophesy and the promise would extend to everyone the Lord calls, in Acts 2:17 and the verses that follow. Tongues were never an end in themselves in Luke's telling; they were a sign that the last days gift had arrived for every nation. Paul assumes the same purpose in Corinth. A gift that began as a sign of the gospel crossing every language barrier should never become a barrier inside the church itself.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

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What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit?The gifts of the Holy Spirit are abilities God gives to believers for serving others and building up the church, not for status or display. Paul lists wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and interpretation in 1 Corinthians 12, with further lists in Romans 12 and Ephesians 4. The same Spirit distributes them as he wills, so every Christian has a part and no one has everything.Do the miraculous gifts still happen today?Christians differ on whether the miraculous gifts, such as healing, prophecy, and tongues, continue in the church today, and the Bible texts each side leans on are set out fairly here. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 13 that gifts like prophecy and tongues will cease when the perfect comes, and believers disagree over what that means and when it arrives. No side in this debate questions that God himself can act miraculously whenever he pleases.Who is the Holy Spirit?The Holy Spirit is God himself, the third person of the Trinity, not a force, a feeling, or God's power in the abstract. He is there at creation, hovering over the waters. He speaks, teaches, and can be lied to, and when Peter confronts Ananias he says the lie told to the Holy Spirit was a lie told to God.What does the Holy Spirit do?He convicts the world of sin, guides believers into the truth, teaches and reminds them of Jesus's words, and produces a different kind of life in them: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. His work always points to Jesus rather than to himself, and its fruit shows up in character, not in show.Bible Character: PaulThe Pharisee who persecuted the church until the risen Jesus stopped him on the Damascus road, and who became his apostle to the Gentiles, travelling the Roman world and writing many of the New Testament letters.Bible Character: PeterThe Galilean fisherman who confessed Jesus as the Christ, denied him three times on the night he was betrayed, was restored by the risen Lord, and preached at Pentecost.On the map: JerusalemFind it in the Lands of the Bible, with the verses that place it there.Lesson: Context changes everythingTwo of the most quoted verses in the Bible are usually quoted wrong. Read them in context and watch what changes.