the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost, whose wonderful workings they saw and
heard in the disciples.
This was the first independent testimony of the apostles, the first Christian sermon: simple,
unadorned, but full of Scripture truth, natural, suitable, pointed, and more effective than any other
sermon has been since, though fraught with learning and burning with eloquence. It resulted in the
conversion and baptism of three thousand persons, gathered as first-fruits into the garners of the
church.
In these first-fruits of the glorified Redeemer, and in this founding of the new economy of
Spirit and gospel, instead of the old theocracy of letter and law, the typical meaning of the Jewish
Pentecost was gloriously fulfilled. But this birth-day of the Christian church is in its turn only the
beginning, the type and pledge, of a still greater spiritual harvest and a universal feast of
thanksgiving, when, in the full sense of the prophecy of Joel, the Holy Spirit shall be poured out
on all flesh, when all the sons and daughters of men shall walk in his light, and God shall be praised
with new tongues of fire for the completion of his wonderful work of redeeming love.
Notes.
I. Glossolalia.—The Gift of Tongues is the most difficult feature of the Pentecostal miracle.
Our only direct source of information is in Acts 2, but the gift itself is mentioned in two other
passages, 10:46 and 19:6, in the concluding section of Mark 16 (of disputed genuineness), and fully
described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. There can be no doubt as to the existence of that gift
in the apostolic age, and if we had only either the account of Pentecost, or only the account of Paul,
we would not hesitate to decide as to its nature, but the difficulty is in harmonizing the two.
(1) The terms employed for the strange tongues are "new tongues" (καιναὶ γλῶσσαι,Mark
16:17, where Christ promises the gift), "other tongues," differing from ordinary tongues (ἕτεραι
γλ. Acts 2:4, but nowhere else), "kinds" or "diversities of tongues" (γένη γλωσσῶν, 1 Cor. 12:28),
or simply, "tongues" (γλῶσσαι,1 Cor. 14:22), and in the singular, "tongue" (γλῶσσα, 14:2, 13, 19,
27, in which passages the E. V. inserts the interpolation "unknown tongue"). To speak in tongues
is called γλώσσαιςorγλώσσῃ λαλεῖν(Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19:6; 1 Cor. 14:2, 4, 13, 14, 19, 27). Paul
uses also the phrase to "pray with the tongue" (προσεύχεσθαι γλώσσῃ), as equivalent to "praying
and singing with the spirit" (Προσεύχεσθαι andψάλλειν τῷ πνεύματι, and as distinct from
προσεύχεσθαιand ψάλλειν τῷ νοΐ,1 Cor. 14:14, 15). The plural and the term "diversities" of
tongues, as well as the distinction between tongues of "angels" and tongues of "men" (1 Cor. 13:1)
point to different manifestations (speaking, praying, singing), according to the individuality,
education, and mood of the speaker, but not to various foreign languages, which are excluded by
Paul’s description.
The term tongue has been differently explained.
(a) Wieseler (and Van Hengel): the organ of speech, used as a passive instrument; speaking
with the tongue alone, inarticulately, and in a low whisper. But this does not explain the plural, nor
the terms "new" and "other" tongues; the organ of speech remaining the same.
(b) Bleek: rare, provincial, archaic, poetic words, or glosses (whence our "glossary"). But
this technical meaning of γλῶσσαιoccurs only in classical writers (as Aristotle, Plutarch, etc.) and
among grammarians, not in Hellenistic Greek, and the interpretation does not suit the singular
γλῶσσαand γλώσσῃ λαλεῖν, as γλῶσσαcould only mean a single gloss.A.D. 1-100.