Let’s learn a little English grammar. In the sentence, “I wrote you a check,” the subject “I” does the action of the verb, “write.” This is called the active voice.
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In the sentence “I received a check from you,” the object “I” is in effect the recipient of the action of the verb. This is called the passive voice—the object of the sentence is passive.
In the sentence, “I wrote myself a check,” the object “I” is, in a way, both the doer and the receiver of the action of the verb and so this is called the middle voice. It does the action on its own account. Okay, now check this out!
The Gift of Tongues
Perhaps the most confusing and controversial gift is tongues. Certainly miraculous, even though the Old Testament prophecy about tongues doesn’t indicate the miraculous. For example, Isaiah 28:11-12 merely indicates a foreign language will be spoken.
Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people, to whom he said, “this is the resting place, let the weary rest”; and, “This is the place of repose”—but they would not listen.”
This passage is in the context of judgment upon the nation Israel. When they hear the message from God spoken not in Hebrew, but in a foreign language, it would serve as a sign of judgment to them. This was partially fulfilled when they heard a message from their enemies from the north, the Assyrians, who spoke a language called Akkadian, which, even though a Semitic language like Hebrew, they could not understand. Yet those who remembered Isaiah knew it was a sign of judgment. The Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC, but even in judgment the Lord offered a place of rest—if they would only listen!
The first New Testament occurrence of tongues is found in Acts 2. Like the passage in Isaiah, it is in the context of the Lord’s offer of rest, peace and safety, in the midst of coming judgment. Amazement and a huge commotion erupts as the apostles start speaking about the wonders of God in many foreign languages (Acts 2:4-12). Reminding his audience of the death and resurrection of Christ, Peter spoke, and held everyone responsible for their personal rejection of Jesus as their Savior. They were cut to the quick, and asked, “What can we do?” “Repent” was Peter’s reply—change your mind about Jesus![1] He is the Messiah; He is the Savior. By identifying with Him, they would escape the Lord’s judgment that was coming.
With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acts 2:40-41)
This appearance of tongues is just like what Isaiah prophesied—hearing the words of judgment from God in a foreign language. For them it was a sign to accept God’s offer of peace and safety through belief in Jesus as the Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 14:21-22 Paul explains that tongues were a sign to unbelievers, no doubt for the same purpose—to bring unbelievers under the conviction of sin, and to turn them to salvation through belief in the Lord Jesus. After quoting Isaiah, Paul writes,
Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers.
Now, if it is true that the more miraculous gifts like the foundational gifts of apostleship and prophecy have passed off the scene, what about the gift of tongues? A reasonable argument can be made from 1 Corinthians 13 that this miraculous ability to speak a message of judgment to unbelievers in a foreign language has indeed passed off the scene.
1Corinthians 13 is the great love chapter in the New Testament. It is read at weddings all the time. While it does not exactly define, it does show how love expresses itself in human relationships. In the end, love is always in fashion—“love never fails,” but other things fall out of vogue, such as certain gifts, like prophecy, tongues, and knowledge.
Love never fails, but where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. (1Cor 13:8
Even though often translated with two different words (as in the NIV), the same word is actually used twice to describe what happens to the gifts of prophecy and knowledge. Yet, the word used for what happens to tongues is a different word. Prophecy and knowledge will cease, but tongues will be stilled. The point is, we see prophecy and knowledge treated one way; tongues treated another.
Not only is the separate treatment of tongues evident from the particular words used, but also from the mood or what we call grammatical voice of the verbs. For prophecy and knowledge the verb for ceasing or ending is in the passive voice (something like “I received a check from you”); for tongues the verb for “being stilled” is in the middle voice (like the sentence, “I wrote myself a check”). The grammatical voice used in conjunction with prophecy and knowledge is telling us that there will be some outside force which will cause them to cease, whereas the voice used with tongues tells us that they will be stilled on their own account (being both the doer and the recipient of the verbal action).
One simple explanation of this difference is seen in the function of a top. Leave a spinning top alone and it will stop on its own account. That’s how the gift of tongues is described. But an outside force like your hand stops the spinning top in an instant. So too, prophecy and knowledge will be stopped by some external event.
Notice also, prophecy and knowledge continue to be discussed in verse 9, but tongues have been left behind.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfection comes, the imperfect (or partial) will disappear.
In the context, the “perfection” which comes is the outside force causing prophecy and knowledge to disappear.
What is the “perfection” referred to here? There are two main possibilities. The first is consistent with what we have said about the gift of prophecy before. Remember, it is a foundation gift (Eph 2:20), and it involved the telling of new revelation from God either in forthtelling or foretelling. This gift involving new revelation would no longer be needed once the Scriptures were completed (just like the gift of Apostle). Once all the New Testament was finished, somewhere around 90 AD, the gift of prophecy would no longer be needed. We would expect it to disappear. The word for perfection in verse 10 could be very legitimately translated “completion,” rendering it, “but when the completion comes, the partial (namely prophecy and knowledge from verse 9) will disappear.”[2] This view then says that the gifts of prophecy and knowledge will disappear once the New Testament was complete (the outside action of the passive voice).
One main difficulty with this view is the next couple of verses. While verse 12 could be seen to be referring to the completion of the writing of the New Testament, the phrase “face to face” more easily refers to an appearance before an individual—just as we would use it in the expression, ”there we were face to face.”
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
Looking at this verse as a whole, it seems to describe the time when we will see Jesus. While it is possible it is referring to seeing Jesus more fully through the completed Bible, it is a much more natural reading that it refers to personally meeting Jesus.
Whichever view is correct, the point is this: whether it occurs upon the completion of the New Testament, or upon the return of Christ, prophecy and knowledge will cease as a result of one of these two outside events.
What about tongues? The voice used for the verb which says “tongues will be stilled” is the middle voice, like the sentence, “I write myself a check.” Here there is no outside event which will cause tongues to cease, because the doer of the action is also the receiver of the action. The gift of tongues will do the action causing it to cease itself. So, the gift of tongues will become inoperative in and of itself, independent of any outside action or force causing it to end. While prophecy and knowledge wait for the outside event which will cause them to cease, tongues will cease in the mean time on its own, like a top that comes to rest.
Now if the outside force which causes prophecy and knowledge to cease is the completion of the cannon of Scripture, then the gift of tongues would have burned itself out somewhere around the first century AD. If the outside force which causes prophecy and knowledge to cease is the return of Christ then tongues will end by that time. Of course the early church believers such as Paul expected Christ to return at any moment. So, Paul likely expected the gift of tongues to become inoperative on their own fairly early in the church age. It seems reasonable to conclude based on this passage that the gift of tongues ended early in the second century AD.
This conclusion is confirmed by church history. While obviously the gift of tongues was widespread in the first century, as seen in Corinth, there are surprisingly only two references in the first three centuries after that. One is by Montanus, who claimed to be the main organ of the Holy Spirit for his day, and the other by Tertullian, who was a follower of Montanus. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Origen, and Augustine all confirmed that tongues ceased after the death of the apostles.[3] Further, in the fifth century, Chysostom said that 1 Corinthians 14 was difficult to understand because men in his day didn’t know what this gift of tongues was all about.[4] There is no record of the Reformers in the 15th and 16th centuries practicing tongues, or any other miraculous gift. This is particularly interesting since the Reformation was a significant work of God the Holy Spirit yet no gift of tongues.
It is also interesting that what is referred to as tongues today, namely an ecstatic utterance has also been seen in other, non-Christian contexts. Plato, Virgil, Pythonese, and the oracle at Delphi all referred to or spoke such speech. Mormons, Moslems, and Eskimos have experienced this phenomenon.[5]
What then is the “tongues” practiced today? I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know! Certainly, truly born again believers have experienced this phenomenon, but just as with miracles, and signs and wonders, it is difficult to find solid Scriptural foundation for it.
Conclusions:
1) The gift of tongues was a gift where a message of God’s judgment was given in a foreign language.
2) The message was intended to cause repentance on the part of the unbelieving hearer.
3) It was a gift expected to cease on its own early in church history.
4) It was not seen after the second century; not practiced in the Reformation.
5) Ecstatic speech is experienced in non-Christian contents.
Because of these conclusions, yet with some uncertainty, the gift of tongues is not included in the spiritual gift assessment survey explained in this book.
[1]The word “repent” (metanoeo) primarily means “to change one’s mind. See Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich and Danker, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 511-512. After discussing this primary meaning, Behm (Kittle, TDNT, 4:976-77) adds the nuance of “regret” and “remorse” once one recognizes an earlier opinion as foolish, improper or evil.
[2]The Greek to teleion can sometimes mean “mature” but in contrast to the “partial” being discussed it makes more sense that the common meaning of “completion” is best here. See Fee, First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 644-45.
[3]See Robert G. Gromacki, The Modern Tongues Movement, Presbyterian and Reformed, 1967, pp. 12-17.
[4]Commenting on 1Cor 12:1-2 he wrote, “This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer takes place.” Homilies on First Corinthians, translated and assembled by S. Clement (credit given to J. Ashworth), 1848, as found http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-12/.
[5] See William McRae, Dynamics of Spiritual Gifts, Lamplighter Books, 1976, p. 97.
