The Biblical Examiner 
An Examination of Biblical Precepts Involved in Issues at Hand 

December 1997

Contents

 1) Tongues
2) Books Ready

Be sure to see the book, "Tongues, a Biblical View," by Pastor Need.
 

Tongues

(See corrections for the following article.)

     This Baptist pastor must concede that there are now genuine tongues in America. Before the reader dismisses me as a heretic, please consider the law Paul referred to:

Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young: And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. (Dt. 28:47-51.)

For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. (Is. 28:11.)

     I wanted to reproduce all of Jeremiah 5:1-19 here, but was unable to for space’s sake. So please look up the passage—it is a key to what follows.

     The following is from the "State Briefs" section of the Houston Chronicle, March 21, 1997:

BEAUMONT — Trainloads of German military equipment will soon be rolling though Texas on its way to training exercises at the White Sands Missile Base in New Mexico. The Germans began unloading 91 shipping containers and 159 trucks and trailers full of equipment at the Port of Beaumont Friday. The Terrier is scheduled to begin unloading 692 trucks and trailers today. The equipment, mainly ground-to-air missile systems, will be joined by 2,700 German Air Force, Army and Navy troops in New Mexico for a training exercise called "Operation Roving Sands."

Brig. Gen. Wilfried Scheffer, commander of German troops in the United States, said Friday that the exercise gives German troops an opportunity to train with their American counterparts. He said the desert country of New Mexico provides plenty of ground and air space for training exercises.

     Reportedly,  there are now more foreign troops on American soil than there are American troops. Our troops are overseas "guarding the world," while foreign troops are here "guarding America." Troops whose tongue we cannot understand.

     I realize the Internet should at times be considered unfounded rumors, but I have no doubt the following is true, considering the many things being revealed concerning the "China Connection" with the White House and the condition our State Department has been in for many years. It dated and signed. Check it out yourself:

[Subj: Re: Nerve Gas in New York Date: 97-03-28 15:45:48 EST From: SMetro777 To: BOBURWELL]

My friend....while this was occuring...several other things are going on also...Two journalists were escorted out of the Long Beach shipyard for taking photos of AMERICAN naval ships...flying the RED chinese flag...along with Chinese war ships anchored there. Also..in the photos...Chinese armed with AK’s...unloading crates from a Chinese destroyer....under the new agreement with Cosco...they are immune from documentation..on laden...no custom checks are allowed. The Long Beach Navel Training Facility has been leased now to Pegasus...a chinese owned shipping company...Diane Finstiens husband represents Pegasus.

The Benton Arkansas airport has been leased to the Chinese government..again under the agreement that the [sic] are immune from all import documentation..The Charleston shipyard has just been leased to the Chinese...along with a 50 thousand acre parcel in California...I asked you once...do you think Clinton surrendered to the Chinese..and they are just waiting for the right time to tell us...when all is in place..I ask you now...do you still think that is a crazy Idea...???

Scott.

Check your sources..I’ll bet anything ..more American soil is being given to the Chinese everyday....also...our U.N. Biospheres..(National Parks) are being used as training and staging areas for Chinese and Russian troops...Yeltsin signed an agreement with the Chinese after Clinton and he..disagreed on the Nato expansion.

You seem to have good sources...please do some checking...

Scott

[Send "subscribe snetnews " to majordomo@world.std.com Posted by: burro@panama.gulf.net]

     It is a well known fact that The Long Beach Naval Training Facility, one of the best deep water port facilities in America, was turned over free of charge by the US to the city of Long Beach, who then leased it to Communist China for $14.5 million a year. Long Beach agreed to invest $300 million to upgrade the base for China’s use. (The same man who is now Red China’s governor over Hong Kong is the commanding officer of the Long Beach facility.)

     Furthermore, even here in the rural community where we are located, we commonly encounter people speaking in tongues we cannot understand, e.g., Spanish or an Asian (e.g., Japanese) language. Wabash National in Lafayette, one of the largest semi-trailer manufactures in the world, has a large amount of Mexicans on the work floor—they cannot understand English, nor can the local employees understand their Spanish. Several major employers in our area are foreign owned, and nationals from those nations are here. (There are two extremely large, Japanese owned auto plants close by. The one in Lafayette had a Shinto priest come over from Japan to dedicate it to their Shinto god, without a word of protest from "Christian" America.) This pastor can easily remember when all the major companies of the world were American owned, and Americans went over the world in support of those companies. The people in those nations had to learn English in their own nations to understand what was taking place. Now the major companies are foreign owned as America’s wealth has been transferred overseas: Americans in their native land must learn Spanish, Japanese, German, Russian, etc., in order to understand what is taking place. Call a toll-free service or order number, and you could well be straining to understand through the heavy foreign accent. Our oldest daughter works full time in order to pay her way through Purdue, only about 30 minutes North of where we live. The vast majority of the classroom instructors are foreign, and their lectures are very hard to understand.

     We are now seeing a vast diversity of tongues, i.e., languages, here in a land that has, from the very first, been of one language. Genuine tongues, various languages, are now being spoken, and to the average American, they are certainly unknown.

     According to Paul’s instructions (1 Cor. 14), if a foreigner now stationed in America would get up in a Christian assembly and speak in his native tongue, Paul tells him to be quiet unless there was someone who can interpret what he said. What good would it be for a man (for only a man could speak instructions in a Christian assembly, 1 Cor. 14:34, 35) to preach the best sermon in the world if no one could understand or interpret it?

     The now many varied, unintelligible tongues to the average person in the street or in the work place are here in America, a new and unusual event. Strange! But is it strange? Why would we think it strange that the Lord would bring strange nations, nations whose tongues we cannot understand, against a nation, America, that refuses to serve the Christian Lord God of the Bible with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of the good things he has provided over the centuries?

     What we are now hearing on the streets of America are lawful, Biblical tongues.

     1 Corinthians 13:1-3, tongues of men refer to understandable human languages; the tongues of angels may refer to the medium by which angels communicate in heaven. Paul does not say that it is possible or desirable to speak with the tongues of angels; rather, he says that if such a thing were possible, it (nor is any other "gift") is not the mark of the Spirit of Christ—genuine love is that mark (1 Cor. 13 describes Christian love).

other tongues (Acts 2:4), heterais glossai--that is,

Other than their native tongues. Each one began to speak in a language that he had not acquired and yet it was a real language and understood by those from various lands familiar with them. It was not jargon, but intelligible language. Jesus had said that the gospel was to go to all the nations and here the various tongues of earth were spoken. One might conclude that this was the way in which the message was to be carried to the nations, but future developments disprove it. This is a third miracle (the sound, the tongues like fire, the untaught languages). There is no blinking the fact that Luke so pictures them. One need not be surprised if this occasion marks the fulfilment of the Promise of the Father. But one is not to confound these miraculous signs with the Holy Spirit. They are merely proof that he has come to carry on the work of his dispensation. The gift of tongues came also on the house of Cornelius at Caesarea (Acts 10:44-47; 11:15-17), the disciples of John at Ephesus (Acts 19:6), the disciples at Corinth (I Cor. 14:1-33). It is possible that the gift appeared also at Samaria (Acts 8:18). But it was not a general or a permanent gift. Paul explains in 1Cor. 14:22 that "tongues" were a sign to unbelievers and were not to be exercised unless one was present who understood them and could translate them. This restriction disposes at once of the modern so-called tongues which are nothing but jargon and hysteria. It so happened that here on this occasion at Pentecost there were Jews from all parts of the world, so that some one would understand one tongue and some another without an interpreter such as was needed at Corinth. The experience is identical in all four instances and they are not for edification or instruction, but for adoration and wonder and worship. As the Spirit gave them utterance (kathos to pneuma edidou apophtheggesthai autois). This is precisely what Paul claims in I Cor. 12:10,28, but all the same without an interpreter the gift was not to be exercised (I Cor. 14:6-19). Paul had the gift of tongues, but refused to exercise it except as it would be understood. Note the imperfect tense here (edidou). Perhaps they did not all speak at once, but one after another. Apophtheggesthai is a late verb (LXX of prophesying, papyri). Lucian uses it of the ring of a vessel when it strikes a reef. It is used of eager, elevated, impassioned utterance. In the N.T. only here, verse 14 and 26:25. Apophthegm is from this verb. (A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, III.21, 22. Broadman. See RWP in Online Bible.)

own language (Acts 2:6, &c.), tei idiai dialektoi--that is,

Locative case. Each one could understand his own language when he heard that. Every one that came heard somebody speaking in his native tongue. (Ibid, 23.)

tongues (various locations), glossa--that is,

the language used by a particular people in distinction from that of other nations: Acts ii.11...; new tongues which the speaker has not learned previously, Mk. xvi. 17... 1 Co. xii. 10...; to speak with tongues; this, as appears from 1 Co. xiv. 7 sqq., is the gift of men who, rapt in an ecstasy and no longer quite masters of their own reason and consciousness, pour forth their glowing spiritual emotions in strange utterances, rugged, dark, disconnected, quite unfitted to instruct or to influence the minds of others: Acts x. 46; xix. 6; 1 Cor xii. 30; xiii.1; xiv. 2, 4-6, 13, 18, 23, 27, 39... (J.H. Thayer, The New Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon, 118.)

divers kinds of tongues (1 Cor. 12:10), gene glosson--that is,

No word for "divers" in the Greek. There has arisen a great deal of confusion concerning the gift of tongues as found in Corinth. They prided themselves chiefly on this gift which had become a source of confusion and disorder. There were varieties (kinds, gene) in this gift, but the gift was essentially an ecstatic utterance of highly wrought emotion that edified the speaker(#14:4) and was intelligible to God (14:2,28). It was not always true that the speaker in tongues could make clear what he had said to those who did not know the tongue (14:13): It was not mere gibberish or jargon like the modern "tongues," but in a real language that could be understood by one familiar with that tongue as was seen on the great Day of Pentecost when people who spoke different languages were present. In Corinth, where no such variety of people existed, it required an interpreter to explain the tongue to those who knew it not. Hence Paul placed this gift lowest of all. It created wonder, but did little real good. This is the error of the Irvingites and others who have tried to reproduce this early gift of the Holy Spirit which was clearly for a special emergency and which was not designed to help spread the gospel among men. See on Acts 2:13-21; 10:44-46; 19:6. (Robertson, IV.170.)

interpretation of tongues (1 Cor. 12:10), hermeneia glosson--that is,

Old word, here only and 14:26 in N.T., from hermeneuo from Hermes (the god of speech). Cf. on diermeneuo in Luke 24:27; Acts 9:36. In case there was no one present who understood the particular tongue it required a special gift of the Spirit to some one to interpret it if any one was to receive benefit from it. (Ibid.)

speak with the tongues (1 Cor. 13:1), tais glossais,--that is,

Instrumental case. Mentioned first because really least and because the Corinthians put undue emphasis on this gift. (Robertson, IV.177.)

all spake with tongues (1 Cor. 14:5)--that is,

Translate, "Now I wish you all to speak with tongues (so far am I from thus speaking through having any objection to tongues), but rather IN ORDER THAT (as my ulterior and higher wish for you) ye should prophesy." Tongues must therefore mean languages, not ecstatic, unintelligible rhapsodie (as NEANDER fancied): for Paul could never "wish" for the latter in their behalf. (Jameson*Fausset*Brown, III.Part 3.323. Eerdmans.)

Hastings points out that "It is significant that the Pauline notices of 'tongue-speech' are concerned only with the Corinthian Church." Mystical, ecstatic, even demonic, utterances in supposed communication with the gods, particularly during pagan orgies, were not uncommon in Corinth. Ecstatic utterances had invaded the church from the pagan worship so prevalent in the city (1 Cor 14:2, 4, 13, 14, 19, 26, 27, including all the verses having unknown added by the translators). 1 Cor 14:9 refers to the physical tongue of man; 1 Cor 14:23, plural with a plural pronoun, refers to the Corinthian ecstatic utterances. Observe that chapter 14 contains a mixture of the word tongues: vv. 2, 4, 13, 19, 26 & 27, pagan ecstatic utterances; vv. 5, 6, 18 & 22, actual ethnic languages. (James Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, III.371a; The Pulpit Commentary, XIX.397; Spiros Zodhiates, The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible, 1436, 1438.)

Therefore, Paul says that he desires that they would indeed be able to supernaturally speak with other ethnic languages as he can, but on the other hand, he is soundly renouncing and rebuking the ecstatic utterances which are actually taking place in this church.

     Let us make a quick overview of three main points from 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14, which will be covered in more detail.

     First, notice Paul anchors tongues firmly in the law of Moses by citing tongues’ Old Testament foundation, their time-frame and purpose, 14:21, 22, which we will develop shortly. Furthermore, Paul refers to Moses’ command for women to remain silent in the church assembly and to learn from their own husbands, 14:34, 35. (A result of the fall is that the husband is commanded to instruct his wife, Gen. 3:16; Eph. 5:22; 1 Pet. 3:1. Thus for a woman to instruct men in the church is a direct effort to overthrow God’s word.) The command is followed immediately with, If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that these things that Paul writes to the church are the commandments of God, v. 37.

     Second, notice Paul’s list of "gifts," 12:8-10 and v. 28; tongues (ethnic languages) is listed last, showing that they were the least desirable of all the gifts. (Cf. 14:5.) Whatever is done in the church is for one purpose only: to edify the church—the individual is to excel in building up the church, 14:12. Paul is quite clear in 14:4: The Corinthian ecstatic utterance were for self-edification, and was connected with the pride that Paul had to deal with in this letter. Paul makes a contrast—prophesying (preaching the whole counsel of God, Jesus Christ in his entirety, Ac. 20:27; Rev. 19:10) edifies the church, while ecstatic utterances edify the individual (it makes one feel good).

     Third, we see that tongues (both ethnic languages & the Corinthian ecstatic utterance) had to be interpreted for the profit of the entire assembly, vv. 5, 13, 27, 28; thus, if there was no interpretation for what was spoken, neither ethnic languages nor ecstatic utterance was permitted. In addition, Paul clearly and absolutely forbids women from taking any part in the speaking or interpretation of tongues; it is confusion, 14:33-35. What is needed in the church is clear, distinct and easily understood speaking, 14:7-12. Therefore, Paul, without actually telling them to stop the ecstatic utterances, placed severe enough restriction on them that, if they would obey him, they would stop. Notice the connection that we will come back to, 14:8—he connects tongues with the trumpet that sounded the alarm as in the Old Testament, Ezekiel 3 and 33, etc. God’s messenger is to sound the trumpet of warning midst sin and evil. If the trumpet cannot be understood, what good is it?

     In Paul’s first letter to Corinth, he dealt with situations that developed in this church with "the gifts." In chapter 12:1, Paul starts his address on the subject of spiritual gifts; thus, chapter 13 cannot be taken out of context from chapters 12 and 14. These three chapters (12-14) were written to deal with the outside influence of the ecstatic utterances flooding into the church from the pagan temple worship of Aphrodite. Paul made it clear to the Corinthians that their speech (glossa) had no spiritual significance before the Christian God. (1 Cor. 14:6-11.) Furthermore, in these three chapters, Paul points out the difference between the real tongues and the ecstatic utterances that were taking place. Obviously, what was going on at Corinth was causing problems because Paul, in 12-14, is not exhorting its practice; rather, he lists its restrictions and regulations.

     It is important to understand that these three chapters are dealing with a problem: misunderstood spiritually. 1 Corinthians 12:1, spiritual—Paul follows the same line of thought as he did in Galatians 6:1; these Corinthians were misunderstanding what it meant to be spiritual. Because of the carry-over of the pagan idea of worship (and thus spirituality), they were associating the pagan ecstatic utterance with spirituality and communion with the heavenly Father. Notice that the word gifts is added by the translators; therefore, Paul writes the whole passage (chaps 12-14) to clear up the misunderstanding associated with spirituality. (True spirituality is defined in chapter 13. See also 1 Jn. 3:14.)

     Paul firmly anchored tongues (ethnic languages, not ecstatic speech) in the law, as clearly revealed in the Old Testament; therefore, we must do the same. Tongues were a warning to unbelieving Jews of God’s soon coming, and even present, national judgment; tongues were a sign for those who knew God’s Old Testament law; tongues were a call to the nation that had forsaken its God, a call to repent and turn from its sin and back to the Lord God through Christ, 14: 21, 22. Tongues were for a sign not to them that believe already the truth of God’s word, but to those who believed not. The clear preaching of God’s word, prophesying, was for believers.

     Here, as in all places, our final authority for all that is believed, said and practiced must be God’s total law-word. (2 Tim. 3:16.) Christ Himself commanded us to search the Scripture that we might find the truth of a matter. (Jn. 5:39, 46, 47.) Both Paul and Christ were referring to searching the Old Testament Scriptures to confirm any and every doctrine because there were no New Testament Scriptures when Christ spoke and Paul wrote. The Old Testament was safely kept in the Synagogues. The Bereans were commended as being more noble than those in Thessalonica because they searched the Old Testament Scriptures daily to confirm what they were being taught by Paul. (Ac. 17:11.) Might we do the same. Any doctrine that cannot be clearly confirmed from the Old Testament is a false doctrine; therefore, we must reach back to the Old Testament, as Paul does here, to find the truth about tongues.

     Isaiah says that if anyone speaks not according to the law and to the testimony (of the prophets), there is no light in them. (Is. 8:20. See also, Lk. 24:44-48.) Therefore, we have no choice but, as Paul does, to go back into the Old Testament to find the reason for the tongues of Acts 2, 10, 19, 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14. Paul, by quoting Isaiah 28:11-12 in 1 Corinthians 14:20-22, rebukes the Corinthians for not understanding the Old Testament Scriptures in their use of "the gift of tongues." American Christians today should tremble in fear of the Lord as they read the passage Paul used to instruct the first generation of Christians.

     Isaiah 28 takes place in the latter years of Hezekiah, King of Judah, 705-701 BC. Before his rule (722 BC), Assyria invaded Palestine and the Northern Kingdom. Ephraim was destroyed. Now, many years later, Isaiah warns the people of the Southern Kingdom, Judah, that the same thing will happen to them. (Cf. Jer. 3:7-10.) But instead of trusting in the Lord for their deliverance from Assyria, Judah makes a deal with Egypt. Their unity with pagan Egypt brings an influx of heathen practices into the congregation of the Lord, and their hearts turn from him. In vv. 7, 8, God’s prophet points to the leaders of Judah, and tells the world that they are involved in wicked evil practices—a drunken party. The leaders mock Isaiah and his warning concerning their spiritual condition. Not liking to be addressed as irresponsible children, even though they are childish, they call his teaching childishly simple. As far as they are concerned, Isaiah, a legalist preacher, speaks down to them as one would to a minor, and, considering themselves "free adults," they resent Isaiah, and sneer at his warning.

     The prophet, in vv. 11-13, deals with them in the very point of their sarcasm (he continues to speak to them as children, using their scorn for God’s word against them) as he makes his prophetic announcement of coming judgment, vv. 14ff. Since the people will not listen to God as he speaks to draw them back to his law-word with plain and simple words that they understand and use daily (including the weather, v. 3, Dt. 28:24), He will speak to them in a language they cannot understand, Assyrian. Now they will need an interpreter to understand the other "tongues," languages. (Is. 10:5-6.) When they hear the stammering lips and another tongue on the streets of Jerusalem, as well as throughout the land (i.e., the Assyrian language which they understood not), they will know that God’s judgment is upon them according to Isaiah’s warning. The another tongue was a sure sign pointing them directly back to Isaiah’s warning of the coming judgment at which they had mocked and sneered.

     The warning goes back well before Isaiah. We find the basic law for Isaiah’s warning (and Paul’s) warning in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 (36, 49). There Moses points out to the congregation of the Lord (the seed of Israel) that one result of God’s people rejecting the Lord as their King would be servitude to a people whose tongue (language) they would not understand, which is genuine, lawful, Biblical tongues. If God’s people will not serve the Biblical God as their King, whose word is easily understood (Dt. 30:14, Rom. 10:8), they will serve the heathen, whose words they cannot understand, 47-49. Therefore, let us not suppose for a moment that the rebellious Jews who Isaiah and Paul spoke to did not make the connection of Deuteronomy 28:45-68. There is no way they could have missed the connection, but knowing human nature as we do (we have it), they ignored the facts. "Other tongues" was the result of rejecting God’s rule (total authority) over them. (Cf. 1 Sam. 8.) This fact is well established in the law of God, and will not change.

     According to Keil:

[Dt. 28:49, 50.] The Lord would bring against it from afar a barbarous, hardhearted nation, which knew no pity. "From afar" is still further strengthened by the addition of the words, "from the end of the earth." The greater the distance off, the more terrible does the foe appear. He flies thence like an eagle, which plunges with violence upon its prey, and carries it off with its claws; and Israel does not understand its language, so as to be able to soften its barbarity, or come to any terms. A people "firm, hard of face," i.e. upon whom nothing makes an impression (vid. Isa. 1. 7),—a description of the audacity and shamelessness of its appearance (Dan. viii. 23; cf. Prov. vii. 13, xxi. 29), which spares neither old men nor boys. This description no doubt applies to the Chaldeans, who are described as flying eagles in Hab. I. 6 sqq., Jer. xlviii. 4O, xlix. 22, Ezek. xvii. 3, 7, as in the verses before us; but it applies to other enemies of Israel beside these, namely to the great imperial powers generally, the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Romans, whom the Lord raised up as the executors of His curse upon His rebellious people. Isaiah therefore depicts the Assyrians in a similar manner, namely, as a people with an unintelligible language (chap. v. 267 xxviii. 11, xxxiii. 19), and describes the cruelty of the Medes in chap. xiii. 17, 18, with an unmistakable allusion in ver. 50 of the resent threat.2

     Gill comments thusly:

[Dt. 28:49.] The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, &c.] Now though Babylon is represented as a country distant from Judea, and said to be a nation "from far", Jer 5:15; yet not "from the end of the earth"; as here; and though the Roman nation, strictly speaking, was not at so great a distance from Jerusalem, yet the Roman emperors, and great part of their armies brought against it, were fetched from our island of Great Britain, which in former times was reckoned the end of the earth, and the uttermost parts of the world {s}; and so Manasseh Ben Israel {t} interprets this nation of Rome, and observes, that Vespasian brought for his assistance many nations (or soldiers) out of England, France, Spain, and other parts of the world: and not only Vespasian was sent for from Britain to make war with the Jews, but when they rebelled, in the times of Adrian, Julius Severus, a very eminent general, was sent for from thence to quell them. And it appears to be a very ancient opinion of the Jews, that this passage is to be understood of the Romans, from what is related in one of their Talmuds {u}: they say, that

"Trajan, being sent for by his wife to subdue the Jews, determined to come in ten days, and came in five; he came and found them (the Jews) busy in the law on that verse, "the Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far", &c. he said unto them, what are ye busy in? they answered him, so and so; he replied to them, this is the man (meaning himself) who thought to come in ten days, and came in five; and he surrounded them with his legions, and slew them:"

[as swift] as the eagle flieth; which may respect not so much the swiftness of this creature, the words which convey the idea being a supplement of the text, as the force with which it flies when in sight of its prey, and hastes unto it and falls upon it, which is irresistible; and this is the sense of the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, and is what is ascribed to the eagle by other writers {w}. Now though this figure is used of the Chaldeans and Babylonians, Jer 4:13 La 4:19 Hab 1:8; it agrees full as well or better with the Romans, because of their swiftness in coming from distant parts, and because of the force and impetus with which they invaded Judea, besieged Jerusalem, and attacked the Jews everywhere; and besides, the eagle was borne on the standard in the Roman army {x}:

a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; which, though it is also said of the language of the Chaldean nation, Jer 5:15; yet as the Chaldee and Hebrew languages were only dialects of one and the same language, common to the eastern nations, the Chaldee language, though on account of termination of words, pronunciation, and other things, might be difficult, and hard to be understood by the Jews, yet must be much more easy to understand than the Roman language, so widely different from theirs.

[{s} "——In ultimos orbis Britannos", Horat. Carmin. l. 1. Ode 35. {t} De Termino Vitae, l. 3. sect. 3. p. 129. {u} T. Hieros. Succah, fol. 55. 2. {w} Vid. Homer. Iliad. 21. l. 252. {x} Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 4.]

Ver. 50. A nation of fierce countenance, &c.] Or, "strong of face" {y}; which aptly describes the old Romans, who are always represented as such; and whereas it is said of the Chaldeans, that they were a nation dreadful and terrible, #Hab 1:7; the same is said of the fourth beast, or Roman empire, #Da 7:7; who were a terror to all the world:

which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young: cruel, unmerciful, and uncompassionate, to persons of whatsoever age or sex; which, as it was the character of the Chaldeans, 2Ch 36:17; so of the Romans, who especially showed no mercy to the Jews, as Josephus {z}, who was an eyewitness, testifies.

"The Romans (says he) showed no mercy to any age, out of hatred to the nation (of the Jews), and in remembrance of the injuries done to Cestius;"

one of their governors, when among them. And in another place he says {a},

"the Romans, remembering what they suffered in the siege, spared none, and showed no mercy."

[{y} ... "fortem faciebus", Montanus; "robustam facie", Vatablus. {z} De Bello Jud. l. 3. c. 7. sect. 1. {a} Ibid. sect. 34.]3

     Deuteronomy 28:15-68 was fulfilled at least three times: First, it was fulfilled when Assyria moved against God’s people in fulfillment of Isaiah’s warning. (2 Kin. 15:5, 23, 24; 18:11; 1 Chr 5:26. One of the symbols of Assyria was a winged lion. See Dt. 28:49.) Second, it was fulfilled when God moved his servant’s army, Babylon, against his people. (Jer. 25:9.) Third, it was fulfilled when God sent Titus against Jerusalem in AD 70:

§ I. Now, when Titus was come into this [upper] city, he admired not only some other places of strength in it, but particularly those strong towers which the tyrants, in their mad conduct, had relinquished; for when he saw their solid altitude, and the largeness of their several stones, and the exactness of their joints, as also how great was their breadth, and how extensive their length, he expressed himself after the manner following: — "We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war, and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications; for what could the hands of men, or any machines, do towards overthrowing these towers!" At which time he had many such discourses to his friends; he also let such go free as had been bound by the tyrants, and were left in the prisons. To conclude, when he entirely demolished the rest of the city and overthrew its walls, he left these towers as a monument of his good fortune, which had proved his auxiliaries, and enabled him to take what could not otherwise have been taken by him.4

     It is interesting that both Rome’s and Hitler’s ensign was an eagle. Deuteronomy 28:15-68 has been fulfilled at least three times, and after each fulfillment, God destroyed the armies he had sent against his people—God’s people are still here while Assyria’s, Babylon’s and Rome’s long since passed into history.

     The stammering lips and another tongue was/is God’s judicial sign of judgment upon his people because they harden their hearts against the simple truths which Moses and the prophet Isaiah spoke.

     In Isaiah’s day, the judgment came in the form of Assyria, and the speaking of the Assyrian language on the streets of Judah pointed to Isaiah’s prophecy being fulfilled—they could not understand the language without an interpreter. In Jeremiah’s day, the tongues were Chaldean. In Paul’s day, God’s people had again degenerated into an apostate nation, and had rejected the true prophet, Christ the Messiah, and his warnings. No doubt if he had come as a worldly king with military might or as an elite man of some kind, they might have listened to him, but he did not. He came as a humble servant of God; he came with a simple and plain message that the common man could readily understand, identify with and accept, and the elite rejected and killed him. Christ warned of the horrible judgment that would come as the result of their rejection of the Son. (Mt. 21-24.) In fact, he said that the former judgments would be nothing compared to the one that was coming, 24:21, 22. Assyria, as terrible as it was, would pale compared to the punishment in store for Christ’s crucifixion:

2. And now, since his soldiers were already quite tired with killing men, and yet there appeared to be a vast multitude still remaining alive, Caesar gave orders that they should kill none but those that were in arms, and opposed them, but should take the rest alive. But, together with those whom they had orders to slay, they slew the aged and the infirm; but for those that were in their flourishing age, and who might be useful to them, they drove them together into the temple, and shut them up within the walls of the court of the women; over which Caesar set one of his freed men, as also Fronto, one of his own friends, which last was to determine every one’s fate, according to his merits. So this Fronto slew all those that had been seditious and robbers, who were impeached one by another; but of the young men he chose out the tallest and most beautiful, and reserved them for the triumph; and as for the rest of the multitude that were above seventeen years old, he put them into bonds, and sent them to the Egyptian mines.* Titus also sent a great number into the provinces, as a present to them, that they might be destroyed upon their theaters, by the sword and by the wild beasts, but those that were under seventeen years of age were sold for slaves. Now during the days wherein Fronto was distinguishing these men, there perished, for want of food, eleven thousand; some of whom did not taste any food, through the hatred their guards bore to them; and others would not take in any when it was given them. The multitude also was so very great, that they were in want even of corn for their sustenance.

3. Now the number† of those that were carried captive during this whole war was collected to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the number of those that perished during the whole siege eleven hundred thousand, the greater part of whom were indeed of the same nation [with the citizens of Jerusalem], but not belonging to the city itself; for they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread, and were on a sudden shut up by an army, which, at the very first, occasioned so great a straitness among them that there came a pestilential destruction upon them, and soon afterward such a famine, as destroyed them more suddenly. And that this city could contain so many people in it is manifest by that number of them which was taken under Cestius, who being desirous of informing Nero of the power of the city, who otherwise was disposed to contemn that nation, entreated the high-priests, if the thing were possible, to take the number of their whole multitude...

* See the several predictions that the Jews, if they became obstinate in their idolatry and wicked less, should be sent again, or sold into Egypt, for their punishment, Deut. xxviii, 68; Jer. xliv, 7; Hos. viii, 13; ix, 3; xi, 35; Esd. xv, 10-14, with Authentic Records, part. I, p. 49, 121, and Reland Palestina, tom. ii, p. 715.

     After the crucifixion of the Son of God and before the final destruction of the Jewish nation, the sign of tongues re-appeared. To the Jews who knew the law (Dt. 28) and the prophets (Is. 28), it meant only one thing—judgment. Other tongues (ethnic languages) were not new to them; it had happened in the past. ("If it is new, it’s not true; if it is true, it’s not new.") In the middle of Paul’s significant warning concerning the proper use of tongues (1 Cor. 14), we have his reference to Isaiah, 14:21. Paul clearly identifies tongues in the same context as did Isaiah—a sure sign of judgment for rejecting God’s warning. The Roman language that would be spoken on the streets of Jerusalem would not be understood without an interpreter.

     "But that’s Old Testament; because of Christ, we do not have to worry about any such thing happening to us as happened to God’s people of old." However, such a foolish statement cannot be found in Scripture. Quite the contrary! Paul tells us what happens to every person, Jew and Gentile, who, knowing the Christian God, refuses to glorify him as God in their every thought and action:

But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God. (Rom. 1:21; 2:8-11. See all of Rom. ch 2.)

     Thus indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish came upon the Jews first in the form of Assyria, Babylon and Rome for their refusal to glorify God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, with their personal, religious, social and national lives. Paul clearly tells us that God, being no respecter of persons, will also send indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish against the Gentiles for the same offence.

     Something that is quite amazing in the passage we are considering is the context in which Paul quotes Isaiah’s warning, and the resistance (even anger) exhibited by the Jewish leaders against Isaiah, accusing him of treating them like children. (Read Isaiah 28, for it is basic, or Paul would not have used it.) Both Isaiah and Paul are dealing with immature people who claimed to be God’s people; however, they were children whose pride and rebellion caused them to harden against being treated like and spoken to as children.

     Our Lord said, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Mk. 10:15.) It is not hard at all to follow this call to humility and conversion as the gospel of the kingdom goes out from the very first day that Christ taught it to the last days of Paul as he taught it. (Mt. 3:2; Ac. 28:31.) The idea of becoming as little children would have struck at the very heart of the rebellious nation, as once again the religious leaders became hostile at the thought of being treated like children. In fact, having to put on the spirit of a child is enough to make any "natural man" hostile. But not only is childishness required in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven, but it is required to advance in his kingdom. Stephen told the religious leaders (as did every other preacher of the gospel, including Christ) that they were the same pious, rebellious, stiff-necked, proud, hardhearted, hypocritical men as were their fathers who mocked and sneered at Isaiah’s instruction, a fact that did not win friends and influence people for Stephen any more than it did for Christ. (Ac. 7:51-60.)

     Moving to the middle of Paul’s instruction in chp. 14, v. 20, we see that his warning against childishness fits in with the situation in which Isaiah spoke. (1 Cor. 14:21—Is. 28:11.) Isaiah was rejected by the Jewish leaders because he was treating them like children; Paul tells the folks at Corinth, "Don’t continue in your childish attitudes as your fathers did in Isaiah’s time. Grow up! Remember, the reason for other tongues is to speak to a rebellious, stubborn, stiff-necked people who will not hear the plain, easily understood law-word of God, saith the Lord. When your fathers rejected the clear, plain message of repentance toward God and faith in Christ, they had to listen to other tongues: an ethnic and unintelligible language of a foreign invader. Your fathers needed an interpreter to understand what was being said." Paul’s thought continues: "The another tongues Isaiah referred to had nothing to do with salvation or with being spiritual; rather, it is a sign of judgment which is either already here or is coming."

     Also, notice Paul’s indictment against this church for being childish. (1 Cor. 13:11, 14:20.) The Supernatural ability to speak an unknown (to the speaker) foreign language was being used with pride, as a child would be lifted up with pride over abilities he had and he considered superior to another’s abilities. Paul points out that childishness is only commendable in the matter of malice, not in understanding. He tells them to grow up. Again, the connection is significant as he moves from this exhortation into the quote from Isaiah. The context of both Paul and Isaiah has to do with childishness and maturity.6

     Note some significant points made by Paul as he tries to instruct this worldly, immature and childish church concerning the proper use of tongues. Remember, the ecstatic utterances from the pagan worship had infiltrated this church, and was being mistaken for something godly and spiritual. We have already noted Paul’s distinction between their ecstatic speech and true spiritually. We will not cover the whole chapter (1 Cor. 14) but will quickly mention thirteen guidelines which Paul establishes for the proper use of tongues.

     1) The other tongues, as used in chapter 14, is the power given by the Holy Spirit to speak in a literal, foreign language, unknown to the speaker—an obvious fact from the passage. Referring back to either the situation with the Assyrians or with the Romans, the context of chapter 14 would be something like this: The people did not understand Rome’s language, for it was unknown. A person not knowing Rome’s language has the supernatural ability from God to speak it. Those around him do not understand Rome’s language either, so the speaker needs an interpreter to translate his words into a common language, so his hearers can understand him. Paul says it is crazy to speak in a language that requires an interpreter when one can speak in the common language and present a message easily understood by all. (1 Cor. 14:1-12.)

     In all three cases, Assyrian, Chaldean and Roman, tongues were a foreign language for which the hearers needed an interpreter to understand. (Dt. 28:49; Is. 28:11. Cf. all of Acts, esp. chap. 2.) Anything other than this scenario of an actual foreign language would have to be the ecstatic speech carried over from paganism, which Paul vehemently stands against. He tells the immature Christians at Corinth to quit seeking the childish things and grow up, e.g., "Sure, it makes one feel good to be able to supernaturally speak in a foreign language not understood by others, but what good is it to speak in mysteries that only God can understand? It’s so much better to speak in the common language of those present." Paul says that he would rather speak five words in easily understood language than ten thousand words unintelligible to his hearers. (1 Cor. 14:19.)

     If it were not so obviously fraud against their hearers, we could find it amusing that those who claim supernatural gifts of speaking in tongues must have interpreters when they go to foreign countries to speak. How can they claim the supernatural gift of tongues is from God if they cannot even preach the gospel in an unknown (to them) native tongue? In other words, their tongues are ecstatic utterances, a hold-over from the ecstatic utterance that had invaded the Corinthian church from the pagan worship so prevalent in that city.

     2) Prophecy, not tongues, was to be desired, 14:1-5. The desirable thing is the ability to explain the practical applications of God’s law-word, and how to apply them to life, which alone will build God’s people. Everything done within the church is to be for the benefit of the body of believers. The purpose of the public assembly is to admonish one another, to build up and strengthen one another, and to be an encouragement and help. (Heb. 10:25.) When we consider the true purpose of tongues (warning of God’s wrath upon the rebellious Jewish nation), we can see how tongues would not "edify" a church. They would edify an individual and lead to vast amounts of pride, e.g., "I’m special because God is using me to speak to that person about God’s judgment to come." (Yes, I see 14:5, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying. We will see more of this as we continue.) 3) Tongues were not spontaneous, 14:2, 28, 32, etc. There were several conditions that had to be met. 4) 14:8 is an interesting comparison—speech is compared to a trumpet that sounds an alarm. (Num. 10:5; Jer. 4:19; 6:17; 42:14.) Paul calls tongues an uncertain trumpet, an uncertain alarm for battle. In fact, anything not easily understood would leave the people unprepared for battle—the battle was against personal, social, religious and national evil and wickedness. 5) [T]ongues were for a sign ... to them which believe not. When the hardened, unbelieving Jew heard the tongues (supernatural speaking in a foreign language that was his native tongue), the tongues would speak to him of the coming judgment against his hardness and rebellion because he would know both Moses and Isaiah, v. 22. 6) However, to the unlearned (those not knowing the law of Moses) and to the unbelieving Gentile (who also would not know the law), tongues would be madness, v. 23. 7) It was to be the preaching of the gospel of Christ and of eternal judgment to come that would cause the visitor to believe, v. 24. It is the clear, easily understood presentation of the gospel that reveals the heart, causing conviction and conversion, vv. 24, 25. (1 Cor. 1:21_.; Heb. 4:12, 13.)

     Looking through Acts, we see that in every instance of tongues there were unbelieving Jews present—that is, unbelieving in the gospel (Ac. 2), unbelieving in the Holy Spirit (we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost, Ac. 19:2), or unbelieving that the gospel should go to the Gentiles (Ac. 10).

     1 Corinthians 12-14: The purpose of Paul’s instruction is to clear up the misunderstanding of what is spiritual. The Corinthians were under the delusion that the ecstatic utterances from pagan worship were a sign of being in close fellowship with the Holy God of heaven and earth. First, Paul said the supernatural ability to speak in an unlearned and unknown foreign language was the least important of all the gifts. Why do we need to speak in a foreign tongue when our message can be so much more effective in the common language? Paul’s second guideline was to only use what will edify the complete body of believers within the church—the ability to speak in a foreign tongue edified only the speaker. Third, tongues (ethnic languages) must be interpreted by the man who speaks them—a message in a foreign language that cannot be understood by the hearers is useless. It would be absurd to use a supernatural ability to speak in another language that the hearers cannot comprehend, 14:5. Fourth, the ability to speak in an unknown foreign language was to warn the hardened unbelieving Jews that judgment was on its way—soon he would witness on the streets of his own hometown an invading army whose language he would need an interpreter to understand. This was backed up by the law and the prophets. Judgment was coming upon the Jewish nation for rejecting the plain, clear, child-like message of God (the Messiah) which had been in their own language and easily understood. Obviously then, there had to be an unbelieving Jew present for supernatural tongues (ethnic languages) to be of God. (See Mt. 23:34-39.)

     Continuing with Paul’s instructions: 8) Speaking in a foreign language could not be uncontrolled, for it always had to be planned, orderly and subject to the speaker, 14:32-34, 40. 9) At the most, there could only be three speakers, and then only one at a time could speak, vv. 2, 27. 10) Furthermore, there had to be a person present who could translate what was said into the common language of the assembly, v. 28. If there was no one who could translate (explain) what was said, then either the speaker had to do it (v. 5), or he had to keep quiet. 11) As already mentioned, there had to be an unbelieving Jew present because when the speaker spoke in the foreign language of that Jew’s birth, that unbelieving Jew would understand and know from the law and the prophets about the judgment to come against his unbelief, v. 22. As the speaker spoke in the unbelieving Jew’s language, for the rest of the church to understand, either an interpreter or the speaker himself must explain what was said.

     12) Probably one of the more important restrictions placed by Paul on the use of tongues is found in vv. 34, 35: tongues were, without exception, absolutely forbidden to women in the churches. The purpose of tongues was to "preach" to the unbelieving (yet knowledgeable of Moses) Jew, and he would know that women were forbidden to take any speaking or leadership authority in the assembly of God’s people; they were required to be under sub jection to their own husbands in their homes. (Eph. 5:22-24; 1 Tim. 2:11-12.) The situation at the city of Corinth makes this a very important point: Corinth was famous for its immorality with its temple prostitutes (one thousand were kept in the temple). One of the signs that these prostitutes (priestesses) were in close communion with their gods was their ecstatic utterances during the temple rituals of sexual orgies. And thus we have Paul’s firm statement, for it is a shame for women to speak in church, v. 35, referring to either preaching or usurping authority over the men of the church (of course, preaching is the exercise of authority based upon God’s word). The ability to speak in the foreign language of that unbelieving Jew’s birth was a sign to him; however, to an unbelieving Jew, a woman was little better than a slave. (Only Christianity elevates women to the status of respect and honor, 1 Pet. 3:7.) Under no circumstances would an unbelieving Jew in Paul’s day have listened to a woman speak from any position in a Christian assembly—a woman speaking would completely destroy the purpose of tongues. (The Jewish man thanked God for three things every day: that he wasn’t a publican, that he wasn’t a Gentile and that he wasn’t a woman.)

     13) Tongues were not to be forbidden, 14:39. In Paul’s day, before the judgment against Jerusalem of which tongues spoke, tongues were needed, and to forbid them would be to forbid the Spirit of God from expressing his warning message of judgment through his chosen vessel. Judgment was at the door; Jerusalem was on the very threshold of being completely overturned, heaped up in a pile, burned and, as Josephus says, her foundations plowed with a yoke of oxen. The Israelite/Jewish race, as known in the Old Testament, was on the verge of extinction, so God continued to send warnings to that race right up to the day Jerusalem was sealed by Rome with millions inside.

     In addition, notice these two points about v. 14: first, pray in this verse does not mean "addressed to God" as in Matthew 21:22, etc.; rather, it means "to offer prayers, to pray, (everywhere of prayers to the gods, or to God)" as in Matthew 6:5, where the Pharisees depended on their loud, long public prayers to be heard by the Lord. (Cf. Mk. 12:40.) The word pray (1 Cor. 14:14) can refer to either empty words spoken into the air or meaningful words. It is used twice in Matthew 6:5, once for proper and once for improper prayer.7 Therefore, claiming that pray (ecstatic utterance) in v. 14 is words spoken to the Father stretches the context beyond Scriptural recognition. Scripture is clear: there is no direct approach to the Father through words or any other means. All who come to the Father must come through Christ. (Jn. 14:6, 13, etc.) Therefore, the only prayer which the Father hears is through Christ. Second, my spirit, not the Holy Spirit—in other words, "My spirit can, by some circumstance, be moved to an utterance." (Many leaders know how to use emotions to produce their desired effects, e.g., ecstatic utterances and/or large "gifts." Note Paul’s final remark on this subject, vv. 37, 38.)

     The best thing is to testify of Christ, preach the gospel, apply his law-word to the whole of life and thought, and do not forbid tongues, as long as they meet the conditions established by Paul to prevent their misuse. (Chaps. 12-14.) Of course, those conditions cannot be met today, but if tongues were "active" today, they no doubt would be something like 14:18. Paul, as he traveled around into the many foreign lands, undoubtedly did not know all of the languages of those nations, so God gave him the ability to sound God’s alarm for battle by preaching in languages he did not know.

     Ecstatic utterances at Corinth were a carry-over from the pagan temple worship. Biblical tongues was the supernatural ability to speak an unknown foreign language: As God’s warning message was delivered in the Christian assemblies in tongues, it spoke to the hearts of the unbelieving Jewish hearers. The result was to be their repentance of sin and turning to the Lord Jesus Christ.

     Paul said, "You are proud of your spirituality, but let me show you what true spirituality really is." Then he moves into chapter 13: True spirituality is defined as humility and love for one another shown by actions, not by any "supernatural ability" one might think he has. (See all of 1 Jn.) Love is shown by rejoicing over someone’s conversion, by encouraging others when the person takes a stand for Christ, by unity among the body of Christ, by a willingness to do for one another, by Biblical rebuke and correction when required, and by a genuine family spirit among the body of believers. (1 Cor. 12:12-31; 13:1-13.)

     The pagan’s definition of close, spiritual contact with their gods (ecstatic utterances) had crept into the Corinthian church, and the people claimed spirituality and love for God because they could imitate the pagans. Paul points out that what they had was not true spirituality, chapter 13.

1. American Christianity, as a whole, is as pagainized as was Corinth’s and Israel’s of old. America’s religious leaders, as Israel’s of old, have ignored God’s warnings, united with pagans and have mocked and are mocking God’s law-word and God’s men.

     A grandfather recently told me of his 18 year old grandson (who likes to ride bulls in rodeos) who had been attending church with his girlfriend in Lafayette, Indiana. At that church one evening with his girlfriend, a sodomite made a pass at him. When they sat down in the youth meeting, the sodomite sat next to him. During the meeting, the sodomite started running his hand up the inside of the boy’s leg. The boy hit the sodomite hard, knocking him back through a couple rows of folding chairs. The people of the church and the pastor sided with the sodomite. The pastor called, asking the boy if they could work out the problem between the boy and the sodomite. The young man said he would not return to a church that condoned such behavior as that church was doing with the sodomite.

     As we know, under sodomite pressure, San Francisco voted to do business only with companies recognizing sodomite "domestic partners," as one would recognize legitimate marriages. Even the Roman Catholic Church caved in when San Francisco threatened to cut off 5 million in aid to it if it did not comply.

According to pollster George Barna, born-again Christians in modern America actually have a higher rate of divorce (27%) than nonbelievers (23%); those who describe themselves as fundamentalists have the highest percentage of all (33%) (Servant, Fall 1997).8

     2. Generally, America’s "Christians" have refused to hear the Christian God’s warnings concerning His wrath against sin as found in his word. So God is now speaking to America from every corner of the nation: restaurants, vacation spots, fast-food places, grocery stores, work places, even through uncounted foreign troops on American soil. God is calling to his people in America to repent of their fornication, adultery, murder, sodomy, wickedness and general indifference to the social chaos around them. He is speaking to his people in Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, etc. Will they listen? Probably no more than did Israel of old to whom Isaiah spoke.

     3. Other tongues on America’s streets and in the work place are, according to God’s law and his prophets, the result of rejecting God’s rule over us. The other tongues now being spoken in every corner of America can clearly be traced to the same problem dealt with by Isaiah and by Paul: The vast majority of those who profess to be God’s people refuse to make their Christian profession relevant to their society. They remain unconcerned about the surrounding evil, thereby forcing God to send in his troops, armies of foreign soldiers and workers.

     Extra Copies of this mailing are available.

End Notes

1 See Spiros Zodhiates, The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible, 1404, 1405.

2 Keil, 1.442.

3 OnLine Bible.

4 Josephus, Wars, Book VI, Ch IX.1. There is a seventh or eighth century Anglo-Saxon legend, translated from the Latin in 1851, that says Titus was converted, and then sent his armies to punish the Jews for putting Christ to death. The text is from a MS in the Cambridge Library, which was presented to the Cathedral of Exeter by Bishop Leoric in the beginning of the eleventh century. Ante-Nicene Fathers, viii.472ff.

5 Josephus, Wars, Book VI, Chap IX.2, 3.

6 The Romans, as they moved in judgment against the rebellious Jewish nation, camped at the place that was called, "The Camp of Assyrians." Furthermore, neither the Jews nor the Romans could understand each other; therefore, both needed an interpreter to understand the other. Josephus acted as an interpreter. Ibid, Book V, chp. VII.2; chp. ix.2.

7 See The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon, 545.

8 Bob Jones University, What in the World, 22.10.

 

 

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