GLOSSOLALIA AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE:
AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY PENTECOSTAL CLAIM
by
D. William Faupel
In 1947, Assemblies of God historian Carl Brumback observed:
If speaking in tongues were taken out of the Pentecostal movement, perhaps nine-tenths of the opposition would disappear, Pentecost might possibly become the most popular religious movement in the Protestant world.[1]
From the . perspective of the 1990s it is clear that Brumback was prophetic. Pentecostalism as a world-wide phenomenon has exploded. In 1984 Vinson Syrian estimated that there were 51 million Pentecostal adherents, making this movement the single largest Protestant tradition.[2] Ten years later Harvey Cox claimed that the number had soared to 410 million, with 20 million adherents being added every year.[3] Since 1960, the practice of glossolalia also has spread in the form of the Charismatic Movement throughout the Protestant world and within the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions as well.
To the Wesleyan community, Pentecostalism's "success" has been acknowledged with mixed emotions which are deeply rooted. On the one hand, there is rejoicing that the Pentecostal Movement is being used to advance God's kingdom. At the same time, Wesleyan leaders remain troubled as Pentecostal practice penetrates the worship experience of many of their own adherents. This anxious feeling undoubtedly is exacerbated by the growing awareness of the close relationship the two movements share both historically and theologically.
Since the publication of Syrian's The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in 1971, Wesleyans for the most part have acknowledged that Pentecostalism is the product of their own holiness tradition of the 19th century.[4] Later, Donald Dayton's Theological Roots of Pentecostalism,[5] appearing in 1987, traced the theological development within this historical context. Both works focus on the continuities of the two movements. Grant Wacker more recently has analyzed the points of contention that led Pentecostalism to separate from the Holiness Movement. After examining the enflamed rhetoric adherents of each side hurled at the other, he nonetheless concludes:
Except for the specific question of tongues, it is difficult to think of any point of doctrine, lifestyle, or cultural orientation that Pentecostals failed to share with a majority of their ... holiness forebears.[6]
Even the restoration of the gift of tongues had been anticipated by most holiness advocates as part of the end-time revival which they felt was coming at the turn of the twentieth century. W B. Godby, an evangelist of the Methodist Church South, was typical when he wrote: "This Gift (of Tongues) is destined to play a conspicuous part in the evangelization of the heathen world amid the glorious prophetical fulfillment of the latter days."[7] He then cited evidence that the gift was already being restored, describing an account in the work of Bishop William Taylor where a woman missionary, not knowing the African languages, found that she could preach fluently in the native tongue when arriving at her station.[8]
Despite such anticipation, within months of the outbreak of the revival at Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California, in 1906, Wesleyan leaders were denouncing Pentecostalism as a spurious work of the devil. Why was this so? Why did two movements that held so much in common, including an anticipation of the restoration of glossolalia, divide so deeply and so bitterly?
Part of the answer to this question was precisely the conviction by Wesleyan and other Evangelical leaders that the gift of tongues would be restored as "missionary languages" to enable the rapid evangelization of the world before the end of the church age. Early Pentecostal adherents, of course, shared this perspective. Indeed, they claimed that the gift of tongues they received was in fact one of the languages understood by people who "heard the message" even though they themselves had no previous knowledge of the language through which it was conveyed.
Investigations by Evangelical and Wesleyan leaders called this claim into question. It was in large part on the basis of such research that they concluded that Pentecostalism was a spurious counterfeit produced by Satan. This article seeks to examine the historical evidence of the early Pentecostal claim, trace the movement's subsequent understanding of the nature and purpose of glossolalia, and evaluate its initial claim.
The Initial Pentecostal Claim
At the outset of the Pentecostal revival, adherents believed that glossolalia had been given for three purposes: (1) as the eschatological sign that initiated the era of the Latter Rain; (2) as the seal of the Holy Spirit that ensured membership in the Bride of Christ; and (3) as the means by which God's final message could be proclaimed to the nations.[9] Of these expectations, the last one proved to be the most controversial. Missionaries went forth, first from Los Angeles, and later from other Pentecostal centers, confident that they were able speak in a foreign language at will.[10] Charles Fox Parham, the initial Pentecostal theologian, held this view until the end of his life.[11] His most famous comment on the subject appears in his account of the coming of the Holy Spirit to Bethel College.
I had felt for years that any missionary going to the foreign field should preach in the language of the natives. That if God had ever equipped His ministers in that way He could do it today. That if Balaam's mule could stop in the middle of the road and give the first preacher that went out for money a "bawling out" in Arabic, that anybody today ought to be able to preach in any language of the world if they had horse sense enough to let God use their tongue and throat.[12]
After Parham was discredited as the leader of the Pentecostal revival in 1906, his successor of the Apostolic Faith work in Texas, W. F. Carothers, maintained the same conviction, although he expressed it in more cautious terms:
Just what part the gift of tongues is to fill in the evangelization of heathen countries is a matter for faith as yet. It scarcely seems from the evidence at hand to have had much to do with foreign mission work in the New Testament times, and yet, in view of the apparent utility of the gift in that sphere and of the wonderful missionary spirit that comes with Pentecost, we are expecting the gift to be copiously used in the foreign field. We, shall soon know.[13]
William Seymour carried the same conviction with him when he left Parham's work in Houston, Texas, to go to Los Angles, California. Shortly after the revival broke out at the Azusa Street Mission, his new magazine, The Apostolic Faith, confidently declared: "Missionaries for the foreign field, equipped with several languages, are now on their way and others are waiting for the way to open and for the Lord to say 'Go'"[14] A month earlier, this same periodical had asserted:
The gift of languages is given with the commission "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." The Lord has given languages to the unlearned, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Zulu and languages of Africa, Hindu and Bengals and dialects of the Indians, Exquimaux, the deaf mute language, and, in fact, the Holy Ghost speaks all the languages of the world through his children.[15]
When A. H. Post, who had pastored Methodist churches in California for over thirty years, heard about the strange experiences that were taking place at the Azusa Mission, he went to investigate. He, too, was soon reporting that people were receiving actual languages for the purpose of world evangelization. "From here God has sent those living witnesses ... into China, India, Africa and Jerusalem, each able to speak in any language to whom God sends."[16]
The Need For Reassessment
The initial expectation was soon dashed by bitter disappointment. S. C. Todd, a missionary with the Bible Missionary Society, investigated mission stations in China, India, and Japan where Pentecostals had come "expecting to be able to preach to the natives of those countries in their own tongues." By their own admission, he found that "in no single instance have they been able to do so."[17]
All but a few Pentecostals were forced by the evidence to modify their view. A. G. Garr, the first missionary to leave Azusa, went to India fully expecting to preach in Hindustani. After a few months, he admitted his failure on this point, but nonetheless remained to carry on a successful ministry for several years, preaching to these British subjects in English.[18] Even Charles Parham conceded: "To my knowledge not a single missionary in the foreign field speaks in the tongue of the natives as a gift from God."[19] Yet Parham remained convinced from his own experience that actual languages were available: "For twenty-five years I have spoken and prayed in other languages to the conversion of foreigners in my meetings."[20] He was almost alone, however. Most Pentecostals came to echo the view of Herman Harvey, a minister who joined forces with Aimee Semple McPherson, when he acknowledged:
It is clearly not the purpose of God to bestow a language that will work automatically upon heathen and sinners of other lands and tribes. When the Spirit was first poured out in California a few years ago a sad mistake was made by some who acted upon the belief that all they had to do was to reach some heathen land and the language would always be the very dialect needed.[21]
Despite this disconfirmation and reassessment, successful missionary activity was carried on unabated by adherents of the movement. Though disappointed, they were not shaken in their primary belief that God had called them to bear witness to the nations. Unable to speak the languages of the natives, the early Pentecostal missionaries went to existing mission stations. In many cases they were successful in persuading these, in whole or in part, to accept the Pentecostal message.[22] Having secured this alternate means to proclaim their message, they remained confident that they were being faithful to the command of the Gospel and that, through their efforts, they were hastening the end of the age.
The disconfirmation of the initial expectation for glossolalia forced adherents to reexamine the Scriptures to discover a more "biblical understanding" that squared with the reality of their experience. The 1934 exposition of Harold Horton has remained the prevailing view. He saw an eight-fold purpose for the use of glossolalia. These can be summarized in four categories: (1) The Scriptural evidence of Spirit Baptism; (2) Private edification; (3) Communal edification when interpreted; and (4) a sign to the unbeliever.[23]
Thus, the emphasis shifted from a public prophetic understanding to a more personal devotional perspective. The view of tongues as sign and seal, while retained, was divested of its initial eschatological significance. Reports which have persisted that, on rare occasions, actual languages have been spoken, have been understood to be a "sign to the unbeliever."
An Evaluation of the Early Twentieth-Century Claim
The advent of the "Charismatic Movement" in the 1960s, which introduced glossolalia throughout Christendom, has heightened interest in the nature of the phenomenon. The view that "tongues" are actual languages persists among adherents. Reports recur that, in some cases, these languages are understood by persons present.
Studies now completed or in progress have found no evidence that this phenomenon has either the form or the structure of human speech. Robert Anderson, who takes seriously though not uncritically these Pentecostal claims, cites several studies where tape recordings of glossolalia have been analyzed by linguists who found no resemblance to traditional human language in them.[24] The charismatic John Sherrill played forty different samples of tongue-speech to a group of linguists in New York City. Although they recognized language-like patterns, they were agreed that none of the tapes contained any of the languages with which they were familiar.[25]
Linguist William J. Samarin concludes that, in the hundreds of examples he studied, all lacked several essential elements of languages: vocabulary, grammar, syntax, etc.[26] As a result of his study, he defined glossolalia as "a meaningless but phonologically structured human utterance believed by the speaker to be a real language but bearing no systematic resemblance to any natural language, living or dead."[27]
In the most comprehensive study of the phenomenon to date, Cyril Williams finds no first-hand evidence that actual language did occur and is most hesitant to accept the claims of second-hand testimony.[28] Although Walter Hollenweger has rightly cautioned that final judgment should be withheld until sufficient tape recordings are made and analyzed, it would appear from subsequent studies that this question is being answered in the negative.[29]
In view of this accumulating evidence, how can one account for the thousands of reports that actual languages were uttered, unknown by the speaker but understood by an observer? Samarin maintains that these claims are not simply the result of deliberate fraud or pious deceit.[30] In an attempt at an alternate explanation, this writer has analyzed over two thousand accounts he has on file. These can be classified into four general categories: (1) accounts which are based on rumor and hearsay; (2) reports where the observer is a "believer"; (3) narratives where the observer is converted as a result of hearing a message in a recognized language; and (4) incidents where the observer appears to be uninterested in the content of the message. Attention is now directed to an evaluation of each category in turn.
1. Accounts Based on Rumor and Hearsay. A large number of the reports are based on third- and fourth-hand information. They are vague in detail. These narratives can be accounted for simply on the basis of the Pentecostal world-view and the reporter's inclination to accept accounts without question. Such reports provide no basis on which to be accepted as evidence.
2. An Adherent's Testimony. The greatest number of accounts this writer has on file are of incidents where the message was understood by a Pentecostal believer. A typical example of this occurred at the Azusa Street Mission.
S. J. Mead, a missionary who labored for over twenty years in Liberia, attended the Azusa Street meetings. He heard many African dialects spoken with which he was familiar. A colored woman spoke at length in tongues as the Spirit was pleased to use her. Immediately after she had spoken, Brother Mead arose and interpreted the message and gave the name of the tribe in Africa that spoke the language.[31]
Samarin's analysis of recordings which he has heard led him to conclude that glossolalia often has many superficial similarities with those languages which the speaker is generally familiar, such as intonation, simple words and phrases, and syntax-like features.[32]
The example cited above is subject to question in light of his findings. A "colored woman" is the speaker. It is quite possible that she was "generally familiar" with an African dialect and that in a state of altered consciousness, she could have reproduced general intonation, a few words or phrases, etc. The competence of Mead's ability to recognize "many African dialects" must also be questioned. Ian Stevenson's research leads him to conclude: "Persons only casually familiar with foreign languages ... who perhaps studied them superficially in high school, but never mastered one-may easily mistake the semblance of a foreign language for the reality."[33] Given the initial Pentecostal world-view and its expectation for glossolalia, Mead would be predisposed to his conclusion based on a few words or general intonation.
Samarin cites a similar case that he was able to investigate. It involved a woman who had grown up in a Pentecostal church.
A man rose to give a message in tongues. She immediately recognized it as the language she had learned in Africa as a missionary several years before. And as he spoke, she understood the sense of what he was saying. Immediately after the meeting was over, she met with her husband and son, who also spoke the language. All of them had been amazed to hear it from the lips of someone who could not possibly have had the opportunity to learn it as they had.[34]
Talking with the woman later, Samarin discovered that, although she had some knowledge of the language, she spoke it with a heavy accent and did not know the intonations of its structure. Furthermore, the length of the discourse that she had recognized as the language was less than a: minute, and she could only report that the man had been praising Jesus. After investigating several reports of a similar nature, Samarin concluded: "Cross-examination destroys the credibility of this sincere person who claimed to hear a language she personally knew."[35]
3. A Convert's Testimony. The third category of tongue-speech which is recognized as known language involves an unbeliever of a nonEnglish speaking origin who attends a Pentecostal meeting, hears an exhortation in his own language, and as a result, becomes a convert to the movement. A. W. Orwig summarized the countless such incidents which occurred at the Azusa Mission as follows:
Persons of many nationalities were also present, of which Los Angeles seems to be filled, representing all manner of religious beliefs. Sometimes these, many of them unsaved, would be seized with deep conviction for sin under the burning testimony of one of their own nationality, and at once heartily turn to the Lord. Occasionally, some foreigner, although somewhat understanding English, would hear a testimony of earnest exhortation in his native tongue from a person not at all acquainted with that language, thereby be pungently convicted that it was a call from God to repent of sin; often such repentance followed just as on the Day of Pentecost.[36]
Many such accounts are of a second-hand nature and, like the first category, can be attributed to an uncritical acceptance of hearsay and rumor. The Pentecostal world-view predisposed the reporter to accept the claim without question. Others, like the summary cited, are eyewitness accounts and cannot be easily dismissed without challenging the integrity of the observer. Samarin's findings help to explain these cases. The "languages" heard in such instances are often those known by some members of the group. Although unknown by the speaker, this person would be "generally familiar" with the language and could have reproduced intonation, some words or phrases, etc.
There is a critical difference among the reports in this category, however. The person who understands the language is an unbeliever who does not share the Pentecostal world-view. Yet this person is convicted of sin and is converted as a result of the message.
Eddison Mosimann, a psychiatrist who studied the glossolalia phenomenon in Switzerland, provides a possible clue. His investigation stemmed from an interest raised in this subject when one of his patients, a Pentecostal, claimed that she heard real languages. In his investigation, Mosimann found that: (1) there were many reported cases of this occurrence among Pentecostals; (2) the people involved were absolutely sincere in their belief; (3) the message provided an answer to a crisis they were facing; and (4) the actual utterance, when analyzed, was no language at all. His conclusion was that the "miracle" was in the hearing rather than in the speaking.[37] Cyril Williams concurs. After extensive investigation, he concluded that auditory illusion is the most likely explanation in such cases.[38]
As A. W. Orwig noted, Los Angeles was a microcosm of immigration that took place to the western and northern American cities at the turn of the twentieth century. The recently displaced immigrant experienced heightened intensification of the common psychological effects of urban life: "loneliness, alienation and despair."[39] An encounter by the Pentecostals must have been a refreshing release. Stanley Frodsham quotes an early eyewitness who attended the Azusa Mission:
It is noticeably free from all nationalistic feeling. If a Mexican or a German cannot speak English, he gets up and speaks in his own tongue and feels quite at home, for the spirit interprets through the face and the people say "Amen."[40]
In the emotionally charged atmosphere of the early Pentecostal revival where glossolalia was thought to be a known foreign language and where everyone found acceptance regardless of nationality, race, economic status, etc., it is not difficult to conceive that the lonely, alienated immigrants heard in their own language, a message consistent with that which the Pentecostals were proclaiming in English. Accepting the message, these persons were received into full fellowship of the community of faith. At last, they had found their new home.
Given the initial Pentecostal understanding for the purpose of glossolalia, the speaker of the utterance quite naturally felt God was issuing a call to take the Pentecostal to the country of the language which had been spoken. It was only as the missionaries arrived on site that they discovered what they had been able to do in their homeland, they could not reproduce on the mission field. Others, like Parham, who did not go abroad, could honestly believe until their dying day that they had, upon occasion, spoken an actual language which had been unquestionably confirmed by the subsequent conversion and testimony of an American immigrant.
4. An Outsider's Testimony. By far the smallest category of reports involves instances where an apparent disinterested observer heard a discourse in a language they understood but which was unknown to the speaker. One such incident occurred to John Follette, who at the time was a student at Elim Bible Institute in Rochester, New York. He gave a public utterance in tongues shortly after the Pentecostal revival swept this holiness school into the new movement in June, 1907. Elizabeth Baker, the leader of the school, gave the interpretation. She stated that he was seeing a vision of Christ's nativity. Follette was unable to speak in English at that point, but signified by gestures that she was correct. Following this sequence, he burst forth in song.
At the close of the service a lady and a gentleman who were present, called one of the sisters aside and asked, "Who was that young Jew who spoke and sang tonight?" He was told that there was no Jew present but that it was one of the students. With great surprise he informed us that he and his wife had understood several languages, among them the Hebrew, and, he said, "The young man spoke and sang in the most perfect Hebrew, and we understood every word he was saying, and the interpretation given was correct."[41]
It is, of course, impossible to cross-examine the participants of this account. It would appear, however, that the lady and gentleman were competent to understand Hebrew. There is no indication that they were facing a personal crisis or that they were converted to Pentecostalism as a result of this experience. The integrity of Mrs. Baker and the Reverend Follett is beyond question. The only credible explanation appears to be that in this case Hebrew was actually spoken.
In seeking to allow for the possibility that in a few instances, Pentecostals actually spoke in known languages, Robert Anderson offers the theory of cryptonmesia which he defines as "the ability to recall in a trace, a language which one has heard or seen but never consciously committed to memory."[42] To be operative, he suggests "cryptomnesia requires the deep state of dissociation that was quite common among the early Pentecostals." He continued: "Today Pentecostals rarely achieve this state so it is not surprising that the available recordings of tongue-speech contain no language."[43]
Though it is true that trances were a common phenomenon in early Pentecostalism, the most credible reports of glossolalia as language came from instances where such a state of deep dissociation was not in evidence. Follette certainly experienced a degree of dissociation-he was experiencing a vision while speaking in tongues and was unable to speak in English for awhile after he was finished. However, he was sufficiently aware to comprehend and affirm by a gesture the interpretation Mrs. Baker was giving. This level of dissociation is quite common among charismatics. Since no tape recordings to date reveal evidence that language has been spoken, Anderson's theoretical possibility for cases of cryptomnesia in early Pentecostalism cannot be validated.
Of the two thousand and more cases this investigator has analyzed, only six cannot be accounted for by some alternate explanation. These few cases are now impossible to investigate further and therefore stand as a haunting possibility that in rare instances when actual language, unknown to the speaker, might be uttered. However, in view of the lack of evidence from present day tongue-speech, and in light of the disconfilmation experienced by the early Pentecostal missionaries, it must be concluded that, if actual language ever has been spoken, it has been extremely rare.
Such an understanding does not deny that foreigners heard glossolalia in their own languages as reported in the Acts of the Apostles and in early Pentecostal literature.[44] It does not disconfirm glossolalia as a sign to the unbeliever. It reinforces the present Pentecostal understanding that one who speaks in tongues speaks not to other persons but to God. However, it removes glossolalia from the realm of known human languages and places it in the arena of the language of faith. Such an understanding was expressed by an early observer:
Those who speak in tongues seem to live in another world. The experience they have entered corresponds exactly with that which is described in the 10th chapter of Acts. The tongues they speak in do not seem to be intended as a means of communication between themselves and others.... rather it seems to be a means of communication between the soul and God.[45]
Afterword
Almost one hundred years have now passed since glossolalia in its present form reemerged within the Church. Far from proving to be the "passing fad" that early opponents predicted, its presence and practice have become the norm for an ever-increasing percentage of Christendom. Wesleyans no longer view the phenomenon's origin as from Satan; but at the same time they continue to question whether it reflects New Testament practice. The primary reason given is the conviction that biblical tongues were actual languages while the contemporary phenomenon is not.[46]
It should be clear from this article that this writer concurs that the available evidence suggests that the present practice of glossolalia is not known language. Charismatics and Pentecostals are gradually coming to accept this view. But the reverse question must also be addressed. Does the contemporary experience of Pentecostals suggest that glossolalia experienced in the New Testament also was not actual language? Though beyond the scope of this essay, this question can become one basis for future Wesleyan/Pentecostal dialog.
Endnotes:
