Talk 3 The Right Use of Interpretation of Tongues
Hello again. Welcome to Talk 3 in our series on NT Guidelines for Small Group Meetings.
Last time, our subject was speaking in tongues and its right use in our meetings. We saw that we should not speak in tongues loudly unless it’s for interpretation and that it must only be spoken loudly if someone is there to interpret it.
So today we’ll be looking in more detail at the important gift of interpretation of tongues. Apart from two references in chapter 12 (v10 and v30), our main source of material for understanding this gift is found in 1 Corinthians 14, so it would be good to have your Bible open there. In this talk I will:
· Examine the references to interpretation of tongues
· Discuss certain practical issues that arise from this
· Finish with a brief summary.
A. References to interpretation of tongues
1 Corinthians 12:10-11, 30
10 …and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
These verses make clear that not everybody has this gift. Each gift is given as the Holy Spirit determines. (By the way, speaking in tongues in verse 30 refers to its use in church, not to its private use as prayer with one’s spirit).
1 Corinthians 14:5
The person who prophesies is greater than the person who speaks in tongues, unless they interpret so that the church may be edified.
This verse reveals the purpose of the gift – the edification of the church. As we saw in our last talk, prophesying is preferable to speaking in tongues because prophecy edifies the church whereas speaking in tongues does not, because no one can understand it (2).
However, if speaking in tongues is interpreted, it can edify the church, in which case it is as valuable as prophecy. But this need not mean that it’s necessarily the same as prophecy. We will discuss this in more detail in a moment.
1 Corinthians 14:13
In verse 12 Paul tells the Corinthians to try to excel in gifts that build up the church. This gives the reason for what he says in verse 13.
Anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret…
Why? Because the only way that speaking in tongues will edify others is if it is interpreted.
Notice too that the verse does not mean that all interpretations should be given by the person who has spoken in tongues. The interpretation may very well be given by someone else. To allow someone other than the speaker in tongues to interpret means that more people are participating in the meeting, something Paul is keen to encourage, as the next passage makes clear.
Verses 26-28
26 What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.
27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, two – or at the most three – should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret.
28 If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God.
Verse 26 is the key verse upon which this series is based. It gives clear guidance on the sort of things we should expect in our meetings. Notice that tongues and interpretation are included in what Paul is recommending. But note the use of the word if in verse 27:
If anyone speaks in a tongue…
This shows us that Paul does not automatically assume that there will be speaking in tongues in the meeting. The things mentioned in verse 26 are not obligatory ingredients for every meeting. They are the kind of things to expect, but not necessarily in every meeting.
The manifestation of spiritual gifts will vary from meeting to meeting as the Spirit leads. The main point is that whatever is taking place, everything must be done for the strengthening of the church.
So, if anyone speaks in tongues, what should happen next? Paul is quite clear on this:
If anyone speaks in a tongue, let it be by two or at the most three people. And let one person interpret (my translation).
This doesn’t refer to private use of tongues in church, which is allowed, provided it’s done quietly, speaking to yourself and to God (28). It refers to the use of tongues for the purpose of interpretation, because Paul says, Let one person interpret. So, during the course of a meeting, no more than three people should speak in tongues with a view to interpretation.
Another practical issue that we will need to consider in due course is how to understand and apply the final part of verse 27, which NIV translates as, Someone must interpret, but which KJV translates this as,
Let one interpret (my emphasis),
which is the literal translation of the Greek word that Paul uses here. That’s why, in the translation I offered earlier, I translated it as
Let one person interpret.
But this doesn’t mean that Paul is saying that if there are two or three utterances in tongues, the same person should give the interpretation for all of them. But more on this in a moment.
Finally, Paul’s use of the word interpreter in verse 28 is interesting. He says:
If there is no interpreter, the speaker (in tongues) should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God.
The term interpreter clearly indicates that those who exercised the gift of interpretation were seen as permanently possessing the gift. If that were not so, how could the speaker in tongues know whether there was an interpreter present or not? A person who has interpreted once can be expected to do so again.
So, if we want to speak in tongues publicly, we need to check that there’s an interpreter present. And if there is, we are free to go ahead. Obviously that places a serious responsibility on the interpreter to be ready to interpret at any time, because we do not know when someone is going to speak in tongues. To know more about receiving spiritual gifts, you might like to visit my website (http://www.davidpetts.org) and listen to two short podcasts I gave in February 2019 (podcasts 018 and 019).
B. Practical issues arising from Paul’s teaching
i. The form the gift should take – prophecy or praise?
There’s no time to go into much detail about this now, but I have said a bit more in WYCT pp77-79 and more still in Body Builders pp141-144.
However, the short answer is this. As we saw last time, tongues can take the form of prayer or praise or giving thanks. So, if the gift of interpretation enables us to understand what is being said when someone speaks in tongues, it follows that the interpretation should take the same form as the tongue, whether prayer, or praise, or thanksgiving etc.
But what about ‘messages’ in tongues where the interpretation sounds like a prophecy? Those who take the view that interpretation should take the form of a prophecy base their argument on 14:5 where Paul says:
The person who prophesies is greater than the person who speaks in tongues, unless they interpret so that the church may be edified.
The argument goes like this. Prophecy edifies the church. Interpretation edifies the church. Therefore, the interpretation of tongues equals prophecy. But there is a logical flaw in this argument.
It’s like saying, Tea is a drink. Coffee is a drink. Therefore, tea equals coffee!
Paul says that both prophecy and interpretation edify the church, but that does not necessarily mean that they do so in the same way. If, for example, interpretation were to take the form of praise, rather than prophecy, wouldn’t it edify the church? And who is not edified by the psalms of praise? I have personally been greatly edified by both forms of interpretation.
However, other people insist on praise interpretations and base their argument on the NIV translation of 14:2, which reads:
For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him…
So, it is argued, if the tongue is to God, the interpretation must be to God, in the form of either praise or prayer. However, a more literal translation would be:
For the person speaking in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him… (my translation).
This makes clear that the reason for saying that speaking in tongues is to God is that no one can understand it. When the disciples spoke in tongues at Pentecost, did it not speak to men? And why was this? Because they understood what was being said.
It follows, therefore, that if tongues in church can be understood through the use of the gift of interpretation, it can most certainly speak to us. So in my view both praise and prophecy style interpretations are legitimate manifestations of the gift, and we should accept and encourage both.
ii. Two or at the most three…
The meaning is clear, but what should we do if someone brings a fourth utterance in tongues? Should it be interpreted?
Of course, this is unlikely to happen if the church has been taught how spiritual gifts should be operated in our meetings.
However, if it does happen, what should we do? My view is that it should be interpreted because this would be more edifying for the church which is the basic principle behind Paul’s teaching in this passage.
For more detail on this, please see WYCT pp79-80.
iii. ‘Let one person interpret’ (v27)
I said earlier that the Greek in verse 27 is best translated as, Let one person interpret. This in fact reflects how the Authorised Version translates it and, as a result, some churches have taught that, if there are two or three utterances in tongues, the same person should give the interpretation for all of them.
This is a valid application of what Paul is saying, but I think it more likely that his intention is to say that each utterance in tongues needs only one person to interpret it. The unruly members of the Corinthian church needed to hear this.
C. Summary
1. Everything we do in church should be edifying to others.
2. Tongues edifies you, but it doesn’t edify others, unless it’s interpreted.
3. So, the purpose of the gift of interpretation is to edify the church.
4. Tongues may take the form of prayer or praise or prophecy, so interpretations may take any of these forms.
5. We should not speak loudly in tongues unless there is an interpreter there. So we need to be sure there’s an interpreter there before we speak out loudly in tongues.
6. If we speak in tongues aloud in church, we should pray for the gift of interpretation, bearing in mind that it’s not given to everyone.
7. If you have the gift of interpretation, you have a responsibility to interpret.
8. Tongues and interpretation should occur no more than two or three times in each meeting.
9. Only one person should interpret each message, but it doesn’t have to be the same person each time.
10. Since it’s so important for tongues in church to be interpreted, we should all wait for the interpretation to be given before doing anything else (like leading in prayer etc.).
D. Questions for discussion
1. Why do you think we should all wait for the interpretation to be given before doing anything else?
2. Someone speaks out loud in tongues, but no one else interprets it. You have interpreted tongues in the past, but you don’t feel you have the interpretation of this time. What should you do? Hint: See my personal testimony about this, in WYCT pp.81-83 or Body Builders, Ch. 8.
3. Do we need to alter our group’s way of doing things to make way for the operation of gifts like tongues and interpretation (and indeed other gifts of the Spirit)?