A critical evaluation of the nature of the gift of tongues : a patristic perspective

Abstract

Contemporary scholarship on Acts and 1 Corinthians often argues that passages that deal with the gift of tongues allow and even advocate for the gift of tongues as a devotional or prayer language. The works of the church fathers who discuss the gift of tongues reflect a different view on the nature of the gift of tongues. Most of the church fathers who speak to tongues identified the gift as a xenolalic manifestation, with a significant number either explicitly or by implication identifying the gift of tongues as the ability to speak all languages, a phenomenon referred to in this study as pan-xenolalia. Such a view holds implications for many related concepts, such as the interpretation of tongues and the tongues of angels. The question that begs asking is whether pan-xenolalia is a viable interpretive key to reading Acts and 1 Corinthians, and particularly 1 Corinthians 14. Though the comments of the church fathers cover several centuries and the body of work they left behind do not present a consensus view, an attempt is made to reconstruct a reading of 1 Corinthians 14 through a generalised patristic lens. Such a reconstruction may guide us towards a clearer understanding of early interpretation of the text in the light of their day’s tongues manifestations as well as traditions in the Early Church.