Pentecost

Perceptions of Pentecost Through the Ages

An infographic that outlines the history of Pentecost from inception until today.

The graphic contains the significant four streams of thought throughout the centuries: The Catholic, Traditional Protestant, Conservative Protestant, and the Glossolalia Stories.

There is a dominant assumption that speaking in tongues died out in the early church and then reappeared with the Pentecostal awakening in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Not true. Almost every generation has wanted to claim Pentecost for themselves throughout history.

See the following paths of tongues through the centuries for details.

Poster on the different perceptions of Pentecost through the ages

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Utterance Versus Gift of Tongues

Image of four early Pentecostal leaders and three magazines

An analysis of early Pentecostal theology and their distinction between utterance and the gift of tongues.

This article is an addendum to Solutions to the Pentecostal Crisis. An exploration about why early Pentecostals changed the definition of tongues. One from miraculously speaking a foreign language to an alternative version.

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Gregory of Nazianzus’ Analysis of Acts 2:6

Gregory of Nazianzus has much to offer with his insights on the original Pentecost. His thoughts on Acts 2:6 opens up different possibilities than what we commonly conclude today.

This revered fourth-century leader stands out as one of the most influential on the subject.

The Gift of Tongues Project has previously traced the influence of Gregory of Nazianzus’ thought on the christian doctrine of tongues in the Latin and Eastern Church.1 His influence has spanned over millennia. However, the GOT Project never explored a detailed analysis of Acts 2:6 from Nazianzus’ perspective until now.

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A History of Pentecost as One Sound and Many Languages Heard

A history of Pentecost being the miracle of one voice emitted and the sounds converted into a relevant human language while in the air or in the minds of the hearers.

This theory was a part of the christian doctrine of tongues that existed at least in the third century, worked its way into the seventh, and has a spotty appearance after this time.

The following is the result of collating, compiling, examining, researching and comparing a wide-range of Patristic authors, a sampling of Jewish literature, and a small dose of classical Greek writings found on the topic.

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Edward Irving’s Defense on Unknown Tongues: Part 3

A digitization of Edward Irving’s third defense in Fraser’s Magazine on his promotion of unknown tongues. Reverend Edward Irving and his central London congregation (1830s) were the center of world-wide religious attention on the topic and practice of speaking in tongues. The result was that he received heavy criticism from a variety of sources. Irving …

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Edward Irving's Defense on Unknown Tongues: Part 1

Edward Irving's first treatise

A digitization of Edward Irving’s first defense in Fraser’s Magazine on his promotion of unknown tongues.

Reverend Edward Irving and his central London congregation (1830s) were the center of world-wide religious attention on the topic and practice of speaking in tongues. The result was that he received heavy criticism from a variety of sources.

Irving sought to counter claims against him and his church by publishing three articles in a popular English publication called Fraser’s Magazine. All three works are digitally captured for the Gift of Tongues Project. The following is his first entry.

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Facts Connected with Recent Manifestations of Spiritual Gifts.
By the Rev. Edward Irving.

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Pentecostals, Tongues, and Higher Criticism

The relationship between Pentecostals and the historians Philip Schaff, F. W. Farrar and others along with their influence on the modern definition.

How the traditional definition of tongues all but died and was replaced by the Pentecostal practice of Pentecostal glossolalia — an umbrella term for the language of adoration, singing and writing in tongues, and/or a private act of devotion between a person and God.

Before 1906 there were only two definitions of speaking in tongues within the traditional Christian practice:

  • Tongues as the spontaneous ability to speak a foreign language not previously learned or known beforehand
  • tongues as someone speaking in one voice and everyone hearing in their own language.

In the 1800’s, this definition expanded:

  • Firstly, redefined as glossolalia: an ecstatic state that produces speech-like syllables. A social phenomenon, not a miraculous one
  • then modern Pentecostal tongues: a spiritualization of the glossolalia doctrine.

The Azusa Street revival began as a traditional Christian tongues doctrine: many people imbued with the Holy Spirit were perceived with the ability to speak a foreign language spontaneously. The Azusa people and those involved in the greater grassroots holiness movement saw this as a sign to evangelize all the nations. This theology was called Missionary Tongues.

As previously noted in Pentecostal Tongues in Crisis, Pentecostal missionaries arrived at their foreign destinations and discovered they did not have this supernatural linguistic ability.

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V. P. Simmons on the Church History of Tongues

The early Pentecostal writer V. P. Simmons on the Church history of tongues–an important and early contribution to the Pentecostal doctrine of tongues. V. P. Simmons is an unknown name in the annals of Pentecostal history and even more so in the general historical records. However, the impact of his historical thesis which connects the …

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A Catholic History of Tongues: 30 to 1748 AD

A Catholic history of speaking in tongues from the first Pentecost until the rule of Pope Benedict the XIV, 1748 AD.

The following are the results of a detailed study of early church, medieval and later medieval Catholic writers through seventeen-centuries of church life.

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