1 Corinthians 13:1 says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of
angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
I want to discuss the phrase, “the tongues of men and of angels” in
this verse. What does it mean to speak in the tongues of angels? What interpretations
are out there concerning this phrase that just seems out of place?
I have heard several different
interpretations on this particular phrase, all the way from the idea that Paul
was using it as a hyperbole to show that the languages of angels is simply out
of reach for human beings,[1] to
the idea that the Corinthians knew a special type of tongues beyond what was
already known at the time, and several other interpretations on top of these. I
am not quite convinced with these interpretations, so I will offer another
solution to this issue.
It appears that the above
interpretations are logical, but they just do not fit the relationship that
Paul seems to have with his wild brothers and sisters in Christ known as the
Corinthians (See 1 Cor. 1:4; 1:11-12; et. al.). Pentecostal believers today
would like to think that they have some kind of esoteric insight into the world
in which they seek to produce. It seems that everyone wants to be an expert,
and if you make your own world, then of course you would be an expert. When the
presuppositions of what tongues should be are rampant before a deep study of what
the Bible is actually saying, will only cause further confusion and
destruction. The point is that this phrase, “tongues of angels” is not talking
about the tongues mentioned in Acts chapter 2. It is totally different. We can
know this from the context. There is no mention of angelic tongues anywhere
else in the Bible with an exception of this verse. This is why it is difficult
to know what it means. We can eisegete other texts, but this would be
incorrect.
For instance, let’s look at a
popularly eisegeted verse: “For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to
people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the
Spirit” (1 Corinthians 14:2). We could insert the meaning that “because no one
understands them it is because it is an angelic language.” The problem here is
that it could also be the case that there is no one around who understands the
human language that is being spoken. This verse realistically teaches that Tongues
does not tell other people miraculously the gospel, because that is not what it
was for. The miracle in biblical tongues is that other people can understand
the language being spoken that the speaker does not know himself. So the
miracle is that someone does not know a language, yet is giving praise to God
in this unknown language. This is why it requires an interpreter (i.e. a native
speaker).
With this aside, it seems that we can
continue moving forward. We are still left with the idea that the tongues of
angels does not fit the context. The same goes for our next passage:
1
Corinthians 15:29 says, “Now if there is no resurrection, what will those
do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people
baptized for them?”
Excuse me, uhh… what? “Baptized
for the dead?” Again, this does not fit the context of the letter because we
are not the original recipients.
Mormons, who are changing their
name to something even more deceiving (Church of Jesus Christ), believe that
this teaches a doctrine that people should be baptized for other people who
have died so that those who died may get another shot at entering the pearly
gates (There are numerous problems with this, which I address HERE, so I will now only briefly
discuss it). This is why you could research your ancestral history through
their archives. The Mormons know every person since the beginning of Mormonism
because they need to be baptized for them so they have a chance to be in
heaven. This is how they “work” to feel good about themselves. This helps the
Mormons feel saved from their sins.
They invent a pseudo-grace that gives them pseudo-peace.
The problem here is that if this
is not what 1 Corinthians 15:29 is talking about, then what does it mean? There
are several interpretations that we could get lost in, and I have my own
educated opinion, but I think that with an unconsidered device for interpreting
these two texts, we will be able to make some more sense of it all.
In 1 Corinthians 9:20-22, which I
feel the need to point out that this is earlier than these two verses
chronologically speaking, Paul says to the Corinthians,
“To the Jews I
became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one
under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under
the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law
(though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win
those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have
become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save
some.”
It seems that with our verses in
question, Paul is using his own method of reaching the people with whom he
shares his method of reaching people. In other words, Paul is saying these
things to the Corinthians because they know exactly what he is referring to,
and these things will be strong arguments for the points that he is trying to
make and that he is trying to get them to see.
“If I speak with the tongues of
men and of angels…” I have heard that the Corinthians had an obsession with
death and the afterlife, and that the “tongues of angels” were some kind of
paganistic gibberish type of language that the Corinthians claimed they knew.
If something like this were the case, then Paul reaching to their level,
possibly saving addressing that issue for a different letter to the
Corinthians, then it makes sense that he would bring it up to them because he
is simply trying to speak their language.
If a people group is super
invested in their culture, they will not hear you if you make them feel stupid
or ashamed or wrong when it comes to what they believe about their culture. Not
only is this wrong, but it is highly ineffective. I know this because I live on
an Indian Reservation as a foreigner (1 Peter 2:11-12). This is why the Bible is replete with phrases like “gentleness
and respect” (1 Peter 3:15) and “great patience and long suffering” (2 Timothy
4:2) in regard to sharing the gospel. Paul knew what he was doing. He knew that
it took these things in order to win people to Christ. He was talking to the
Corinthians in a way that they could understand. This is how we today can
justify know knowing exactly what Paul was referring to when he mentions these
things. If we one day find out through archaeological discoveries then that is great,
but because there are so many interpretations about both of these verses and are
not fully satisfying to some, we can benefit by knowing that Paul was using his
method of basic witnessing in order to reach the Corinthians with the truth of
Jesus.
Written by Nace Howell through the
grace of the Lord Jesus
© Nace Howell, 2019
[1] David
E. Garland, 1 Corinthians: Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament.
(Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, 2003) 611.
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