Speaking in Tongues

Part 11
“Tough I speak with the tongues of men and of angels”, is the way the apostle Paul begins the 13th chapter of Corinthians as the Holy Spirit inspired him to write. Paul is not talking about a”language of the spirit”, nor “another language of man”, nor was he talking about a “heavenly language, spoken around the Throne of God in Heaven” as the Pentecostal purveyors of false doctrine teach. Those ‘men’ and ‘angels’ were preachers and prophets inspired by the apostle, who, having had an apostle lay hands on them, could speak the “mysteries of God”. Those of Corinth had a passion for speakers and held the speaker in very high esteem. Those who could speak got the “big head” and began to like to “hear themselves” and so spoke for the glory of themselves and not God. This, like speaking by the power of Satan HAD to stop! Paul had addressed this problem in the Philippian church when he wrote: “Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of good will. The one preach of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds.” Philippians 1:14-18 There were other problems that had arisen; Satan had caused some to profess Christ as accursed because He hung on the tree. 1 Corinthians 12:1-3 Interpreters assigned to qualify the message were doing nothing.1 Corinthians 14:29 Their job had been relegated to nothingness because of the great love of the hearing the speaker. THEN, Paul, IN THE 8TH verse starts to instruct us as to WHEN these gifts would CEASE!!
He begins with a premise not seen by some: the message is permanent; the way it will be delivered will change!! Let me state what is obvious to all who know me, but not so obvious to others: I am not interested in perpetuating any traditions which are not scriptural. As a matter of fact, I prefer to shatter traditions with the sledge hammer of the Truth, so men can be FREE!! John 8:32 We will understand the idea of truth by the text and NOT strive to understand the text by what I think is truth!! Paul, by the Holy Spirit, begins by telling us that the knowing and prophesying of verse 8 will be set aside BECAUSE another source (ek, the word used in the Greek language described the manner of means by which the message would be delivered) A better source was to come---a complete source---not just what the apostle had who had laid hands on the prophets and preachers. What is not seen by the casual observer is that the gifts of prophecy and inspired knowledge produced ONLY LIMITED PIECES OF DIVINE REVELATION!! The WHOLE REVELATION of God’s will was to come; they at that time DID NOT HAVE IT ALL! “When that which was perfect (Greek word, teleios, meaning complete, final), was come, then that which was partial (Greek words ek merous—meaning out of a part) would cease. Paul did not know what Peter had written; James had not read what Paul had written---not knowing, the apostles ONLY KNEW what they had been inspired to write unless they had obviously mentioned such in their writings!! 2 Peter 3:16 The partial methods to bring the message to man would become UNNECESSARY!! Glory, if that was what men sought, would be to the MESSAGE, and not the MESSENGER as originally intended!! Another thing very interesting is that in verse 9 ‘tongues’ were not mentioned. Paul did not need to explain why they would give way to something BETTER as he did with knowledge and prophecy because ‘tongues’ were not GOING TO BE REPLACED, when the need for them had passed!! When would that something BETTER COME? Verse 10 begins with a contrast. It begins with something permanent, not something in piece-meal fashion. It begins with the word (de) which introduces a contrast.

 

Part 12
“When that which is perfect is come, then that which in part shall be done away.” The literal translation from the Greek is interesting, here: “but when the whole (thing) comes, the thing (miracles, tongues, and prophecies) will be set aside.” Note again the phrase “out of a part” (ek merous) appears in verse 10 and verse 9. The “out of a part” speaks about the piecemeal source, hence, out of a part, and refers to knowledge and speech. Tongues and knowledge never gave the inspired, the WHOLE of Revelation on any subject. The “inspired spokesman” NEVER had all the PARTS to the puzzle!! This phrase is translated in the RSV version as imperfect. The word perfect-(complete, final, and fulfilled) stands in direct contrast with the words out of a part (piece). So, within its context, the only proper way the word perfect in verse 10 can be rendered is whole or complete (instead of perfect). It is here the opposite of partial. It means whole.
Then, what is the whole (perfect) or complete thing of verse 10? It is the TOTAL of the “put-together pieces” spoken of in verse 9! Or, when all the “put-together pieces” have been given, the WHOLE of Revelation is complete and the ‘parts’ would no longer be considered!! Each apostle had a ‘part’ of the Revelation of God’s Mystery, WHEN each HAD BEEN given; the whole of Revelation was complete. Inspired to give their ‘part’ of the WHOLE, each apostle added to the other apostle’s writings, giving us “all things that pertain to life and Godliness”. The “why” of verse 9, why were there tongues, prophecies, and knowledge, having been answered, Paul now gives the WHEN these ‘parts’ will cease!! The apostles were the ONLY MEN empowered to write.
Before we leave verse 9, we had better take a look at the three possible meanings of the word translated perfect (teleious). Perfect is something without flaw. Perfect is something entirely together. Perfect is something which has reached its goal, it is totally complete. Now, which is the translation in verse 10? Often I have encountered those who think the ‘perfect’ of verse 10 is the Lord of Glory, Christ our older brother. Perfect is in the neuter gender, a ‘thing’, not a being; Christ was of masculine gender, a MAN.
The little word “for” (gar) is a very important word. This is a word which introduces an explanation or a reason for the preceding statement. Verse 9 GIVES THE REASON for saying that prophecies and knowledge will be replaced. The literal translation is this—“For we are (now) knowing from a part (a piece at a time) and we are (now) prophesying from a part, BUT when the whole strategy (Revelation) is complete, the ‘part’ (a piece-at-a-time) will be divorced.” The RSV translation translates it this way: “Our knowing is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect”, it is too ambiguous and is not helpful, for there are things we can never clearly understand if this is all we will ever have given. (Remember, the word the RSV translates imperfect is our two Greek words ek merous. Every time the New Testament uses the phrase “out of a part” {ek merous} or from a part {apo merous}, it refers to a state of incompletion—a partial situation which needs to be completed, See Romans 11:25, 15:15 ,24; 2 Corinthians 1:14; 2:5 ).
During the early days of the church, God gave to various persons special gifts for the purpose of equipping His church with His Law. Among these gifts were knowledge and prophecies directly inspired by the Holy Spirit. These gifts were given to CURB subjectivity. Many were claiming to have a word from God. To curb this each man received just a ‘part’ of God’s total revelation; this was NEVER intended to last. The time would come when ALL WOULD BE PUT TOGETHER, BE WHOLE.

 

Part 13
To curb the confusion of all members of the body in Corinth and other Gentile congregations, the Holy Spirit directed the apostles to ‘lay hands’ on others Christians who would discern, judge, interpret what had been said. Corinth had a particular problem in that they held the interpreters in low esteem and did not give them hearing when a popular tongue speaker addressed the congregation. The interpreters had taken a “back-seat” and some in Corinth had called Jesus “accursed” during a public worship service!! 1 Corinthians 12:1-4 Because of this, the Holy Spirit DEMANDED those who spoke had an interpreter at the time of speaking and the interpreter reveal the message delivered! 1 Corinthians 14:27 Another thing done was the division of information. Each man received just a part of the Revelation. God gave to one man this part, to another, another. The apostle Paul recognized that the inspired knowledge and speaking of selected individuals was partial-a word from God here, and a word from God there and it was revealed to him that these partial revelations would not go on forever!! There would come a time when the pieces (parts, merous) would be put together!! When that happened, men would get their knowledge and speech about God’s revelation from the whole (telios) because the parts would have been done away with!! The whole would be FAR MORE beneficial to the student of the Word. For the first time it would ALL make sense. Therefore, the inspired knowledge and prophecy pf verse 8 which is from a partial source (verse) 9 will give way (be set aside) when a better source comes—the whole, the perfect (verse 10). Remember: tongues, themselves would just completely disappear, cease, stop!! As a matter of fact, church history shows that tongues did cease even BEFORE the writing of the New Testament was entirely finished!! I Timothy 4:1
In verse 10 we run into the word perfect. It can refer to nothing other than the completed “mystery” of God. Paul often speaks of God’s revelation as a mystery. That was a military word of the first century which meant the overall strategy of a general. Here’s the way it was used: Before a battle, a general would call in his leaders and give to each one a different order. Each then had a piece of the total strategy. Each would pass this on to the men of his charge who were to fulfill it. Often this was done without necessarily knowing that the other pieces were in existence. Men under different leaders were getting different pieces depending upon their part of the Battle-plan. After the battle was won, the general would call all his leaders together and explain to them the pieces of his battle plan so that each saw the total strategy. The combination of the PIECES PUT TOGETHER was called the “mystery” (musterion). The role of God’s church is to let all men see the total (put together) plan of God’s musterion. Ephesians 3:8-10 Before God’s new plan was put together, it existed in pieces because He, like the commander, gave certain pieces to various apostles and those on whom they laid hands. Paul wrote that later the possessors of the parts would have explained to them the whole. Until the whole was, the part gave the possessor only THEIR part of the battle plan!! That strategy (musterion) is OUR NEW TESTAMENT!!!
When the whole came, the parts were to be absorbed into the whole like a child is changed into the adult!! Verse 11. To see the whole is to see how all the parts interrelate. It is to see the outline and details clearly. That is what Paul is saying in verse 12. “We now see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” He explains his meaning in the next verse, which parallels exactly. That is, I see in a mirror dimly equals I now know out of parts (ek merous), and then face to face equals understand fully!!

 

Part 14
The word perfect of verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 13 refers to nothing other than the completed mystery of God. The word mystery is a concept not a thing. Mystery was a military word of the first century which meant overall strategy or battle plan devised by the general in charge of the conflict by which he intended to win the conflict. It was given to his officers by himself in pieces, each would pass this along to his troops under his command who were charged to fulfill their role exactly as detailed, no field improvisation was allowed!! After the battle was over, the general would call his junior officers together to explain their part in the victory so they could understand his battle plan and learn thereby. This combination of pieces put together was called “mystery”, not the mystery, not “a” mystery, but it was a thing. Musterion is our New Testament.
In Psalms 24 we see Jesus going back to the Ancient of Days, where in Daniel 7:13-14 we see Him brought near before Him. When Jesus went back, He went back to marshall an Army, return to this world and launch an attack!! The Psalmist speaks of it this way: ”Lift up your heads oh ye gates, be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in.” The cry comes as a refrain, “Who is this King of glory? The answer is responded; “The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.” Described as “mighty in battle” the Hebrew means to describe a King who has gathered a force and is set to attack with valor. Christ went back to Heaven to marshall His forces and attack. We know the battle plan for we have the book of Acts to relate it to us. On the day of Pentecost, AD 33 at 9:00am, the Trumpet sounded. A trumpet was always to announce an attack!! The apostles were waiting in Jerusalem as told them by Jesus. The commander-in-chief of the ground forces that day was the Holy Spirit and He had twelve generals, apostles who had been baptized by Christ to be the bearers of that mystery. The operation was completed before the forces of the Evil One knew they had been attacked. A multitude of Jews heard the cry that came from Heaven, “repent and be baptized for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” That first attack saw 3,000 pass through the waters of baptism, and on that first day of the attack there were ground soldiers added to the Church of Christ who were determined to carry this message to all the world, and have NEVER EVER heard the sound to retreat, since!!!
At the moment of attack, some perceived this to be another sect of Judaism, but soon, they learned this was intended of God to REPLACE the Jew as the “chosen” of God and the message to “whosoever will” became a reality because as many Gentiles became members of this elite fighting force as there were Jews. The apostles spoke “as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance”; soon there number was 5,000, then we are told their number was beyond counting!! “Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? Saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut to womb?” Isaiah 66:8-12
The role of God’s fighting forces,His church, was made known by one of the generals that was not present that day. Its role was “to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which was hidden from the Jews. The “beginning of the world” was not the beginning of time, it was the beginning of the promise by Christ to Abraham for a special race, age of the promises, Colossians 1:26, not cosmos, but the world to which it applied!

Part 15
All the apostles had their part of the “mystery”, God’s divine strategy to present Jesus Christ to the world as an alternative to death and separation for eternity. The combination of the pieces, put together, is called the New Testament. It is the role of God’s church to “make all men see what is the fellowship (sharing to bring about a desired end) of the “mystery that had been hid in God”, it is OUR job to “preach the gospel to every creature”.
When the WHOLE came, the PARTS were absorbed into the whole like a child is changed into the adult, verse 11. To see the whole is to see how all the parts interrelate. It is to see the outline and details clearly!! That is what Paul is saying in verse 12. “We now see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” He explains his meaning in the next sentence, which parallels exactly. Than is, “I see in a mirror dimly” or “I know out of parts”, or ek merous, and then face to face, or “I know even as also I am known”.
“Face to face” does not require us to think of standing in the Lord’s presence after the resurrection of the saints. It may be a vivid expression of the wholeness and clarity of revelation which would be available after the completed Word of God made prophesying unnecessary!! There is one other time I recall the expression “face to face” mentioned. God was said to have spoken to Moses “face to face”. Exodus 33:11 yet, when Moses ask to see God, he was told, “Thou canst not see My face; for man shall not see Me and live.” Exodus 33:17-20 We often do not realize how full and intimate a knowledge of God has been given to us in His word. “Henceforth, I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what His Lord doeth: but I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of My Father, I have made known unto you.” John 15:15
Then there is the reference to a mirror. Paul says he looks into a mirror (a glass darkly). This refers to a partial look, not a clear look. The outline may be seen, but not any clear details. In the first century, the only mirrors available were polished metals. Polished metal NEVER allowed as clear or full a view as looking directly with the eyes!! So the term “look into a mirror” was commonly used to refer to a partial knowledge! The apostle James declared, James 1:23-25 “But who looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deeds.” Paul also wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image form glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”. 2 Corinthians 3:18 Anyone looking into a mirror of the first century COULD NOT get all the details, it required a putting together of the pieces, THEN Revelation would be “face to face”. That is our way of saying we see something clearly-to see from a correct or holistic perspective so that both outline and details can be seen!! By the way, that is exactly what the Holy Spirit had Paul write next! ”Then I shall know, even as I am known.” Clarification did not wait long, Paul declared, “then I shall know fully”. What was Paul to “fully know”? The total strategy of God!! As the captains came to know fully the General’s plan after he put all the pieces together for them, so Paul as well as ourselves, could know God’s completed, WHEN THE GENTILES WERE BROUGHT INTO BODY OF CHRIST!! Ephesians 3:1-8 To put it another way; God would cease all operations WHEN the Gentiles had entered the Kingdom. Another way? God would stop tongues, knowledge, prophesying WHEN the ‘other sheep’ from another fold were brought in!! Do you not reject God’s strategy IF you speak in tongues?

Part 16
“Faith, hope, and love abide.” These will abide after the perfect had come. The perfect in verse 10 cannot refer to the 2nd coming of Christ because when that happens, our faith will be turned into sight and our hope into reality!! The gender of “perfect” (teleios) in verse 10 is neuter. It could NEVER mean the Lord of Glory for He was always and is always referred to as a male in gender. To suggest that Paul would use this form of the word to speak of His Lord is wrong. It would depersonalize Jesus. In fact, Paul is fond of speaking of Jesus as God; and especially so in this letter He refers to Christ and God some 20 times in the first 9 verses of 1 Corinthians, and he knows how to speak about the 2nd coming in a clear way (see chapter 1:7). God is called perfect in Matthew 5:48, but the gender is masculine!!! To change the gender from masculine to neuter is to say “a perfect thing” instead of a “perfect Being”. Every other time the word perfect appears in the New Testament, it appears in the neuter gender, it refers to a non-personal thing, and twice it is used to refer to the will or law of God (see Romans 12:2and James 1:25). This is not unusual for God’s revelation to be called perfect.
The perfect in verse 10 in its present context can only refer to God’s completed revelation which had come from pieces to men here and there, but was later put together into a whole!! When that happened, the piecemeal source for inspired knowledge and prophecy will have been set aside by being absorbed into the whole. To understand perfect in another way is to say that inspired knowledge and prophecies from pieces (ek merous) are valid in the church, today!! That would mean we have no absolute, completed revelation from God!! Church history reveals that the church of the first three centuries rejected that kind of thinking and stood on the fact of completed information from God at the cost of their lives!!
One of the arguments used to support tongue-speaking by the religious, today, is to say that the perfect in 1 Corinthians 13:8 refers to the second coming of Christ. One reason, I think for this position is the appearance of the word translated know full in verse 12. The thought is that the phrase means to entirely understand all things and since that cannot happen in this life, the perfect must refer to the second coming of the Lord.
What does the phrase “know fully” mean? The word translated “know fully” is epiginosko. This is a compound of the verb ginosko and the prefix epi. Ginosko simply means know. It is the most common word-root for the verb know and the noun knowledge in the Bible. The difference between this common word and the word used in 1 Corinthians 13:12 is a prepositional prefix epi which, when used alone, means upon. When used this way, a preposition prefixed to a Greek verb, it intensifies the action of that verb. When we read where this word is used in the New Testament, we discover that the word is used interchangeably with the simple form ginosko. The interchangeableness of these two words is even more clearly seen in the parallel accounts of the Gospels. While one account will have ginosko, its parallel Gospel will have epiginosko (that is no problem since both words meant exactly the same thing in the 1st century)!!
What about tongues? They merely stopped---showing they were not as significant as knowledge and prophecy. Is this to deny the power of God?? NO. It is merely to accept the strategy God had outlined from the beginning of time to make His power known to all generations for all time!!

Part 17
There are some Pentecostals who like to make a play on the Greek word we discussed last week, epiginosko. The take the position that this word cannot mean knowledge that happens in this life, it must be the knowledge that would await Heaven. Paul uses this word in 1 Corinthians 13:12 to speak of knowledge to be obtained or that it is already obtained in this life. I will cite a few instances where the word epiginosko is used in the Greek text and you can see for yourself that in none of these cases it means to “know completely”. In Romans 1:32 Paul by the Spirit writes: “Who knowing the judgment of God…” There is NO way those who Paul describes can have the full, eternal, overwhelming knowledge. In 1 Corinthians 14:37, again, Paul writes by the direction of the Holy Spirit, “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith…” Hebrews 10:26. “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins…”. One more, “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.” 1 Timothy 4:3.
These usages (and a host of others) suggest that the word in 1 Corinthians 13:12 does NOT refer to something to be obtained ONLY in Heaven. Epiginosko is a common word to refer to knowledge which can be obtained here on earth. The Holy Spirit NEVER MEANT Paul nor any saint would KNOW everything fully, for that matter ANYTHING of God can no man know fully!!
To suggest that the compound epiginosko is more FULL OR COMPLETE knowledge than the simple ginosko is to overlook the additional fact that the simple form is the normal word used to speak about the knowledge that Jesus and God have!! Matthew 6:3, 7:23, 10:26, 12:15, 15:33 plus hundreds of other places (the Gospels are full of them), all show the commonness of this word.
There is no linguistic evidence that I know of and even less Biblical evidence that will allow any of us to think we will EVER know as much as God knows about anything!! That does away with the eternal qualitative and quantitative difference between God and His creatures. Why need God in Heaven if we will there have His complete knowledge of everything?? That temptation got the first people into trouble in Eden, it will not get those of us who advance to that sublime degree!! We will praise, honor, and glorify the only One who has complete knowledge ---forever and ever, there!!
The Holy Spirit used a good illustration for that century. To look into a polished metal (1st century mirrors were polished metal instead of silvered glass) was not to see in proper perspective. It was to see as a child sees. This is compared to looking at God’s revelation from the piecemeal sources from which revelation was coming at that time. But when the completion is done, then we can look to His revelation directly, face to face!! It must be mentioned here that to see the self completely, face to face from a face to face look, is not yet to see the self completely!! There’s still part of the real self that cannot be seen in any mirror!! I have known studied brethren who always seemed to have a superior knowledge for which we all strive knowing the path to their information leads through the same door of study as has every diligent student of the scriptures. I cannot find that 1 Corinthians 13: 12 suggest a complete or full knowledge. The Greek word used does not suggest a kind of knowledge which cannot be obtained in this life.

Part 18
Much has been written by our brethren on the subject of tongues in the New Testament; however, few writers deal with the most elementary research—the meaning and use of the Greek word translated into English as tongue or tongues. The Greek word for tongue is glossa. Glossolalia is the most common translated word for tongues and it is a combination of two words glossa, tongue, and lalia, speaking. Glossalalia literally means tongue-speaking. When we search the Old and New Testaments for the usage of the words in question, the Greek Bible reveals glossa is used about 100 times and in only two ways. One, it is used to describe a member of our anatomy (the tongue); secondly, it is used to mean the known language of a known people. It is very important to note that the Holy Spirit used Paul to refer to tongues as a KNOWN language of a known people in 1 Corinthians 14:21. Not ONCE in the Old Testament is it used to refer to an ecstatic, supra-human language from a higher order of beings, angels. In the New Testament the word glossa means the same and NEVER refers to some ecstatic or supra-human language!!
When first used in Acts 2 the thing I find most amusing is that ecstatic utterances would have hardly been a sign because many pagan religions were practicing such in the first century—Dionysius, Phrygia, Bacides, Cybele, and even some sects of the Jews were practicing ecstatic utterances as early as the 5th century BEFORE Christ came to this Earth!! Men, on the birthdate of the Church of Christ on this planet, would not have been amazed to hear ecstatic utterances; they were common among the primitive pagan religions of that day!! (See The Greeks and the Irrational by E.R. Dodds and Possessions by T.K. Oesterreich) Glossa is used in Acts 2:11, 10:46, and 19:6. In Acts 2:3, 4, 11, and 26 glossa is used as dialect. In verse 8, the Greek word dialektos (the language of a nation) is used interchangeably with glossa in verse 11. Verse 8; “And how is it that we hear each of us in his own dialektos.” Verse 11; “We hear them telling in our own glossa.” How is this word used in the letters to the Corinthians?
First, let me state that the word unknown which appears in many translations absolutely does NOT appear in the original Greek!! Boy! Does this blow their bubble!! 1 Corinthians 12:10 and 28, refer to ‘various kinds’. Reading the book of Genesis we find a “kind” referred to a family or genealogy. Could Paul determine which ‘family, race, or part of the world’ a member of his audience was by their dialect IF TO HIM THEIR LANGUAGE WAS UNKNOWN? If you could not know because the language was unknown, how could you know that which you did and could not know—the LANGUAGE WAS UNKNOWN!! Remember, I have been to Disney World. I can pick out some I have heard over and over, but the new stuff that I have never heard, I cannot begin to tell you which continent they emanated from much less what country. I have a new one for the Pentecostals. Let them tell us what continent, country, and state strangers in their midst are from instead of lying about what diseases, cancers, or growths they are suppose have!! I have heard these lying preachers tell their audience they were “told” by the Holy Spirit that they had someone in their midst that had Ovarian Cancer. I was not sure if they knew what this even was but they went on to say God told them they would HEAL them that night!! My wife and I have a game. When we go to a restaurant and get a waitress with a strange dialect we both try and guess what country, state, or part of a state they are from. Spanish(?) forget it, we would not know HOW to tell if they were from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Spain or ???? Part 19
Hermeneutics is a word translated from the Greek word hermeneuo. The word means to interpret. The word is used to mean to translate words from one known language into another known language. In John 1:38 the scriptures state: “Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and said unto them, ‘What seek you’? They say unto Him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest Thou? Verse 42 shows the same instruction: “And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, He said, ‘Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas,’ which is by interpretation, A stone. You can see this in John 9:7, Hebrews 7:2, and Acts 9:36. There is only one place this is used to mean something else and that is in Luke 24:27 where the scriptures say: “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Here, it is used to explain the content-meaning from one known language into the same known language! Never is the word used in the Bible to mean to interpret an unknown language INTO A KNOWN LANGUAGE!!
The word hermeneuo used with glossa shows the truth that Paul’s subject in 1 Corinthians 14 is a KNOWN foreign language which is translatable. “For he that speaketh in tongues speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.” It is nonsensical to think someone could understand what the brother was saying IF no one, anywhere, or in some language could understand him. So the brother’s message could be checked out by many who KNEW the language in which he spoke. In this passage the glossa was a KNOWN tongue and was not used to speak about some language which had not been discovered, or was being used in isolation.
Some have cited 1 Corinthians 13:1 to relate to something not of this world, the tongues of angels. One first has to question IF angels, spiritual-non-bodied beings, have a language in which they speak?? Angels as used here and in many other places (the context has to decide) are God’s messengers, men, who are preachers of the Gospel. See Revelation 2:1, 12, 3:1,7,14 also Galatians 1:6, Hebrews 1:4,7, and 14. MAN WAS COMMANDED TO ‘GO INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL’, NEVER A SPIRIT-BEING CALLED AN ANGEL!! When those who are Spirit Beings which are also called angels were used of God to communicate a special message, as far as I can read, these Beings ALWAYS spoke in the language of the men or women to which the communicated the message!! Also, one has to assume angels, spirit-beings HAVE physical bodies and these bodies INCLUDE vocal cords, tongues, and mouths with which to express words; hence a language!! I know some of those Pentecostal pastors know more than what the Word of God teaches (or to hear them lie about it), BUT do those spirit-beings called Angels NEED to speak to each other?? THEN, we would have to PROVE these non-bodied, spirit beings have a NEED to communicate with higher spirit beings called Arch angels, or the Godhead, itself!! Every time a Spirit communicated to man or woman they had already theophanized, that is taken upon themselves a temporary, physical form!! Then again, it is assumed that the tongues of angels are SUPERIOR to the tongues of men and since these tongues are UNKNOWN who could prove that??

Part 20
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels.” If angels speak, in what language do they speak? There are, as I know of them from the Scriptures, four classifications of angelic beings (spirit beings without physical or mortal bodies). These are cherubim’s, seraphim’s, mighty angels, and angels. Does each classification of angelic being speak in their own particular tongue? Are they bilingual? In their own form of existence, can angels even speak to man?? What would be the need? What would man need to learn, know, or have information given him by angels? The Gospel was/is to be preached by MAN!! We know they are male in gender, as is God, and we know they do not pro-create, die, nor remain as they are now after the resurrection. Our translations of the Scripture are so confusing because of the trans-literation (the use of a Greek word in the English language) of the Greek noun angeles that most people who read of them don’t know of what they are reading. Every one who bears the message of the gospel is an angel!! This was the member of the church Christ addressed in the book of Revelation!!
What if the Arch-angels speak in a tongue almost as sophisticated as does the Godhead? What if the seraphims speak in a language that has a lower form and distinction than the cherubim’s? Are the mighty angels cherubim or seraphim? If we know not which, we will never know the language (if such exist) in which they speak!! Do angels speak as man speaks or do they speak in language that is spiritual as God speaks to God, since none that are God have physical bodies? Romans 8:26-27, John 11:38, John 12:28-30 When Jesus heralded the command “let there be light” from the origin of the morning of the first day, in what language did He speak?
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels”, Paul is comparing the language to the practice and use men make of communication, not the spirit-beings who have no physical anatomy (or at least that we have been told about!!, neither do angels have any use for language (or at least that we have been told).
This verse, 1 Corinthians 13:1, meets the demand of the context and discussion the apostle was having with the Corinthian congregation; for he was writing about spiritual gifts of which speaking in tongues was one. It is also true that the apostle was defending his position as “father” of their spiritual position “in Christ”. 1 Corinthians 4:14-15 Defending his position as their spiritual mentor, he was sending a message to Apollos not to put himself in a place where he defied God, verse 6. A father provides for his own because of instinctive “love”, Apollos, not having that instinctive “love”, would be speaking from a different heart. Apollos would demand the Corinthians compensation-Paul worked to provide for his necessities, Apollos had not the care of a father for his children, Paul longed after them as beloved sons. 1 Corinthians 4:15 Paul would have that agape love (a love of a father for his children, see 1 Timothy 5:8) where Apollos would have that phileo love as described in John 21:15-22 Listen to Paul’s correspondence as given him by the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 4:6-7; “And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transfigured to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which written, that no one of you be puffed up (love vaunted not itself, is not easily puffed up, 1 Corinthians 13:4) for one against another (“I am of Paul, I am of Cephas, I am of Apollos”). For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?”

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