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Do not fill this in! ==History== ===Classical antiquity=== It was a commonplace idea within the [[Ancient]] world that divine beings spoke languages different from human languages, and historians of religion have identified references to [[esoteric]] speech in Greco-Roman literature that resemble glossolalia, sometimes explained as angelic or [[divine language]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Petruzzello |first1=Melissa |title=Glossolalia |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/glossolalia |website=Encyclopedia Britannice |publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=16 June 2023}}</ref> An example is the account in the [[Testament of Job]], a non-canonical elaboration of the [[Book of Job]], where the daughters of [[Job (biblical figure)|Job]] are described as being given sashes enabling them to speak and sing in angelic languages.{{Sfn|Martin|1995|pp=88–89}} According to Dale B. Martin, glossolalia was accorded high status in the ancient world due to its association with the divine. [[Alexander of Abonoteichus]] may have exhibited glossolalia during his episodes of prophetic ecstasy.{{Sfn|Martin|1995|p=90}} [[Neoplatonist]] philosopher [[Iamblichus]] linked glossolalia to [[prophecy]], writing that prophecy was divine [[spirit possession]] that "emits words which are not understood by those that utter them; for they pronounce them, as it is said, with an insane mouth (''mainomenό stomati'') and are wholly subservient, and entirely yield themselves to the energy of the predominating God".{{Sfn|Martin|1995|p=91}} In his writings on [[early Christianity]], the Greek philosopher [[Celsus]] includes an account of Christian glossolalia. Celsus describes prophecies made by several Christians in Palestine and Phoenicia of which he writes, "Having brandished these threats they then go on to add incomprehensible, incoherent, and utterly obscure utterances, the meaning of which no intelligent person could discover: for they are meaningless and nonsensical, and give a chance for any fool or sorcerer to take the words in whatever sense he likes".{{Sfn|Martin|1995|p=90}} References to speaking in tongues by the [[Church fathers]] are rare. Except for Irenaeus' 2nd-century reference to many in the church speaking all kinds of languages "through the Spirit", and Tertullian's reference in 207 AD to the spiritual gift of interpretation of tongues being encountered in his day, there are no other known first-hand accounts of glossolalia, and very few second-hand accounts among their writings.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Benjamin B. |last=Warfield |author-link=Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield |year=1918 |title=Counterfeit Miracles |location=New York |publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]] |oclc=3977281 |page=[https://archive.org/details/counterfeitmira02warfgoog/page/n21 10] |quote=The writings of the so-called Apostolic Fathers contain no clear and certain allusions to miracle working or to the exercise of the charismatic gifts, contemporaneously with themselves.|isbn=978-0851511665}}</ref> ===1100 to 1900=== * 12th century – [[Bernard of Clairvaux]] explained that speaking tongues be no longer present because there be greater miracles – the transformed lives of believers.<ref>[http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/saints/bernard/tome03/homtemps/paques/paques007.htm "''Premier Serrmon Pour Le Jour de L'Ascension. Sur l'Evangile du jour.''"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207004808/http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/saints/bernard/tome03/homtemps/paques/paques007.htm |date=7 February 2020 }} "''3. Il y des signes plus certains et des miracles plus salutaires que ceux-là, ce sont les mérites. Et je ne crois pas qu'il soit difficile de savoir en quel sens on doit entendre les miracles dont il est parlé en cet endroit, pour qu'ils soient des signes certains de foi, et par conséquent de salut. En effet, la première oeuvre de la foi, opérant par la charité, c'est la componction de l'âme, car elle chasse évidemment les démons, en déracinant les péchés de notre coeur. Quant aux langues nouvelles que doivent parler les hommes, qui croient en Jésus-Christ, cela a lieu, lorsque le langage du vieil homme cesse de se trouver sur nos lèvres, et que nous ne parlons plus la langue antique de nos premiers parents, qui cherchaient dans des paroles pleines de malice à s'excuser de leurs péchés''".</ref> * 12th century – [[Hildegard of Bingen]] is said to have possessed the gift of visions and prophecy and to have been able to speak and write in Latin without having learned the language.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=L. Carlyle |first1=May |title=A Survey of Glossolalia and Related Phenomena in NonChristian Religions |journal=American Anthropologist |date=February 1956 |volume=58 |issue=1 |page=75 |url=https://sciencedocbox.com/Paranormal_Phenomena/84364754-E-words-has-long-been-of-interest-to-students-of-religion-the-books-of-cutten.html |doi=10.1525/aa.1956.58.1.02a00060 |doi-access=free }}</ref> * 1265 – [[Thomas Aquinas]] wrote about the gift of tongues in the New Testament, which he understood to be an ability to speak every language, given for the purposes of missionary work. He explained that Christ did not have this gift because his mission was to the Jews, "nor does each one of the faithful now speak save in one tongue"; for "no one speaks in the tongues of all nations, because the Church herself already speaks the languages of all nations".<ref>[[Thomas Aquinas]], ''[[Summa Theologica]]'', Question 176.</ref> * 15th century – The [[Moravian Church|Moravians]] are referred to by detractors as having spoken in tongues. John Roche, a contemporary critic, claimed that the Moravians "commonly broke into some disconnected Jargon, which they often passed upon the vulgar, 'as the exuberant and resistless Evacuations of the Spirit'".<ref>{{Cite book|first=Stanley M. |last=Burgess |chapter=Medieval and Modern Western Churches |editor1=Gary B. McGee |title=Initial evidence: historical and biblical perspectives on the Pentecostal doctrine of spirit baptism |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers |location=[[Peabody, Massachusetts]] |year=1991 |page=32 |isbn=978-0943575414 |oclc=24380326}}</ref> * 17th century – The French Prophets: The [[Camisards]] also spoke sometimes in languages that were unknown: "Several persons of both Sexes", James Du Bois of Montpellier recalled, "I have heard in their Extasies pronounce certain words, which seem'd to the Standers-by, to be some Foreign Language". These utterances were sometimes accompanied by the gift of interpretation exercised, in Du Bois' experience, by the same person who had spoken in tongues.<ref>{{Cite book|first=John |last=Lacy |year=1707 |title=A Cry from the Desert |oclc=81008302 |page=32}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |first=Michael Pollock |last=Hamilton |title=The charismatic movement |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]] |location=[[Grand Rapids, Michigan]] |year=1975 |page=[https://archive.org/details/charismaticmovem00hami/page/75 75] |isbn=978-0802834539 |oclc=1008209 |url=https://archive.org/details/charismaticmovem00hami/page/75 }}</ref> * 17th century – Early [[Quakers]], such as [[Edward Burrough]], make mention of tongues-speaking in their meetings: "We spoke with new tongues, as the Lord gave us utterance, and His Spirit led us".<ref>[[Edward Burrough|Burrough, Edward]] (1831) [1659]. "Epistle to the Reader" in [[George Fox|Fox, George]]. ''The great mystery of the great whore unfolded; and Antichrist's kingdom revealed unto destruction''. ''The Works of George Fox''. '''3'''. p. [https://archive.org/details/worksgeorgefox09foxgoog/page/n17 13]. {{OCLC|12877488}}.</ref> * 1817 – In Germany, [[Gustav von Below]], an aristocratic officer of the Prussian Guard, and his brothers, founded a religious movement based on their estates in Pomerania, which may have included speaking in tongues.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hogue |first1=Richard |title=Tongues: A Theological History of Christian Glossolalia |date=2010 |publisher=Tate Publishing |page=211}}</ref> * 19th century – [[Edward Irving]] and the [[Catholic Apostolic Church]]. Edward Irving, a minister in the Church of Scotland, writes of a woman who would "speak at great length, and with superhuman strength, in an unknown tongue, to the great astonishment of all who heard, and to her own great edification and enjoyment in God".<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Edward |last=Irving |author-link=Edward Irving |date=January 1832 |title=Facts Connected With Recent Manifestations of Spiritual Gifts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mFPPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA754 |journal=[[Fraser's Magazine]] |volume=4 |issue=24 |pages=754–761 |access-date=9 June 2009}}</ref> Irving further stated that "tongues are a great instrument for personal edification, however mysterious it may seem to us".<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Carlyle|editor1-first=Gavin|title=The Collected Writings of Edward Irving|date=1865|publisher=Alexander Strahan|page=548|edition=Volume 5|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HS8aAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA548|access-date=12 January 2017|chapter=On the Gifts of the Holy Ghost}}</ref> * 19th century – The history of the [[Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)|Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church), contains extensive references to the practice of speaking in tongues by [[Brigham Young]], [[Joseph Smith]] and many others.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.frontiernet.net:80/~bcmmin/tongue1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000817001900/http://www.frontiernet.net/~bcmmin/tongue1.htm |archive-date=17 August 2000 |website=www.frontiernet.net |title=Speaking in Tongues and the Mormon Church |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081017181936/http://www.mormonwiki.com/Speaking_in_Tongues |archive-date=17 October 2008 |url=http://www.mormonwiki.com:80/Speaking_in_Tongues |title=Speaking in Tongues |format=[[MediaWiki]] |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Sidney Rigdon]] had disagreements with [[Alexander Campbell (clergyman)|Alexander Campbell]] regarding speaking in tongues, and later joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Speaking in tongues was recorded in contemporary sources, both hostile and sympathetic to Mormonism, by at least 1830.<ref name="Copeland">{{cite journal |last1 = Copeland |first1 = Lee |title = Speaking in Tongues in the Restoration Churches |journal = Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought |volume = 24 |issue = 1 |url = https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V24N01_15.pdf }}</ref> The practice was soon widespread amongst Mormons, with many rank and file church members believing they were speaking the [[Adamic language|language of Adam]]; some of the hostility towards Mormons stemmed from those of other faiths regarding speaking in tongues unfavorably, especially when practiced by children.<ref name="Copeland" /> At the 1836 dedication of the [[Kirtland Temple]] the dedicatory prayer asked that God grant them the gift of tongues and at the end of the service [[Brigham Young]] spoke in tongues, another elder interpreted it and then gave his own exhortation in tongues. Many other worship experiences in the Kirtland Temple prior to and after the dedication included references to people speaking and interpreting tongues. In describing the beliefs of the church in the [[Wentworth letter]] (1842), Joseph Smith identified a belief of the "gift of tongues" and "interpretation of tongues". The practice of glossolalia by the Latter-day Saints was widespread but after an initial burst of enthusiastic growth circa 1830–34, seems to have been somewhat more restrained than in many other contemporary religious movements.<ref name="Copeland" /> Young, Smith, and numerous other early leaders frequently cautioned against the public exercise of glossolalia unless there be someone who could exercise the corresponding spiritual gift of interpretation of tongues, so that listeners could be edified by what had been said. Although the [[Latter-day Saint]]s believe that speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues is alive and well in the Church, modern Mormons are much more likely to point to the way in which LDS missionaries are trained and learn foreign languages quickly, and are able to communicate rapidly on their missions, as evidence of the manifestation of this gift. This interpretation stems from a 1900 General Conference sermon by [[Joseph F. Smith]] which discouraged glossolalia; subsequent leaders echoed this recommendation for about a decade afterwards and subsequently the practice had largely died out amongst Mormons by the 1930s and '40s.<ref name="Copeland" /> ===20th century=== {{Main|Azusa Street Revival}} [[File:026 la times.gif|thumb|upright=1.25|Headline about the "Weird babel of tongues" and other behavior at Azusa Street, from a 1906 ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' newspaper]] During the 20th century, glossolalia primarily became associated with Pentecostalism and the later [[charismatic movement]]. Preachers in the [[Holiness Movement]] preachers [[Charles Parham]] and [[William J. Seymour|William Seymour]] are credited as co-founders of the movement. Parham and Seymour taught that "baptism of the Holy Spirit was not the blessing of sanctification but rather a [[third work of grace]] that was accompanied by the experience of tongues".<ref name="FahlbuschBromiley1999" /> It was Parham who formulated the doctrine of "initial evidence". After studying the Bible, Parham came to the conclusion that speaking in tongues was the Bible evidence that one had received the [[baptism with the Holy Spirit]]. In 1900, Parham opened [[Bethel Bible College]] in [[Topeka, Kansas]], America, where he taught initial evidence, a Charismatic belief about how to initiate the practice. During a service on 1 January 1901, a student named [[Agnes Ozman]] asked for prayer and the [[laying on of hands]] to specifically ask God to fill her with the [[Holy Spirit]]. She became the first of many students to experience glossolalia, in [[Millennium#Counting years|the first hours of the 20th century]]. Parham followed within the next few days. Parham called his new movement the [[Charles Fox Parham|apostolic faith]]. In 1905, he moved to Houston and opened a [[Bible school]] there. One of his students was William Seymour, an African-American preacher. In 1906, Seymour traveled to [[Los Angeles]] where his preaching ignited the [[Azusa Street Revival]]. This revival is considered the birth of the global Pentecostal movement. According to the first issue of William Seymour's newsletter, ''The Apostolic Faith'', from 1906: {{blockquote|A [[Mohammedan]], a Soudanese by birth, a man who is an interpreter and speaks sixteen languages, came into the meetings at Azusa Street and the Lord gave him messages which none but himself could understand. He identified, interpreted and wrote a number of the languages.<ref>Square brackets indicate faded parts that are no longer readable.</ref>}} Parham and his early followers believed that speaking in tongues was xenoglossia, and some followers traveled to foreign countries and tried to use the gift to share the Gospel with non-English-speaking people. From the time of the Azusa Street revival and among early participants in the Pentecostal movement, there were many accounts of individuals hearing their own languages spoken 'in tongues'. The majority of Pentecostals and Charismatics consider speaking in tongues to primarily be divine, or the "language of angels", rather than human languages.<ref>D. Swincer, ''Tongues: Genuine Biblical Languages: A Careful Construct of the Nature, Purpose, and Operation of the Gift of Tongues for the Church'' (2016) pp. 88–90 {{ISBN?}}</ref> In the years following the Azusa Street revival Pentecostals who went to the mission field found that they were unable to speak in the language of the local inhabitants at will when they spoke in tongues in strange lands.<ref>Faupel, D. William. ''Glossolalia as Foreign Language: An Investigation of the Twentieth-Century Pentecostal Claim''. {{cite web |url=http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyan_theology/theojrnl/31-35/31-1-05.htm |title=31-1-05 |access-date=2005-04-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050429071428/http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyan_theology/theojrnl/31-35/31-1-05.htm |archive-date=29 April 2005}}</ref> The revival at Azusa Street lasted until around 1915. From it grew many new Pentecostal churches as people visited the services in Los Angeles and took their newfound beliefs to communities around the United States and abroad. During the 20th century, glossolalia became an important part of the identity of these religious groups. During the 1960s, the [[charismatic movement]] within the [[Mainline Protestantism|mainline Protestant]] churches and among [[Catholic Charismatic Movement|charismatic Roman Catholics]] adopted some Pentecostal beliefs, and the practice of glossolalia spread to other Christian denominations. The discussion regarding tongues has permeated many branches of Protestantism, particularly since the widespread charismatic movement in the 1960s. Many books have been published either defending<ref>Example: Christenson, Laurence, ''Speaking in tongues: and its significance for the church'', Minneapolis, MN : Dimension Books, 1968.{{ISBN?}}{{page needed|date=June 2020}}</ref> or attacking<ref>Example: Gromacki, Robert Glenn, ''The Modern Tongues Movement'', Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1973, {{ISBN|0875523048}} (Originally published 1967){{page needed|date=June 2020}}</ref> the practice. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page