What Does Speaking in Tongues Sound Like?
Two types of speaking in tongues are recognized. One is called xenoglossolalia, which refers to divinely-inspired speaking in a language foreign to the speaker but known to the persons listening. The other is glossolalia, which sounds like gibberish to most people, but which some Christians believe is a divine language from the Holy Spirit.
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History
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According to the Book of Acts in the New Testament, speaking in tongues was a gift given by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. One day the followers of Jesus were together at a house in Jerusalem, when, as it states in the second chapter, "a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind filled the house, and cloven tongues like fire sat upon each of them . . . . They were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues."
Significance
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In this verse the word "tongue" means a foreign language, which we know because the next passages tell of devout Jews "from every nation under heaven" who were in the vicinity and heard Jesus' followers speaking messages from God in many different languages. After a large crowd had gathered, Peter went outside and preached a powerful sermon. Acts states that about 3,000 people were baptized that day.
Biblical scholars and laypeople debate about whether the speakers were actually talking in foreign languages or rather in a divine tongue that everyone outside was able to hear and understand in their own particular language. It seems impossible to know, but the event stands out in the New Testament as a very significant one. -
Identification
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Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians partly because speaking in tongues had become so prevalent in their church that it was disrupting the worship services. These instances are interpreted by scholars as being glossolalia--the divine language rather than actual languages of people on Earth.
Features
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The type of speaking in tongues most people are familiar with today is glossolalia, which typically sounds like babbling and seems meaningless to anyone who hears it. Sometimes even if it apparently is nonsensical, the "tongue" can have patterns of speech like a real language. It can contain words from the person's actual language, or words that sound similar to real words.
This speaking in apparent gibberish leads skeptics to wonder why the Holy Spirit has not continued to bestow the gift of suddenly speaking in an actual foreign language.
Speaking in tongues can be loud and unpredictable, and if many people start doing this at once, it can be chaotic. Thus the behavior can be disruptive to a worship service, explaining part of the reason that Paul asked the Corinthians to show some restraint.
Considerations
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Today, the phenomenon is most common in the Christian circles known as charismatic or Pentecostal. They believe it is a divine language, or the language of angels. Those who speak in tongues are delivering a message from God and others in the group are called upon to interpret this message.
Although some groups of charismatic and Pentecostal Christians insist that speaking in tongues is necessary to truly achieve a born-again life, research indicates that about half of Christians in these belief systems do not speak in tongues.
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