[B-Greek] tongues - languages

Eric Weiss papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Wed May 25 09:14:56 EDT 2005


Translations probably still use "tongues" for a few reasons (just my guesses here):
 
1. "Tradition" (as Tevye the milkman would say), even though I, too, find the phrase "speaking 
in tongues" as odd as a fiddler on the roof, as "languages" would be more common English.
 
2. Popular idiom. "Speaking in tongues" is the most common expression Charismatics and 
Pentecostals use to describe this activity, and since they're perhaps the fastest-growing group 
of Christians in the world, according to several surveys, I suppose Bible translators may 
choose to use the phraseology that the readers are familiar with and use themselves. Even 
non-Charismatics refer to glossolalia as "speaking in tongues" rather than "speaking in other 
languages." Thus, an otherwise antiquated term for "languages" has been kept alive and in use 
because of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, whose members took this term from 
the KJV and made it universal and contemporary religious terminology.
 
3. Being an unusual or rarely-used (these days) word for "languages," it perhaps subtly cues 
the reader/listener to the fact that the text is speaking about something other than normal 
human speech.
 
FYI - When I talk to people about "speaking in tongues," I explain that it means 
"speaking in other languages." Some of the more recent translations - e.g., Holman Christian 
Standard Bible, New Living Translation - say "languages" instead of "tongues," but they're not 
always consistent (compare, e.g., Acts 2:4 and Acts 19:6 and I Cor. 12:10 in the New Living 
Translation), and other new ones like the NIV and the ESV still say "tongues" (but the NIV 
Reader's edition says "languages").


Eric S. Weiss


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