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Speaking in Tongues
Speaking in TonguesThe phenomenon of speaking in tongues during ecstatic religious experiences is also known as glossolalia, and began among the first Christians. Described in Acts 2:1–18, the Holy Spirit granted to the apostles the ability to speak in the languages of the foreigners who had assembled in Jerusalem for the observance of Pentecost. The visitors were amazed they could speak with them in their native language. While Holy Spirit allowed the apostles to converse suddenly in a foreign language, later references implied that glossolalia was a kind of religious ecstasy or unintelligible babbling. In I Corinthians, Paul lists the variety of spiritual gifts that might be received by Christians; he writes that one such blessing is the ability to interpret what another speaking in tongues might be saying. Paul states that those who speak in a tongue that only God can understand might well be pleasing themselves, but they deliver no edification to others in the church. He concludes that, if one speaks in unknown tongues and no one can interpret the speech, then "let him keep silence in the church and speak to himself and to God." Paul's denigration of the act of speaking in tongues set the standard for Christians down through the centuries. Various church fathers advised against the practice, and St. John of Chrysostom (c. 347–407) believed that the usefulness of glossolalia for the Christian ended in the first century. St. Augustine (354–430) denied that any special ability, such as speaking in tongues, prophesy, and so forth, proved one's faith. With the advent of the Protestant Reformation, leaders such as Martin Luther (1483–1546) dismissed glossolalia as unnecessary to the Christian faith. In the eighteenth century, however, certain new visionary sects, such as the Shakers and the Catholic Apostolic Church, began to consider speaking in tongues as one of the special gifts given to true believers. Then, in the early 1900s, Pentecostalism declared that "Spirit-baptism" brought with its indwelling power the ability to speak in tongues. In the 1960s, glossolalia became suddenly popular even among the more mainstream churches. While the movement spread in the 1970s, the position largely taken by the mainstream church bodies was that, while it may be legitimate gift from the Holy Spirit, glossolalia was hardly the normative expression for Christians and did not denote a superiority over those who did not practice it. However, today's approximately 500,000 practicing Pentecostals continue to believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring about a baptism of the spirit like that received by the apostles that enabled them to speak in tongues. Sources:dyer, luther b. tongues. jefferson city, mo.: le roi, 1971. rosten, leo. religions of america. new york: simon & schuster, 1975. sherrill, john l. they speak with other tongues. new york: pyramid books, 1965. |
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"Speaking in Tongues." Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Speaking in Tongues." Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3406300073.html "Speaking in Tongues." Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained. 2003. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3406300073.html |
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glossolalia
glossolalia [Gr.,=speaking in tongues], ecstatic utterances usually of unintelligible sounds made by individuals in a state of religious excitement. Religious revivals are often accompanied by manifestations of glossolalia, and various Pentecostal (see Pentecostalism ) movements cite for authority the Acts of the Apostles, which records that on the day of Pentecost the Apostles "were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability." There are other New Testament references to the phenomenon. The Corinthian believers overvalued the gift; Paul in 1 Corinthians encouraged the orderly use of the gift and "interpretation" of the utterance so that all might be edified. In Acts, however, the use of the gift produces speech in other human languages as a kind of reversal of the confusion of tongues produced at the Tower of Babel .
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"glossolalia." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "glossolalia." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-glossola.html "glossolalia." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-glossola.html |
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tongues, speaking in
tongues, speaking in The act of speaking, or singing, in a language incomprehensible to the speaker and the audience, familiar in times of intense religious emotion in Christian and non-Christian communities. It was experienced at Corinth (1 Cor. 12: 10) but Paul advised the Church not to stress this particular gift, also known by the term glossolalia. Love was the greatest gift, not the display of ecstatic utterance.
The events in the Upper Room at Pentecost (Acts 2) when the Spirit empowered the apostles, as also perhaps at Ephesus when Paul laid his hands on some converts (Acts 19: 6), suggest that the utterances were in foreign speech intelligible to the natives of those regions. There is evidence that at the end of the 17th cent. CE persecuted Huguenots in France spoke in foreign languages; but modern linguistic scholars have shown that the utterances spoken in tongues do not meet the criteria of what constitutes a natural human language. |
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W. R. F. BROWNING. "tongues, speaking in." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. W. R. F. BROWNING. "tongues, speaking in." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-tonguesspeakingin.html W. R. F. BROWNING. "tongues, speaking in." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-tonguesspeakingin.html |
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glossolalia
glossolalia Greek for ‘speaking in tongues’, one of the gifts to the Church in Paul's list (1 Cor. 12: 10) but scarcely encouraged by him (1 Cor. 14: 23) and not mentioned at all in another list (Rom. 12: 6–8). It may be the phenomenon at Pentecost (Acts 2: 4) when those in the upper room are said in a reversal of the confusion at Babel (Gen. 11: 1–9) to have uttered understandable foreign languages. There are indeed records of similar surprises later in the Church (e.g. among persecuted Huguenots in France) and among Muslims. When, however, linguistic experts have been able to taperecord speakers alleged to be uttering a new language in a state of religious enthusiasm, it has never been possible to identify the language or discern any grammar or structure.
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Cite this article
W. R. F. BROWNING. "glossolalia." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. W. R. F. BROWNING. "glossolalia." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-glossolalia.html W. R. F. BROWNING. "glossolalia." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-glossolalia.html |
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Glossolalia
Glossolalia (Gk., glossa, ‘tongue’, + lalia, ‘speaking’). ‘Speaking in tongues’, the phenomenon, common in many religions, of a person speaking in words or word-like sounds which form a language unknown to the speaker. Related phenomena are xenoglossolalia, speaking in a foreign language unknown to the speaker but known to the hearer; and heteroglossolalia, speaking in a language known to the speaker which the hearer hears in his/her own language.
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Cite this article
JOHN BOWKER. "Glossolalia." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN BOWKER. "Glossolalia." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Glossolalia.html JOHN BOWKER. "Glossolalia." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Glossolalia.html |
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glossolalia
glossolalia. Speaking in ‘tongues’, a form of ecstatic speech, sometimes believed to be supernaturally initiated. Glossolalia was a common phenomenon in NT times (cf. Acts 10: 46; 1 Cor. 14). What most authorities believe to be a similar or identical experience has been encountered in many religious revivals and plays a prominent part in modern Pentecostalism and in the Charismatic Renewal Movement.
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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "glossolalia." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "glossolalia." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-glossolalia.html E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "glossolalia." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-glossolalia.html |
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Glossolalia
GlossolaliaA form of religious speech generally called "speaking in tongues" or "pseudo-tongues." It is also occasionally confused with xenoglossis, which refers to speaking in tongues unknown to the medium or psychic. |
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Cite this article
"Glossolalia." Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Glossolalia." Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3403801942.html "Glossolalia." Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. 2001. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3403801942.html |
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glossolalia
glossolalia the phenomenon of (apparently) speaking in an unknown language, especially in religious worship. It is practised especially by Pentecostal and charismatic Christians.
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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "glossolalia." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "glossolalia." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-glossolalia.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "glossolalia." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-glossolalia.html |
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