Tongue is used,
literally, for the human tongue. 'Everyone that lappeth the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth' (). Various explanations have been offered, why Gideon's three hundred followers should have been selected because they lapped water out of their hands, standing or perhaps moving onward, while they who stayed and 'bowed down to drink' were rejected. Josephus says, that the former thereby showed their timorousness and fear of being overtaken by the enemy, and that these poor-spirited men were chosen on purpose to illustrate the power of God in the victory (Antiq. v. 6. 3).
It is personified. 'Unto me every tongue shall swear,' that is, every man (; comp.; , ).
It is used by metonymy for speech generally. 'Let us not love in tongue only' ().
For a particular language or dialect, spoken by any particular people. 'Everyone after his tongue' (;; ).
For the people speaking a language (;; , etc.; ).
It is used figuratively for anything resembling a tongue in shape. Thus, 'a wedge of gold,' literally a 'tongue' (; ).
The miraculous gift of tongues, as well as its corresponding gift of interpretation, has been the subject of two opinions. It was promised by Christ to believers (); and fulfilled at Pentecost (; ). In; , we have 'to pray in a tongue' (), 'to speak words in a tongue' (). The obvious explanation of most of these passages is, to speak in other living languages, the supernatural acquisition of which demonstrated the truth of the Gospel, and was a means of diffusing it. Some verses however in 1 Corinthians 14 have given rise to the notion of a strange, ecstatic, inspired, unearthly language; but these all admit of a different solution. In , 'he who speaketh in a tongue' evidently means, he who speaks some foreign living language; the supplied word 'unknown' in the Auth. Vers. is needless, and misleads the English reader. It is further said that 'he edifieth himself' (which, as Macknight justly pleads, required that he should understand himself), and edifieth the church also if an interpreter were present (). The key to the difficulties of this subject is the supposed absence of an inspired interpreter (), in which case the gift would not be profitable to the hearers. The gift of tongues was to cease ().
This Encyclopedia of Biblical Literature is a 6 volume set in 1 book. It has over 2Read More
John Kitto was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent.Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of his family meant that much of his childhood was spent in the workhouse. He had no more than three years of erratic and interrupted education. At the age of twelve John Kitto fell on his head from a rooftop, and became totally and permanently deaf. As a young man he suffered further tragedies, disappointments and much loneliness. His height was 4 ft 8 in, and his accident left him with an impaired sense of balance. He found consolation in browsing at bookstalls and reading any books that came his way.
From these hardships he was rescued by friends who became aware of his mental abilities and encouraged him to write topical articles for local newspapers, arranging eventually for him to work as an assistant in a local library. Here he continued to educate himself.
One of his benefactors was the Exeter dentist Anthony Norris Groves, who in 1824 offered him employment as a dental assistant. Living with the Groves family, Kitto was profoundly influenced by the practical Christian faith of his employer. In 1829 he accompanied Groves on his pioneering mission to Baghdad and served as tutor to Groves's two sons. In 1833 Kitto returned to England via Constantinople, accompanied by another member of the Groves mission, Francis William Newman. Shortly afterwards he married, and in due course had several children.
A London publisher asked Kitto to write up his travel journals for a series of articles in the Penny Magazine, a publication read at that time by a million people in Britain, reprinted in America and translated into French, German and Dutch. Other writing projects followed as readers enquired about his experiences in the East amidst people living in circumstances closely resembling those of Bible times.
Wikipedia