Gift of Tongues

A fourfold aim of collating, digitizing, translating, and tracing the Christian doctrine of tongues from inception until 1906.

Edward Irving’s Defense on Unknown Tongues: Part 3

Irving's 3rd defense about unknown tongues

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 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 found within the Gift of Tongues Project framework. The following is his third entry.

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ON RECENT MANIFESTATIONS OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS
No. III
BY THE REV. EDWARD IRVING
(Conclusion.)

Read moreEdward Irving’s Defense on Unknown Tongues: Part 3

Edward Irving’s Defense on Unknown Tongues: Part 2

Irving's 2nd defense in Fraser's Magazine

A digitization of Edward Irving’s second 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 second entry.

——–

ON RECENT MANIFESTATIONS OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS.
No. II
BY THE REV. EDWARD IRVING.

Read moreEdward Irving’s Defense on Unknown Tongues: Part 2

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.

———-

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

Read moreEdward Irving’s Defense on Unknown Tongues: Part 1

Francisco Suárez and His Sources on the Gift of Tongues

Franciscus Suarez

Table of Contents

Abstract

This paper considers the grace of the gift of tongues both as it is currently practiced among many members of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) and how it has traditionally been understood in medieval and post-medieval theology. The paper especially considers the perspective of Francisco Suárez on the subject insofar as he, as in most matters, is able to frame the status quaestionis of the topic and presents a uniform view of the Catholic theological tradition’s understanding of the gift. Ultimately, I point out that there are significant points of divergence between the nature of this gift as the CCR understands and practices it and as it has traditionally been understood historically.

Read moreFrancisco Suárez and His Sources on the Gift of Tongues

Origen on Speaking and Interpreting

Origen's head plugged into a smart phone and a note saying retrieving data

A journey that delves deeply into Greek grammar, etymology, and the politics behind the translation of Origen’s comments of I Corinthians 14:13–14.

This article covers the great third century Church Father, theologian and writer, Origen, regarding his commentary on the above passage in Greek. The coverage here is technical and produces by a step-by-step process in producing an English version. By doing so, the system reveals problems that plague the translation of ancient Christian texts.

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An earlier church etymology of χάρισμα

An etymological exploration of the word χάρισμα from select writings of the Church Fathers.

Χάρισμα has a much wider semantic range than most realize and assists in a better understanding of St. Paul’s usage.

By going through a select set of writers from the third to fourth centuries, Athanasius*1, Eusebius, and Gregory of Nazianzus, a clearer picture is developing on how the ancients understood the word.

In a traditional English translation, one is forced to use gift in every instance of χάρισμα. In my translations below, I am breaking this tradition because the Church Fathers indicate a wider semantic range. Really, I am not sure if there is a one word equivalent in English for this word. The sense from these authors is that χάρισμα means this: the giving of your talents and service as an expression of thanks for what He has done in your life and reflecting God’s image in all that you do. I think endowment, expression or manifestation may be better English choices depending on the circumstance. These words do not completely match the Greek either and appear too simplistic, but comes closer in many instances.

Read moreAn earlier church etymology of χάρισμα

The Pentecostal Rewrite of the History of Speaking in Tongues

Two Pentecostal Missionaries listening to Philip Schaff Cartoon

How Pentecostals built their historical framework for their doctrine of tongues from Higher Criticism literature–a necessary but unlikely relationship.

This merging of two opposed systems, one dependent on the supernatural, and the other focused on the rational and logical with no reference to any divine entity, makes for one of the most major shifts in the history of the christian doctrine of tongues.

As shown throughout the Gift of Tongues Project, tongues as an ecstatic utterance was a new addition to the doctrine of tongues in the 19th century. There is no historical antecedent for ecstatic utterance, glossolalia and their variances before this era. Nor is there a connection with the majority of ecclesiastical writings over 1800 years which had a different trajectory.

Read moreThe Pentecostal Rewrite of the History of Speaking in Tongues

The Dead Sea Scrolls and Angelic Tongues

The Community Rule Dead Sea Scroll Text first page snippet with a magnifying glass in front

Examining the nature, function, and history of angels in the Dead Sea Scrolls and two intertestamental books to find a connection with St. Paul’s reference of the tongues of men and angels.

Paul and the authors behind the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Testament of Job, and the Book of Enoch are products of a milieu that believed in the divine interplay between angels and the worshipper. So, if one wants to find an answer to Paul’s mysterious reference about angelic tongues, the highest probability exists in these texts.

Read moreThe Dead Sea Scrolls and Angelic Tongues

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