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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Corinthians 12:10 - 12:10
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Prophecy
Not mere foretelling of the future. Quite probably very little of this element is contemplated; but utterance under immediate divine inspiration: delivering inspired exhortations, instructions, or warnings. See on prophet, Luk 7:26. The fact of direct inspiration distinguished prophecy from “teaching.”
Discerning of spirits
Rev., correctly, discernings. Distinguishing between the different prophetic utterances, whether they proceed from true or false spirits. See 1Ti 4:1; 1Jo 4:1, 1Jo 4:2.
Divers kinds of tongues (γένη γλωσσῶν).
I. Passages Relating to the Gift of Tongues. Mar 16:17; Acts 2:3-21; Act 10:46; Act 19:6; 1Co 12:10, 1Co 12:28; 1Co 13:1; 14. Possibly Eph 5:18; 1Pe 4:11.
II. Terms Employed. New tongues (Mar 16:17): other or different tongues (ἕτεραι, Act 2:4): kinds (γένη) of tongues (1Co 12:10): simply tongues or tongue (γλῶσσαι γλῶσσα, 1 Corinthians 14): to speak with tongues or a tongue (γλώσσαις or γλώσσῃ λαλεῖν, Act 2:4; Act 10:46; Act 19:6; 1Co 14:2, 1Co 14:4, 1Co 14:13, 1Co 14:14, 1Co 14:19, 1Co 14:27): to pray in a tongue (προσεύχεσθαι γλώσσῃ, 1Co 14:14, 1Co 14:15), equivalent to praying in the spirit as distinguished from praying with the understanding: tongues of men and angels (1Co 13:1).
III. Recorded Facts in the New Testament. (1.) The first recorded bestowment of the gift was at Pentecost (Acts 2). The question arises whether the speakers were miraculously endowed to speak with other tongues, or whether the Spirit interpreted the apostle's words to each in his own tongue. Probably the latter was the case, since there is no subsequent notice of the apostles preaching in foreign tongues; there is no allusion to foreign tongues by Peter, nor by Joel, whom he quotes. This fact, moreover, would go to explain the opposite effects on the hearers. (2.) Under the power of the Spirit, the company addressed by Peter in the house of Cornelius at Caesarea spake with tongues. Act 10:44-46. (3.) Certain disciples at Ephesus, who received the Holy Spirit in the laying on of Paul's hands, spake with tongues and prophesied, Act 19:6.
IV. Meaning of the Term “Tongue.” The various explanations are: the tongue alone, inarticulately: rare, provincial, poetic, or archaic words: language or dialect. The last is the correct definition. It does not necessarily mean any of the known languages of men, but may mean the speaker's own tongue, shaped in a peculiar manner by the Spirit's influence; or an entirely new spiritual language.
V. Nature of the Gift in the Corinthian Church. (1.) The gift itself was identical with that at Pentecost, at Caesarea, and at Ephesus, but differed in its manifestations, in that it required an interpreter. 1Co 12:10, 1Co 12:30; 1Co 14:5, 1Co 14:13, 1Co 14:26, 1Co 14:27. (2.) It was closely connected with prophesying: 1Co 14:1-6, 1Co 14:22, 1Co 14:25; Act 2:16-18; Act 19:6. Compare 1Th 5:19, 1Th 5:20. It was distinguished from prophesying as an inferior gift, 1Co 14:4, 1Co 14:5; and as consisting in expressions of praise or devotion rather than of exhortation, warning, or prediction, 1Co 14:14-16. (3.) It was an ecstatic utterance, unintelligible to the hearers, and requiring interpretation, or a corresponding ecstatic condition on the part of the hearer in order to understand it. It was not for the edification of the hearer but of the speaker, and even the speaker did not always understand it, 1Co 14:2, 1Co 14:19. It therefore impressed unchristian bystanders as a barbarous utterance, the effect of madness or drunkenness, Act 2:13, Act 2:15; 1Co 14:11, 1Co 14:23. Hence it is distinguished from the utterance of the understanding, 1Co 14:4, 1Co 14:14-16, 1Co 14:19, 1Co 14:27.
VI. Paul's Estimate of the Gift. He himself was a master of the gift (1Co 14:18), but he assigned it an inferior position (1Co 14:4, 1Co 14:5), and distinctly gave prophesying and speaking with the understanding the preference (1Co 14:2, 1Co 14:3, 1Co 14:5, 1Co 14:19, 1Co 14:22).
VII. Results and Permanence. Being recognized distinctly as a gift of the Spirit, it must be inferred that it contributed in some way to the edification of the Church; but it led to occasional disorderly outbreaks (1Co 14:9, 1Co 14:11, 1Co 14:17, 1Co 14:20-23, 1Co 14:26-28, 1Co 14:33, 1Co 14:40). As a fact it soon passed away from the Church. It is not mentioned in the Catholic or Pastoral Epistles. A few allusions to it occur in the writings of the fathers of the second century. Ecstatic conditions and manifestations marked the Montanists at the close of the second century, and an account of such a case, in which a woman was the subject, is given by Tertullian. Similar phenomena have emerged at intervals in various sects, at times of great religious excitement, as among the Camisards in France, the early Quakers and Methodists, and especially the Irvingites.