I have a question. It has to do with I Corinthians 14. We are studying the various spiritual gifts bestowed upon the church members and how this gift was abused. The gifts we are focusing our study on is prophecy and tongues. My question, are there several versions of prophecy?<\/p>\n
Also, my understanding of tongues is that it aided teaching, speaking in another language that was not taught to the individual talking in tongues. What purpose would the interpreter serve, if the members present would hear in their own language? I’m not quite clear on this issue.<\/p>\n\t
I know of no verse that indicates different types of prophecy. Prophecy was the gift of speaking God’s words. I can’t seek how one can divide that into different kinds. See “Prophets<\/a>” for more details.<\/p>\n There were different types of tongues because there are different types of languages. “To another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues<\/em>” (I Corinthians 12:10). The gift was to the speaker. It gave them the ability to speak in languages they had not learned (Mark 16:17). Normally the speaker would speak in a language people in the audience understood (Acts 2:8-11). But in a group setting, understanding becomes difficult. If someone spoke, say in Portuguese, because there was a visitor in the audience from Portugal, that visitor would benefit, but what about the rest of the group? “Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to him who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to me<\/em>” (I Corinthians 14:11). Thus Paul states that unless there is an interpreter for the rest, the message brought by the one speaking in a tongue is useless for the majority present. “Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret<\/em>” (I Corinthians 14:13). The worship service is a time for all to benefit. Thus, Paul gives the rule, “If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God<\/em>” (I Corinthians 14:27-28). Unless it could be arranged that everyone in the audience can benefit from the message, then the use of foreign languages was banned from the worship service. Now, this doesn’t mean that a tongue speaker couldn’t interpret for the foreigner in the audience, but that the tongue speaker could not address the entire audience if he or someone else could not translate the message into languages everyone could understand. More details can be found in “Speaking in Tongues<\/a>,” including details on I Corinthians 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I have a question. It has to do with I Corinthians 14. We are studying the various spiritual gifts bestowed upon the church members and how this gift was abused. The gifts we are focusing our study on is prophecy and tongues. My question, are there several versions of prophecy? Also, my understanding of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[428,363,169,142,141],"class_list":["post-18561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-gifts-of-the-holy-spirit","tag-miracles","tag-prophecy","tag-speaking-in-tongues","tag-tongue-speaking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10535,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-speaking-in-tongues-and-prophesying-similar-gifts\/","url_meta":{"origin":18561,"position":0},"title":"Are speaking in tongues and prophesying similar gifts?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: With talking in tongues, some of the time it says they talked in tongues and prophesied. Was that part of talking in tongues, or separate? I always get confused. I know in I Corinthians 14:22 mentions reasons for each, but I don't know if they are separate. Answer: Speaking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34016,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-prayers-in-i-corinthians-11-referring-to-praying-in-an-unknown-tongue\/","url_meta":{"origin":18561,"position":1},"title":"Were the prayers in I Corinthians 11 referring to praying in an unknown tongue?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, Regarding I Corinthians 11:3-16, where women commanded to cover their heads while praying and prophesying. Some argue that the prayer mentioned in that verse was a miraculous activity connected with prophecy. God talked to man through the Spirit. In I Corinthians 14:14, Paul mentioned praying with an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17036,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-prophecy-require-an-interpreter\/","url_meta":{"origin":18561,"position":2},"title":"Doesn’t prophecy require an interpreter?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Could you also tell me how there can be an interpretation of prophecy without prophets? \"No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation\" (II Peter 1:20). Answer: \"And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46768,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-unknown-tongue-in-i-corinthians-142-would-sound-like-mumbo-jumbo-to-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":18561,"position":3},"title":"The unknown tongue in I Corinthians 14:2 would sound like mumbo-jumbo to you","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: [Note: I left the following unedited since the author claimed to have the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He had asked that this not be published, but since there is nothing in the note that is personal to him, I decided it serves as a good example of what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50684,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-about-the-prophecy-and-tongue-speaking-that-ive-witnessed\/","url_meta":{"origin":18561,"position":4},"title":"What about the prophecy and tongue-speaking that I’ve witnessed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Whether prophecy has ceased or not ceased is one of the issues I am struggling with as a seminary student. I read your article about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and let's say you are right. But what about those prayer warriors who prophesy and speak in tongues\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52977,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-speaking-in-tongues\/","url_meta":{"origin":18561,"position":5},"title":"What is speaking in tongues?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is speaking in tongues and what does it prove? Answer: In Acts 2:5-12 the apostles were speaking in a way that people from 15 different nationalities were able to understand the speakers in their own tongue.\u00a0 Since the hearers heard a language that they understood, it stands to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}