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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday January 21, 2018
1
Corinthians 14
Strangely, it has always been a
matter of considerable debate, just what the Apostle Paul means by “speaking in
tongues”. In chapters 12-14 of his first letter to the Corinthians, he uses the
Greek expression “glossa” (gloce-sah) 21 times for “Tongues” and it is by
definition “the organ in one’s mouth that is used primarily for taste and
speech”, and, it is “a learned spoken language or dialect, not naturally acquired”.
“Ecstatic (emotional) utterances
(statements)”, otherwise known as “speaking in tongues” is “non-sense
utterances” that have no possible interpretation, not even by the person who
speaks them, and, is of no spiritual value, or no apparent spiritual benefit,
to anyone who hears it. Such a person is speaking only from his or her “human
spirit” (v.14), which is controlled primarily by satan. As Christians we should
all know that not only must our human spirit be willing in prayer, but we must
also pray in the power of the HOLY SPIRIT WHO directs us to the will of GOD in
our prayers, where we can also benefit others.
“Ecstatic Utterance” finds its origins in
the ancient pagan prophetesses known as “sibyls”, or “sibylla”. One sibyl in
particular, the “Cumaean Sibyl”,
was the most famous and influential of the ten pagan sibyls in and around the
Roman Empire in the first century. She was the priestess who presided over the Apollonian
Oracle at Cumae, Italy, an important Greek colony located near Naples. She is
also the person most responsible for infiltrating of the Christian Church with
this nonsense, along with her ally, the sibyl of the Oracle at Delphi in
Greece.
The word “sibyl” comes from the ancient Greek word “sibylla”, which means “prophetess”. Because
of the importance of the Cumaean Sibyl’s position in the legends of early Rome
(it is even codified in “Virgil's Aeneid
VI”), she became the most famous of all the ten pagan sibyls in the
Roman Empire prior to the first century and beyond.
These sibyls were believed, even by
medieval Christians, to prophesy through the use of “ecstatic utterances” and
thereby, they began to gain spiritual weight and respect in the Christian
Church of the first century. Their “Sibylline
Oracles” sometimes called the "pseudo-Sibylline Oracles" are a
collection of “oracular utterances” written in Greek hexameters, ascribed to
the Sibyls, who uttered so-called divine revelations “while in a frenzied emotional
state”. Fourteen books and eight fragments of Sibylline Oracles survive today.
These collections of utterances have been composed or edited under various
circumstances, probably between the 2nd and 6th centuries AD.
The Sibylline
Oracles are a valuable source for information about “Classical mythology”
and early first century Gnostic, Jewish, and Christian beliefs. Some
apocalyptic passages scattered throughout these oracles seem to give “sketchy
outlines” of the Apostle John's Book of Revelation, and other Apocalyptic
literature. These oracles have undergone extensive editing, re-writing, and
redaction as they came to be exploited in wider and wider circles as the years
went by.
The satanic demon spirit behind ecstatic
utterances is called “Cybele” (sounds the same as “sibyl”) known as “Magna
Mater”, or, “The Great Mother” in Roman religion. The Roman State adopted and
developed a particular form of her cult after the Sibylline oracle of Cumae recommended
her conscription as a key religious component in Rome's second war against
Carthage. Rome’s defeat of Carthage, the battle victory that launched the Roman
Empire, was predicted by this Cumaen Sibyl and thus she gained great prestige
and a huge following for her “lucky guess”, I mean, “prophecy”.
Roman
mythographers “channeled” this demon up as a Trojan goddess, and over time it
became an ancestral goddess of the Roman people, by way of the Trojan prince
Aeneas. With Rome's eventual military and political dominance over the
Mediterranean world, Romanized forms of “Cybele's cults” spread throughout the
Roman Empire. The meaning and morality of her “transgender” cults and
priesthoods were topics of debate and dispute throughout ancient Greek and
Roman literature, and remains so, even in modern scholarship.
The Apostle Paul was very much aware of the
pagan sibyl’s influence in the Christian Church in its infancy, mostly through
the infiltrating work of “Gnostics” and antichrist Jews, and he knew that the
Corinthians may have thought of ecstatic utterances as a spiritual gift from
GOD. That is why in this first letter to the Corinthians, we find Paul using
the word “glossa” 21 times between chapters 12-14 to demonstrate, and
accentuate, the difference between “a learned language or dialect” (those gifts
or abilities that come from GOD), and the “mumble jumble” emotional utterances
of the pagan sibyls.
Nowhere in its biblical use, or its Greek
or English definition does the word “glossa” or “tongue” refer to “ecstatic
speech”, not in any of Paul’s letters (used only three other times outside of 1
Corinthians), and, not when used anywhere else in the New Testament. Whether it
is used “literally” of the physical organ (Mark 7:33, James 3:5, Revelations
16:10), or “figuratively” of human languages (Acts 2:11, Revelations 5:9, 7:9,
10:11, 11:9, 13:7, 14:6, & 17:15) the word is always the same, “glossa”.
What Paul is saying in verse two of this
chapter of 1 Corinthians 14, is that, if a person were sitting in a Church
assembly in France, for instance, and everyone in the assembly spoke in the
French language except that person, then, if that one person was to stand up
and start speaking in, say, the German tongue, no one would be able to
understand them but GOD.
And while that person, who may be gifted to
teach in more than one language, or, “tongue”, and, could be uttering something
that may be totally GODly and spiritual, it wouldn’t be of benefit to anyone in
the assembly because none of them are gifted in the German dialect. They simply
would not be able to comprehend what the, more gifted, person were saying, as
it would sound to them like “utter non-sense” or “mumble jumble” (1 Corinthians
14:2).
However, one who has the gift of prophecy,
which is a “Spiritual gift”, is helping people grow in the LORD, encouraging
them, and comforting them by giving them revelations from GOD (revealing and
explaining the bible and its application) (v.3). The person who speaks in various
tongues, a “learned gift”, through GOD-given intellectual capabilities”, is
only strengthened “personally” in the LORD, while one who speaks a word of
prophecy strengthens the entire Church (v.4).
In verse 5 Paul says, “I wish you all had the gift of speaking in tongues, but even more I
wish you were all able to prophesy. For prophecy is a greater and more useful
gift than speaking in tongues, unless someone interprets what you are saying so
the whole church can get some good out of it”. Dear brothers and sisters, if I
should come to you speaking in tongues, how would that help you? But if I bring
you some revelation or some special knowledge or some prophecy or some
teaching, that is what will help you (NLT).
Paul himself spoke in various tongues, in
fact, the bible tells us that he was able to speak and write in at least three
different languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. However, he tells us in verses 9-12 that “If you talk to people in a language they don’t understand, How will
they know what you mean? You might as well be talking to an empty room. There
are many different languages in the world, and all are excellent for those who
understand them, but to me they mean nothing. I will not understand people who
speak those languages, and they will not understand me. Since you are all so
eager to have spiritual gifts, ask GOD for those that will be of real help to
the whole church” (NLT).
Languages that are interpreted can benefit
the assembly (Acts 19:6) as well as prophesy, therefore, the gift of
interpretation should be requested from GOD also. This means that someone
independent of the person, who is speaking a different language, must be
present and able to interpret what that person is saying to the assembly, not
just the person who’s speaking it (v.13).
Gifts are not given by GOD, so much for
personal use, as they are for use in helping others, and building them up.
“Personal edification” is something that should be a “by-product”, or a “result”,
that is reserved for someone who has shared their gift to help better the
Christian community as a whole. Personal edification should not be a result of
one helping himself, or taking advantage of others.
Some people try to make a distinction
between the word “tongues” in this epistle, and the use of the word “tongues”
in the book of Acts on Pentecost Day. However,
there is no difference as the same Greek term “glossa” is used in both
instances. The only difference is that the HOLY SPIRIT acted on several people
on that Pentecost day, giving them special supernatural abilities to “instantly”
communicate in other languages that was not their own, for the benefit of the
many foreigners who were in Jerusalem at that time observing the Pentecost,
and, who spoke in the many different languages of their native land.
GOD wanted everyone in attendance that day,
regardless of their native tongue, to participate in, and to understand the
significance of this “distinctive act”, where HE first allowed HIS HOLY SPIRIT
to embody all those who choose to believe in CHRIST JESUS.
Paul says in this
particular passage of 1 Corinthians (Vs.22-24), that, unbelievers view “strange
tongues” as being some sort of a sign, while believers are not of that opinion.
In order for unbelievers to become convicted of their sins, they must hear the
Gospel in their own native languages before they can begin to comprehend the things
of GOD.
The Word of GOD should convict and condemn
by what it says to us personally, and it can’t do that unless it is first
understood by those who hear and see it. And among those who see, hear, and
understand the Word, their secret thoughts are laid bare, and they can then,
fall to their knees and worship GOD with their whole heart, just as they
should.
A
CALL FOR ORDERLY WORSHIP
1
Corinthians 14:26-40
Here in this passage, Paul returns to the
subject of spiritual gifts and their limitations. All the while, he was trying
to deal with the problem of the Church services being disrupted by women who
worshipped the highly respected pagan sibyls (female pagan prophetesses) of the
first century, and, who ran around the room during services speaking in demonic
“ecstatic utterances” commonly known as “speaking in tongues” trying to imitate
the women of the pagan church assemblies who were said to prophecy that way.
Here Paul uses the “gift of prophecy” to
counteract this foolishness, and to show the difference between “intelligible
speech” (teaching and providing revelations from GOD), which “edifies”, or,
“spiritually builds a person up”, and, unintelligible speech (ecstatic
utterances) that is of no spiritual value whatsoever, to anyone, not even to
the person who speaks it.
Paul says that, while “unbelievers” who see
ecstatic utterances (nonsense speech) as a sign, may be impressed with it,
“believers”, on the other hand, should not be, but rather, they should be more
interested in what GOD has to say through intelligible prophecy (teaching and
revelation), not the unintelligible murmurings of pagan sibyls.
The problem of ecstatic speech
interruptions in Church services had gotten so out of hand in the Corinthian
Church that Paul had to command that all women be silent during church
meetings, period (Vs.34-35). Furthermore, why would GOD give someone an
unintelligible message that even the hearer can’t understand. It makes
absolutely no sense that it can come from GOD. However, it does make sense that
ecstatic utterances would come from satan, because it can be very effective in
distracting the Church from the teachings of GOD, and the effect those
teachings can have on the lives of those who seek HIM.
Here in this passage Paul seeks to restore some
sense of order to the Christian Church at Corinth before the influence of the
pagan sibyls spread and infiltrated the entire Christian Network of believers
as it has in today’s Christian Church. The believer has to hear the Gospel in
their own native tongue before they can be convicted by it and be able to
acknowledge the importance of CHRIST JESUS to the lives of mankind in this
world.
We will also do good not to miss Paul’s
instructions about judging those who prophecy before you. In verse 29 he says
that we must “weigh” (diakrino judge) what is said by those who claim to
prophecy from GOD. The word “diakrino” in the Greek means to “judge every
person, place, or thing, by the written word of GOD”.
GOD wants us to “judge”! But we must,
first, judge ourselves (anakrino judgment) by the Word of GOD, and then we must
judge others by the Word of GOD (diakrino judgment). However, we are not
allowed to judge (krino judgment, which is to condemn) a person as only GOD
can, for we do not have GOD’s permission, or power, or the perfect lifestyle
that would enable us to rightfully “condemn” others. We are to simply make the
correct judgment calls, based solely on GOD’s Word, so that we may do no harm
to ourselves, nor allow others to harm us, neither spiritually, physically, or
mentally.
A Sunday school lesson
by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER-
Official Website
