Judisch on ‘tongues’ in I Corinthians 14:21
Rev. Prof. Dr. Douglas Judisch, the modern Lutheran scholar, wrote an important book with the title An Evaluation of Claims to the Charismatic Gifts (Baker, Grand Rapids, 1978). There, he makes the following valuable remarks about I Cor. 14:21. “If Israel were to prove disobedient to her divine King, she was to be cursed in the city and in the field; cursed when she came in and when she went out. Deut. 28:16,19…. He would punish her by means of those whose language she could not understand. Deut. 28:49….
“When Isaiah rebuked Israel’s drunken leaders for disobeying the words of God’s prophet — refusing tribute to Assyria and making league with Egypt, Isa. 28:7-8…., the covenant curse…was destined to fall with full force upon the rebellious vassal: ‘Nay, but by men of strange lips and with an alien tongue the Lord will speak to the people.'” Isa. 28:11.
