γλῶσσα

glw'ssa glw'ssa,
glwsh",
hJ (from Homer down), the tongue;1. the tongue, a member of the body, the organ of speech: ,; ; ; ; ; ,,; ; ; (). By a poetic and rhetorical usage, especially Hebraistic, that member of the body which is chiefly engaged in some act has ascribed to it what belongs to the man; the tongue is so used in (
hjgalliavsato
hJ
glw'ssa
mou); ; ; (the tongue of every man); of the little tongue-like flames symbolizing the gift of foreign tongues, in .2. a tongue, i. e. the language used by a particular people in distinction from that of other nations: ; hence, in later Jewish usage (; ; Theodotion; ; Theodotion; ) joined with
fulhv,
laov",
e[qno", it serves to designate people of various languages (cf. Winer's Grammar, 32), ; ; ; ; ; ; .
lalei'n
eJtevrai"
glwvssai" to speak with other than their native i. e. in foreign tongues, , cf. ;
glwvssai"
lalei'n
kainai'" to speak with new tongues which the speaker has not learned previously, (but Tr text WH text omit; Tr marginal reading brackets
kainai'"); cf. DeWette on Acts, p. 27ff (correct and supplement his references by Meyer on ; cf. also B. D. under the word Tongues, Gift of). From both these expressions must be carefully distinguished the simple phrases
lalei'n
glwvssai",
glwvssai"
lalei'n,
lalei'n
glwvssh/,
glwvssh/
lalei'n (and
proseuvcesqai
glwvssh/, ), to speak with (in) a tongue (the organ of speech), to speak with tongues; this, as appears from ff, 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: ; ; ; ; ,,,,,,. The origin of the expression is apparently to be found in the fact, that in Hebrew the tongue is spoken of as the leading instrument by which the praises of God are proclaimed (
hJ
tw'n
qeivwn
u{mnwn
melw/dov", , cf. (); (); (); (); <<ref:BHS/G