What is praying in tongues?

 

…if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. (1 Corinthians 14:14)

The context of this verse is instruction to the church of Corinth on how to behave as a collective.  The word translated as ‘tongue’ is γλῶσσα glossa ‘language’ which means it is not a meaningless set of sounds but a structured speech with the purpose of communication.

Paul goes onto say this:

What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.  If anyone speaks in a tongue, two – or at the most three – should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret.  If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God.  (ibid 14:26-28)

It is clear that when the newly converted Corinthians came together in worship, it was chaos; worse, it was literally unedifying.

It perhaps worth noting that it is in this passage we have perhaps one of the worst mistranslations of all, that women should be ‘silent’, when in the context of the whole chapter σιγάω sigaó means ‘to keep one’s peace’, to be ‘under rule’.

Clearly the whole church was ‘unruly’ and required to ‘keep quiet’; Paul was calling for headship not silencing women (ibid 14:35)

Praying in tongues is therefore under the same injunction as praying in any language:

‘And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.  But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words… (Matthew 6:5-7)

Babbling is not Godly.

Paul is saying that if you pray in tongues out loud it must be for the benefit of others and without interpretation there can be no benefit.  He is talking then of prophecy:

For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.  But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.  Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church.  I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified.  (ibid 14:2-5)

Paul therefore makes a distinction between the private and public utterance.  But he does realise there are times when words can fail:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.  (Romans 8:26-27)

Clearly, prayer does not require words when it is private petition, especially as God (the Father) ‘knows what you need before you ask him’ (Matthew 6:8).  If the Spirit intercedes is this praying in tongues the same as praying in the Spirit? Paul tells the believers of Ephesus to:

…pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.  (Ephesians 6:18)

This suggests that while praying in tongues is necessarily in the Spirit, ‘praying on all occasions’ is broader set as this would include our prayes using one’s mother-tongue, not just that of heavenly tongue reserved for the Heavenly Father.

Other confusion arises when praying in tongues is conflated with speaking in tongues. Luke records the wonderful events of the Pentecost just ten days after Jesus’ ascension.  The disciples have gathered in Jerusalem, as Pentecost or שָׁבוּעוֹת Shavout (Weeks) was a pilgrim festival, that required them to present themselves at the Temple:

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.  Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.  When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.  (Acts 2:4-6)

Luke then lists that the native language of fifteen peoples and location from all over the ancient world was heard from the lips of the ‘Galileans’; from Crete to Mesopotamia and Egypt to Rome.  But as praying in tongues requires interpretation, and the disciples were clearly understood, this is different.

This then is a reversal of God’s curse to confound the building of the Tower of Babel.  In effect, this miracle had is a form of enacted parable.  The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised, thus enable dissemination of the Gospel, in order that disciples might make other disciples of all nations, as the Great Commission commands (Matthew 28:19).

Some have asserted that the Greek (Koine or Alexandrian Greek) of the New Testament was a sacred and heavenly tongue itself. Perhaps, if we recall that κοινὴ koine, means ‘common or commonplace’, and Koine Greek was the language of barter and trade, quite distinct from classical Greek of Homer.  There is no doubt that the Holy Spirit set the conditions that with the Roman Empire and the lingua franca of Koine Greek, the Gospel could spread throughout the known world – it even reached the bleak outpost of the British Isles within a few years of Jesus’ death.

Praying in tongues is then a specific and private activity.  It is not a badge of spirituality, nor it is a requirement in order to pray in the Spirit; moreover, in this strict sense, it is not a gift, for gifts are specifically given for the building up of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 14:12).