Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Tongues as a sign to unbelievers in 1 Cor 14:22: Madness, Mystery or Miracle?

My paper on 1 Cor 14:33b and its 6 syntactic possibilities went well.

Now as promised, I am publishing here my abstract for the other presentation, for tomorrow, the 2nd of August at the SBL International meeting in Helsinki. Ah, Helsinki is so lovely! I will definitely come back for holidays!

Here is my abstract:


Tongues as a sign in 1 Cor 14:22: Madness, Mystery or Miracle?

This paper aims to strive for balance in exegesis of 1 Cor 14 by claiming that the context speaks about the valuable benefit of both gifts – tongues and prophecy, albeit different for each of the participants. The focus of the presentation is not so much a translation of sēmeion [sign], but the meaning of „sign” in 1 Cor 14:22. I would like to propose that sēmeion here can be better understood to mean a mystery or a miracle. In that case 1 Cor 14:22 could be understood as follows: “Tongues, then, is a mystery not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is not [a mystery] for unbelievers but for believers.” The meaning of ‘sign’ as a mystery would better reconcile v. 22 with v. 21. 1 Cor 14:21 makes an allusion to Is 28:11, 12 saying that the people will not listen, hear or obey, when God speaks through the foreign nation and foreign language. This paper suggests the reason behind not listening or hearing - people struggle to understand. Understanding and clarity seems to be the main thread in 1 Cor 14:2, 5-9, 11, 13-14, 16, 19 et al. Thus, in the discourse of 1 Cor 14, unbelievers do not understand tongues and might think they are madness (v. 23); believers who speak to God do not [need to] understand tongues, but they use the Charisma for their own benefit (v. 2, 4, 14, 18); unbelievers do understand the prophetic message and acknowledge God’s presence (v. 24-25), but believers do not [need to] understand the prophetic message when it reveals particular secrets of the hearts of the newcomers (v. 25).


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