Tongues and Other Miraculous Gifts in the Second Through Nineteenth Centuries, Part 1: From the Early Church to the 3rd Century

Premiere Issue: Pneuma Review Fall 1998

Evidence for the operation of the gifts of the Spirit throughout the Church Age.

In the early history of the church, the gift of tongues was very closely associated with prophesy. The second century author Irenaeus, for example, in quoting Act 10:46, substituted the word “prophecy” where the Biblical passage specifies tongues.¹  This association of tongues with prophesy is also evident in the book of  Acts. When the apostle Paul was at Ephesus he found some disciples who said that they had been baptized into John’s baptism. He baptized them in the name of Jesus, and when he laid his hands on them, we are told in Acts 19:6 that they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.

This early association of tongues with prophesy should be borne in mind, since there is always the possibility that various early accounts of the manifestation of spiritual gifts refer to both when only one is mentioned, or even to one when the other is mentioned, as in the case of Irenaeus.

The miraculous gifts in general tend to be associated with one another, and accounts of tongues and prophesy are often included in accounts of healings, miracles, revelations, and visions.

The Epistle of Barnabas

While most of the writings of the Apostolic Fathers contain reports of the operation of the gifts,² one of the earliest and most important is that of the Epistle of Barnabas, written sometime between 70 and 132 A.D. Barnabas opens his letter with a greeting and says, “I rejoice with an exceeding great and overflowing joy at your blessed and glorious spirits; so innate is the grace of the spiritual gift that ye have received. Wherefore I the more congratulate myself  hoping to be saved, for that I truly see the Spirit poured out among you from the riches of the Fount of the Lord.”³ In this passage the spiritual gift to which he alludes is the Holy Spirit. The early church Fathers characteristically refer to the Holy Spirit as a gift who manifests Himself in a variety of ways throughout the congregation. Prophesy is specifically mentioned toward the close of the letter of Barnabas, where he says:

Wherefore God dwelleth truly in our habitation within us. How? The word of His faith, the calling of His promise, the wisdom of the ordinances, the commandments of the teaching, He Himself prophesying in us, He Himself dwelling in us, opening for us who had been in bondage unto death the door of the temple, which is the mouth, and giving us repentance leadeth us to the incorruptible temple.⁴

Justin Martyr

After the time of the Apostolic Fathers, one of the earliest Christian writers was Justin Martyr, the apologist of the early second century. His Dialogue With Trypho is a narrative of Justin’s conversation with a learned Jewish man, Trypho, and some of his friends. In Chapters 81 and 82 of this work, he cites the passage in Isaiah 11 which refers to gifts conferred by the Spirit of the Lord, and he says:

From the fact that even to this day the gifts of prophesy exist among us Christians, you should realize that the gifts which had resided among your people have now been transferred to us.⁵

In this passage, he refers to the gifts of prophesy in the plural. Because prophecy was closely associated with the other miraculous gifts, this would have been perfectly natural.  In a later chapter, Justin writes:

“Now if you look around, you can see among us Christians both men and women endowed with the gifts from the Spirit of God.”⁶

Justin specifically relates these gifts to Isaiah 11, which says, “And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord. And He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear.” It is clear, therefore, that Justin is speaking with specific reference to the gifts of revelation. He is responding to a question that Trypho had asked with respect to the Messiah. Trypho wanted to know why it would have been necessary for Jesus to be filled with the Spirit at His baptism in the Jordan river in fulfillment of Isaiah 11, since if He was God incarnate He should have already been endowed with such gifts from the time of His birth. Justin’s answer was that it was not for His sake that He was baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, but it was for our sake, that we might be partakers with Him in the spiritual gifts if we are in Christ. It is in support of this argument that he makes the statement quoted above, that “if you look around you can see among us Christians both men and women endowed with gifts from the Spirit of God.”⁷

Irenaeus

The early church father Irenaeus specifically mentions tongues as a gift operative in his own day. In Against Heresies, written in the late second century, Irenaeus stated that there were many who spoke in tongues at the time He wrote as follows:

In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the church, who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages, and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and declare the mysteries of God.”⁸

In this passage, the association of the gift of tongues (or languages) with prophesy is underscored. Once again, there is a reference to prophetic gifts in the plural, and there is a clear association of tongues and prophesy with other revelatory gifts. An entire series of such gifts is mentioned in an earlier portion of Against Heresies, where Irenaeus writes:

…those who are in truth His disciples, receiving grace from Him do in His name perform miracles, so as to promote the welfare of other men, according to the gift which each one has received from Him.  For some do certainly and truly drive out devils, so that those who have thus been cleansed from evil spirits frequently both believe in Christ, and join themselves to the church. Others have foreknowledge of things to come: they see visions, and utter prophetic expressions. Others still, heal the sick by laying their hands upon them, and they are made whole. Yea, moreover, as I have said, the dead even have been raised up, and remained among us for many years. And what shall I more say? It is not possible to name the number of gifts which the church, scattered throughout the whole world has received from God, in the name of Jesus Christ…⁹

From these passages it is clear that a wide range of miraculous gifts were operative in the church at Lyons, where Irenaeus was writing, sometime after A.D. 178.

Tertullian

At a slightly later period, Tertullian of Carthage, the father of Latin theology, wrote some of his most important works. His profound influence upon Christian theology in the West is almost universally recognized. His works provided the terminology that was to be used by theologians, not only in the ensuing Christological and Trinitarian debates, but throughout all of Western church history down to the present day. He is probably best remembered for his defense of the earliest forms of the doctrine of the Trinity in his refutations of various heresies, including Sabellianism, which reduced the status of the persons of the Trinity to modes or manifestations of one God. According to the Sabellians, the Son and the Holy Spirit were merely temporal modes of the self-revelation of the Father. One of the passages from Tertullian that is quoted in this connection is from Tertullian’s Against Praxeas, according to which Praxeas, who was a Sabellian, had put to flight the Paraclete, and crucified the Father.¹⁰ Such statements illustrate Tertullian’s concern for the full personhood of each of the persons of the Trinity and make him a champion of orthodox Trinitarianism. But it is of even greater interest to read Tertullian’s statement in its context, for while his concern for the full personhood of all three persons of the Trinity is clearly evident, his primary concerns for the recognition of spiritual gifts. He wrote:

For after the Bishop of Rome had acknowledged the prophetic gifts of Montanus, Prisca, and Maximilla, and, in consequence of the acknowledgement, had bestowed his peace on the churches of Asia and Phrygia, he, by importunately urging false accusations against the prophets themselves and their churches, and insisting on the authority of the bishop’s predecessors in the see, compelled him to recall the pacific letter which he had issued, as well as to desist from his purpose of acknowledging the said gifts. By this Praxeas did a twofold service for the devil at Rome: he drove away prophecy, and he brought in heresy; he put to flight the Paraclete, and he crucified the Father.”¹¹

In this passage Tertullian was writing in defense of  Montanism, which is often rejected as an early heresy of the late second and early third centuries. It is widely acknowledged, however, that Tertullian became a Montanist in A.D. 206 and wrote many of  his important theological works (including Against Praxeas) after becoming a Montanist. It would seem inconsistent, however, to reject Montanism as heresy while accepting the works of one of its most outspoken adherents as authoritative theological works.

Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History

Most of the available primary source materials on Montanism are unfavorable. Eusebius, in his ecclesiastical History, quotes five sources on Montanism, all of which speak very unfavorably of the movement. Part of one of his quotations is as follows:

In Phrygian Mysia there is said to be a village called Ardabav. There they say is a recent convert called Montanus, when Gratus was proconsul of Asia, in the unbounded lust of his soul for leadership gave access to himself to the adversary, became obsessed, and suddenly fell into frenzy and convulsions. He began to be ecstatic and to speak and to talk strangely, prophesying contrary to the custom which belongs to the tradition and succession of the church from the beginning.”¹²

Montanism spread rapidly throughout Phrygia and Asia Minor in the early second century, and the use of the gift of prophecy was its major distinctive.

Whether or not Montanism was heresy (or false prophesy), there is considerable evidence in Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius that prophecy was still in use in the non-Montanist churches during the time that Montanism arose. After a long description of the persecutions in Gaul of A.D. 177-178, Eusebius writes:

Just at that time the party of Montanus and Alcibiades and Theodotus in Phrygia began first to engender among many their views concerning prophecy (for the many other wonderful works of the grace of God which were still being wrought up to that time in divers churches produced the belief that they also were prophets), and when dissension arose about the persons mentioned the brethren in Gaul formulated their own judgement, pious and most orthodox, concerning them, subjoining various letters from the martyrs who had been consecrated among them, which letters while they were still in prison they had composed for the brethren in Asia and Phrygia, and also for Eleutherus who was then bishop of the Romans, and so they were ambassadors for the sake of the peace of the churches.

Irenaeus also, who was at that time already a presbyter of the diocese at Lyons, the same martyrs commended to the afore-mentioned bishop of Rome and gave him much good testimony.”¹³

Unfortunately, the above passage does not state clearly what judgement was formulated by the brethren in Gaul about Montanus; it merely states that they formulated a judgement. Whether this judgement was favorable or unfavorable, however, Irenaeus was commended, who, as we have already seen unquestionably believed in the operation of the gifts of the Spirit in his day. It is clear, therefore, that if the brethren in Gaul had made an unfavorable judgement about Montanus, they had not judged unfavorably with respect to the continuing operations of the prophetic gifts within the church. This is evident in the above passage from Eusebius, for he states, “for the many other wonderful works of the grace of God which were still being wrought up to that time in divers churches produced the belief among many that they were also prophets.”¹⁴ Of course this passage is also vague, for it is not clear what wonderful works of the grace of God were being wrought. Nevertheless, if these works produced the belief among many that they were prophets, it would be logical to assume that the works being wrought were miraculous.  Eusebius also mentions in a favorable light a treatise of the prophesy of Melito, bishop of Sardis, written during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180).¹⁵ In another passage, Eusebius names several people as prophets. Included are Agabus (who is mentioned as a prophet in the Book of Acts), a certain Judas, Silas, the daughters of Phillip, Ammia in Philadelphia, and Quadratus, the apologist who had flourished during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138)¹⁶

Other Writing of Tertullian

In addition to Against Praxeas, many of the works of Tertullian contain passing references to the operation of the gifts of the Spirit in his day. In A Treatise on the Soul he wrote:

For, seeing that we acknowledge spiritual charismata, or gifts, we too have merited the attainment of the prophetic gift, although coming after John (the Baptist). We have now amongst us a sister whose lot it has been to be favoured with sundry gifts of revelation, which she experiences in the Spirit by ecstatic vision amidst the sacred rites of the Lord’s day in the church: she converses with angels , and sometimes even with the Lord; she both sees and hears mysterious communications; some men’s hearts she understands, and to them who are in need she distributes remedies.”¹⁷

Tertullian continues the narrative with further elaboration, noting that “all of  her communications are examined with the most scrupulous care, in order that their truth may be probed.”¹⁸ With his characteristic relish he states further:

The apostle most assuredly foretold that there were to be ‘spiritual gifts’ in the church. Now, can you refuse to believe this, even if indubitable evidence on every point is forthcoming for your conviction?”¹⁹

In his treatise Against Marcion, Tertullian specifically mentions the gift of tongues. In writing of the fulfillment of the prophesy of Joel 2:28,29, he compares Isaiah 11:1-5 with 1 Corinthians 12:8-11. He speaks of each of the gifts in turn, including tongues, where he says:

When he mentions the fact that ‘it is written in the law,’ how that the creator would speak with other tongues and other lips, whilst confirming indeed the gift of tongues by such a mention, he yet cannot be thought to have affirmed that the gift was that of another god by his reference to the creator’s predictions.²⁰

In this passage, Tertullian is referring to 1 Corinthians 14:21,22 where it says:

In the Law it is written, “by men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to me,” says the Lord. So then tongues are for a sign, not for those who believe, but to unbelievers…

Tertullian is referring to Marcion’s gnosticism, according to which matter is evil and therefore created by a god inferior to God the Father of Jesus, a God of love. If this were so Tertullian argued, then how is it that the Creator of whom the Old Testament speaks could speak in tongues, through the mouths of Christ’s present-day followers? That Tertullian was writing of gifts in his own day is certain, for the passage continues as follows:

Let Marcion then exhibit, as gifts of his god, some prophets, such as have not spoken by human sense, but with the Spirit of God, such as have both predicted things to come, and have made manifest the secrets of the heart; let him produce a psalm, a vision, a prayer—only let it be by the spirit, in an ecstasy, that is, in a rapture, whenever an interpretation of tongues has occurred to him; let him show to me also, that any woman of boastful tongue in his community has ever prophesied from amongst those specially holy sisters of his. Now all these signs (of spiritual gifts) are forthcoming from my side without any difficulty.²¹

One final quotation from Tertullian worthy of mention in connection with spiritual gifts appears in his Exhortation to Chastity, Chapter 4. In a passage which refers to the Apostle Paul, Tertullian writes:

For apostles have the Holy Spirit properly, who have Him fully, in the operations of prophesy, and the efficacy of  (healing) virtues, and the evidences of tongues; not partially, as all others have.”²²

Although Tertullian is speaking with specific reference to the apostle Paul, it is interesting that he writes in the present tense in saying that apostles have the Holy Spirit properly who have Him fully. His use of present tense suggests that Tertullian may have believed that there were also apostles in his own day.

Clement of Alexandria

Another passing reference to the operation of the gifts of the Spirit in the late second or early third century appears in the Miscellanies of Clement of Alexandria, in which he quotes 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, which speaks of nine miraculous gifts, and writes:

“Such being the case, the prophets are perfect in prophecy, the righteous in righteousness, and the martyrs in confession, and others in preaching, not that they are not sharers in the common virtues, but are proficient in those to which they are appointed.”²³

Here also, the use of the present tense suggests the possibility that Clement believed in the existence of prophets at the time he was writing.

 

Part 2: 3rd to the 5th Centuries
Part 2 of Tongues and Other Miraculous Gifts

 

Notes

¹ Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3:12;15, cited by Harold Hunter, “Tongues-Speech: A Patristic Analysis,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 23 (June 1980), p. 130.
² See, for example, Harold Hunter, ibid., pp. 125-126
³ Barnabas, The Epistle of Barnabas 1:2,3 in J.B. Lightfoot, ed., The Apostolic Fathers (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1956), p. 137.
⁴ Barnabas, The Epistle of Barnabas 16:9, ibid., p. 153.
⁵ Justin Martyr, Dialogue With Trypho 82:1 in Writings of Justin Martyr, Thomas B. Falls, trans., The Fathers of the Church (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1948), vol. 6, p. 278.
⁶ Justin Martyr, Dialogue With Trypho 88:1, ibid., vol. 6, p. 288.
⁷ Ibid.
⁸ Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5:6:1 in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., Ante-Nicene Christian Library (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1869), vol. 9, p. 68.
⁹ Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2:32:4, ibid., vol. 5, pp. 245-246.
¹⁰ See, for example, the article on “Sabellianism” by Samuel J. Mikolaski in J. D. Douglas, ed., The New International Directory of the Christian Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), pp. 870-871.
¹¹ Tertullian, Against Praxeas, chapter 1, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1918), vol. 3, p. 597.
¹² Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapter 16, sections 5-8, in Kirsopp Lake, trans., Eusebius Ecclesiastical History (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953), vol. 1, p. 475.
¹³ Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapters 3 and 4, ibid.,vol. 1pp. 443-445.
¹⁴ Ibid.
¹⁵ Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book 4, chapter 26, ibid., vol. 1, p.387.
¹⁶ Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapter 17, ibid., vol. 1, p. 485.
¹⁷ Tertullian, A Treatise on the Soul, chapter 9, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1918), vol. 3, p. 188.
¹⁸ Ibid.
¹⁹ Ibid.
²⁰ Tertullian, Against Marcion, book 5, chapter 18, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1918), vol. 3, p. 446.
²¹ Tertullian, Against Marcion, book 5, chapter 8, ibid., pp.446-447.
²² Tertullian, Exhortations to Chastity, chapter 4, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925), vol. 4, p. 53.
²³ Clement of Alexandria,  The Miscellanies, book 4, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds.,  Ante-Nicene Christian Library (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1869), vol. 10, p. 446.

“Tongues and Other Miraculous Gifts in the Second Through Nineteenth Centuries, Part I: From the Early Church to the 3rd Century ” originally appeared in Issue 1 (Fall 1985) of Basileia: A Journal of Theology for Worshipping Churches published by Christian Life College in Mt. Prospect, Ill. Used by permission.

 

Part 2: 3rd to the 5th Centuries
Part 2 of Tongues and Other Miraculous Gifts