What does speak in tongues mean?

Question

A passage in the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 14, talks a little about it.

Answer 1

Read the first couple of chapters of Acts and study up on the Holy Spirit. It explains it much better than I could.

Answer 2

It means to speak in a another language or languages by the power of the Holy Spirit. This phenomenon is first mentioned in the 2nd chapter of Acts. On the day of Pentecost there was a rushing of wind and tongues of fire settled on the heads of Jesus' disciples. They began speaking in at least 13 different languages.

Some also believe that speaking in tongues means to speak in a special language while praying in the spirit.

Answer 3

The techincal definition is this: When the spirit of God overtakes you and you start speaking in a language that you do not know nor have you ever studied (most of the time when this happens it is usually one of the dead languages such as Latin or Ancient Araibic)
Now sometimes when this happens someone else in the church or wherever this is happening at will claim to be given the gift of "understanding" and be able to translate what is being said!
I was taken to a penicostal church when I was younger and this would happen quite a bit. My main question about this whole practice is why is it always done in the language of the time of Jesus hasnt God learned English by now? (That question was not to be sarcastic that was a question I would ask as a 11 year old when I first started to question religion)

Answer 4

'Talking in tongues' can refer to a Christian:
(a) talking a heavenly unknown language (Pentecostal translation. They place alot of emphasis on it.) OR
(b) talking in an unknown/foriegn (yet recognizeable "earthly" ) language...that you have not learned

It's useless unless someone else is there to interpret. I would interpret it as both - Even though I'm NOT Pentecostal...I've never spoken in tongues - which is one of many of the Spiritual gifts...(My Spiritual gift is not talking in tongues)

*Pentecostals also sometimes refer to it as the "Baptism of the Spirit" (Again, I don't personally understand it as that. Contradicts scripture. Read 1 Corinthians 12: 4 -11)

Answer 5

The correct meaning is taken from the greek word Glossalia which means different language. The Bible states that the Apostles were given the ability to speak and interpret different languages of different nationalities. The INCORRECT view is that speaking in tongues is some mystical thing you do when you are saved. It is not some heavenly language that only God or the angels know. If you don't speak a language that another person understands you don't speak in tongues.

Answer 6

Definitions of "speaking in tongues":
The term "speaking in tongues" has been used to describe two very different phenomena:

Glossolalia: This is the most commonly meaning of "speaking in tongues." This term is derived from two Greek words: glõssai, which means "tongues" or "languages," and lalien which means "to speak." It is observed in some tribal religions and within some Christian denominations, notably Charismatics, Latter-day Saints (sometimes called Mormons) in the past, 1 and Pentecostals. One source claims that Atheists and Agnostics have also spoken in tongues. 2
Another source defines it as "a phenomenon of intense religious experience expressing itself in ecstatic speech." 3
Still another source comments: "To the outsider, hearing someone speaking in 'tongues' is like hearing so much gibberish. ..Glossolalia is the common prayer speech heard at Pentecostal churches." 4
The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on the Bible defines glossolalia as: "the ecstatic utterance of emotionally agitated religious persons, consisting of a jumble of disjointed and largely unintelligible sounds. Those who speak in this way believe that they are moved directly by a divine spirit and their utterance is therefore quite spontaneous and unpremeditated." 5

A person speaking in tongues is typically in a state of religious ecstasy and is often unable to understand the words that she/he is saying.

Most Christians who speak in tongues believe that they are speaking in an existing language. However, it is not similar to any known human tongue. Many speculate that it is a heavenly tongue. i.e. a language spoken by angels or by God, and does not correspond to any human language. It was seen frequently in the church at Corinth in the 1st century CE. It was experienced rarely during the history of Christianity until the 20th century when it became quite common.

Xenoglossia: (a.k.a. Zenolalia, Xenoglossia) This is the ability to spontaneously speak a foreign language without first having learned it, or even been exposed to it. This term is also derived from two Greek words: Xenos, which means "foreign" or "foreigner", and glõssai, which means "tongues" or "languages." An event in which an individual who knows only English, has never been exposed to any other language, and who suddenly starts to speak in fluent Swahili would be an example of Xenoglossia. Stories of xenoglossia are well known, particularly within the Pentecostal movement and psychic research. E. D. O'Connor describes some cases.
Another source claims that "no scientifically attested case of zenolalia has come to light." 6
Still another writer states that essentially all claims of xenoglossia are hoaxes. He claims that only one credible case has ever surfaced: that of a "Jewish woman who slipped into another personality" during hypnosis who was able to speak in Swedish

Answer 7

In the bible, all speaking in tongues meant was literally speaking another language, by means of holy spirit, this is how they were able to preach to other people of a different language. Now god does not do this anymore, so now when people speak in tongues, they just mumble a lot of nothing and it's demonic. e-mail me if you have any other genuine questions!

Answer 8

In the bible, the 'gift of tongues' meant that anyone could understand your speech, no matter what language they spoke. For example, someone who had the 'gift of tongues' could be speaking to a crowd in Greek, and people who DID NOT UNDERSTAND Greek would hear and understand the speaker as if he were speaking in their own language... just like the 'babblefish' in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Somewhere along the line, Christians got the idea that if they babbled incoherently, they were 'speaking in tongues'... and being touched by the Holy Spirit. It is actually just hysteria-induced gibberish.

Of course, just like the 'babblefish', this is pure nonsense. It was nonsense in biblical times... it is nonsense now... it will still be nonsense tomorrow.

Answer 9

Well, in real life it means "babble incoherently while other believers convince themselves you're speaking in some other language".

Of course that's not what the Bible meant to imply, but that's exactly what's happening when people claim to "speak in tongues". It's a sad, pathetic farce, more akin to those checkout line magazines ("Man of clay cannot be harmed!") than to anything of substance.

Answer 10

Read the first few chapters of Acts, especially chapter 2. That is a better explaination of it.