A patristic perspective on the scope of xenolalic tongues

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title A patristic perspective on the scope of xenolalic tongues
 
Creator De Jager, Eben
 
Subject Theology; Patristics Acts; 1 Corinthians 12–14; church fathers; xenolalia; pan-xenolalia; gift of tongues; languages; Babel
Description Many church fathers have been identified as having held a xenolalic view on the gift of tongues. Scholars who have shown evidence of this have, however, omitted to give sufficient attention to the scope of the tongues the church fathers detailed. Many of these church fathers, referenced, identify the gift of tongues as the ability to speak all languages. This supernatural ability to speak all languages has been appropriately designated as pan-xenolalia. This article aimed to highlight the existence and prevalence of the pan-xenolalic view among the church fathers and examined the works of the relevant church fathers to determine how they gave expression to their view, which passages of Scripture they applied their view to and how they motivated their view. The pan-xenolalic sentiments of many church fathers could be confirmed though they used various phrases to express it. These references to pan-xenolalia were used in the context of both Acts and 1 Corinthians. Their possible motivations for holding this view seemed to have come from sources outside of the text itself, with tradition, expectation and purpose of tongues from their perspective being the most likely influences.Contribution: The patristic perspective on tongues were not merely xenolalic but pan-xenolalic. Pan-xenolalia as interpretive key to 1 Corinthians 12–14 provides a fresh perspective to reading the text, which may pose some significant challenges to how the text is interpreted. Establishing the veracity of the pan-xenolalic view lays the foundation for scholars to evaluate a reading of 1 Corinthians 14 from this perspective.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2023-11-23
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Literary Analysis
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v79i2.9037
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 79, No 2 (2023); 6 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/9037/25999 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/9037/26000 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/9037/26001 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/9037/26002
 
Coverage — Patristic Era —
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Eben de Jager https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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