Now we come to our analysis of the tongues phenomenon. Due to time and space limitations, this will be a condensed study.

1. There are two types of speaking in tongues—glossolalia and xenoglossia.

The term glossolalia (from two Greek words meaning "tongue" and "speak") refers to the phenomenon of ecstatic or unintelligible speech. Practitioners of glossolalia typically assert that they are either (1) speaking to God or worshiping Him in a heavenly language or (2) delivering a message directly from God to people here on earth.

Xenoglossia (lit., "foreign tongue") or xenolalia ("foreign speech") refers to a gifting from God that enables a believer to speak in a foreign language that he/she has never learned. It would be like me going to Germany and sharing the Gospel with someone in flawless German (which I have never studied), or going to Africa and speaking in some other language that I don't know.

Which came first? According to the biblical text, xenoglossia (foreign languages) was first. Does this mean that glossolalia (unintelligible utterance) was a later attempt to conjure up the original, biblical gift? Is it a counterfeit of the original? We cannot answer this question with absolute certainty because Paul does not specifically make such a connection between the two; however, it does seem to fit the biblical data. What we know for sure is that xenoglossia came first and Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, commends it; at the same time, however, he was wary of the practice of glossolalia and clearly tried to steer the early believers away from it.

Interestingly, even the founder of the modern tongues movement, Charles Parham (1873-1929), originally taught that the biblical gift of tongues was foreign languages. He established a Pentecostal Bible school and some of his early students traveled to foreign countries with the intention of using the biblical gift of tongues to share the Gospel with non-English speakers. These abortive forays into the mission field ultimately ended in failure. They tried to speak in tongues, but only gibberish came out—and there were no converts. Bewildered and disillusioned, they returned to the US and tried to regroup. However, Parham's ministry waned in later years amidst reports of sexual misconduct and allegations that he had ties to the secretive and racist Ku Klux Klan.

2. Tongues-speaking is mentioned in three books of the NT: Mark, Acts, and 1 Corinthians.

• The reference in Mark includes "new tongues" (Gk., glossais kainais) in a list of "signs" that "will follow those who believe" (16:17). Proponents of glossolalia say this refers to ecstatic speech as a manifestation of God's power. Proponents of xenoglossia, however, would say it refers to a supernatural gift whereby believers, as they take the Good News of Yeshua into the world, are enabled to speak in languages that are "new" (that is, unknown) to them. (If I suddenly started speaking in German, as I mentioned earlier, that would certainly be a "new" language to me.) Note that this verse in Mark occurs in a context where it's talking about carrying out the Great Commission (vv. 14-18), which, in my view, tips the interpretation toward xenoglossia. Also, the Greek word kainos means "new" in the sense of "unused" (see Bauer's A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, p. 394). Here, it’s the idea of speaking in a language one has never used before.

• There are three references in Acts, all of which are xenoglossia:
• Acts 2:4 — The Holy Spirit enables the 12 apostles to preach the Good News in the numerous languages of the thousands of people who were gathered in Jerusalem for the celebration of Shavuot (or Pentecost). Luke specifically mentions people from 15 different nations (vv. 8-11) and says they all "heard them speak in his own language" (v. 6).
• Acts 10:44-46 — This is the passage where God uses an object lesson to show Peter and his messianic Jewish brethren from Joppa that the new believing community (the ekklesia, or "called out ones") would include both Jewish and Gentile believers. Peter and the others had come from Joppa to visit the house of a Gentile God-fearer named Cornelius. When Peter shared the Good News with the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke "with tongues" (v. 46), just like the Jewish believers had experienced in Jerusalem a few years earlier (Acts 2). We know it wasn’t gibberish not only because it followed the pattern of Pentecost, but also because there were people present who understood that they were glorifying God. As a result, the sometimes-cliquish Jewish believers clearly saw that God was doing something new—and it would also include non-Jews who adopted the grace-based faith of Abraham and its fulfillment in Yeshua the Messiah (see Romans 4:2-16).
• Acts 19:5-6 — After baptizing a dozen or so OT believers (that is, followers of John the Baptizer) in Ephesus, Paul lays hands on them and when they receive the Holy Spirit, they begin speaking in tongues (foreign languages) and prophesying (that is, speaking out spontaneously and praising God; cp. 10:46, 11:15).