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involved, if the result of his laying on of hands was that they could copy pagan practices.
We may have laboured this point but it is important. The first reference to tongues states:
"these signs shall follow them that believe . . . . . they shall speak with new tongues"
(Mark 16: 17).
In the last chapter which deals with tongues, Paul writes:
"wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not"
(I Cor. 14: 22).
Is this a sign to the unbelieving Jew or Gentile? Either way, it wouldn't be a sign to
either if it merely copied the prophetess at Delphi. Although the phrase glossais lalein, to
speak with tongues, does occur in classical Greek and is used there of ecstatic utterances,
this cannot be how the N. T. writers use it. But what about the Old Testament? Do we
get any help there?
It is obvious that the speaking in tongues was primarily a sign to the unbelieving Jew,
not Gentile. This is clear when I Cor. 14: 22 is taken in context:
"In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto
this people; and yet for all that will they not hear Me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues
are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not" (I Cor. 14: 21, 22).
Obviously this passage is aimed at the Jew, since quoting the Law to the Gentiles, who
would not know it, would be of little value, but to which part of the O.T. is Paul
referring? There are three possibilities and it is best to consider them all to see if
languages or ecstatic utterances were what the O.T. writers had in mind.
Deut. 28: 49: "The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of
the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand."
Isa. 28: 11: "For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this
people."
Isa. 33: 19: "Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than
thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand."
In Isa. 28: 11, the Septuagint (LXX) uses glossa for tongues and this passage,
addressed to the northern kingdom of Israel, refers to the Assyrians and their language.
The Jews of that nation were not believing in the Lord and they were soon to hear a new
tongue, a strange language.
Isaiah 33: 19 again refers to the Assyrian language and to Deut. 28: 49. The
whole of Deut. 28: 45-51 is worth reading. There the Jews were told, "these curses
shall come upon thee . . . . . because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy
God . . . . . they shall be . . . . . for a sign . . . . . Because thou servedst not the Lord thy
God . . . . . the Lord shall bring a nation against thee . . . . . a nation whose tongue thou
shalt not understand".
If the Jews did not worship the Lord, if they strayed into unbelief then certain curses
and judgments would befall them. These were for a sign, to signify to the Jews their