RighteousnessTemperance&
Well-Known Member
Brother, I do appreciate your expertise and efforts in getting out the word through translation and in teaching others to do the same, and even enjoy this exchange. But your knowledge of your profession may well be getting in the way of understanding here. When Peter told the man lame from birth to stand and walk, did he know how to heal like a medical doctor? No, of course not. Knowing how things work is fine in the natural, but does not dictate what happens supernaturally, and this is the subject at hand.I believe they completely understood what they were saying. Otherwise, how could they possibly choose the words with the correct meaning to witness to the unbelievers? This was not inspiration, but simply witnessing for Christ with a miraculous tongue.
"Reverse tower of Babel" is an excellent way to put it. But I'm not sure I understand your point that the hearers were doing any interpretation. They said outright that they were hearing the witness in their own languages.
Forgive me for asking, but do you know any foreign language? To me, to speak a foreign language without being able to understand what you yourself are saying is not how language works. I cannot see how God, the Author of language, would work that way, even miraculously.
I like how you put this, and that may have been what happened--trying to repeat the Acts 2 miracle. However, I still hold to the position that they were speaking known, learned languages at Corinth. It was a port city, and such cities always have a myriad of spoken languages as sailors come in from different countries.
And remember, Paul said, "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all" (1 Cor. 14:18). It is plain that he spoke in at least Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, but there may have been even more. Yet there is no place in the whole book of Acts or in any of his epistles that records Paul speaking in a miraculous tongue.
If you have ever actually interpreted for anyone, I don't think you'd be saying this. Interpreting is not superficially different from simply speaking in a language. It's much harder.
I could give many illustrations, but I'll stick with one. I was interpreting in chapel for a seminary prof from the States. This man used an illustration in his sermon about a spittoon. Now, the Japanese do not ever, ever chew tobacco, which is a putrid American custom. There is a word for it, but I had absolutely no idea what that was. Someone told me later that what I interpreted was the Japanese for "a utensil to throw up into." Well, not too far off.
While it may be possible that the Pentecostal Galileans understood the thoughts being spoken, according to Luke the way we know what they were saying is that the hearers gave interpretive witness. Luke does not offer any quotes, only the general interpretation that they were “declaring the wonders of God.” Again, this witness is from the hearers. Some of those who didn’t understand attributed the seeming simultaneous gibberish to drunkenness (though I shouldn’t be surprised if someone tries to argue that they meant drunks make excellent linguists, but if so, I hope they do it in a separate thread
). There is no indication that the speakers understood the languages themselves, and there was no need.BTW, you earlier seemed to assert that they were “proclaiming the Gospel in the various languages.” But this is not in the text. Rather, their diverse speaking drew a crowd, then Peter stood up and preached the Gospel, rather effectively, with no indication that he was speaking in anything other than the lingua franca.
Yes, interpreting and speaking are two very different things, and I explicitly indicated this. The point I made regarding difference was the original one, namely between speaking understandable languages at Pentecost and in Corinth. There was no difference. Any difference is imagined, or superficial, or is yet to be convincingly argued.
In the church, either the hearers should already understand the language being spoken, or it should be interpreted for them. Intelligibility is key.
