The Language of Angels
Paul teaches at length on the subject of speaking in unknown tongues. He makes it clear that if a person can speak in the tongues of men or angels, but doesn’t love, that person is nothing but noise (1 Corinthians 13:1).
To this day, the teaching of unknown tongues and tongues of angels is brought up often among Christians. The meaning of this has been debated for centuries, and especially since the rise of the charismatic movement of the church.
Unknown tongues are easily understood to be foreign languages or languages foreign to the teachers and readers of God’s Word.
The important question, at least for me, is: What is the language of angels?
Many will say that it is a language that cannot be interpreted by people. This is the understanding which brings entire congregations to pray with babbling noises that another may claim to understand and in turn give an interpretation.
I am not going to debate or debunk any of these beliefs. I will merely give an explanation of the language of angels according to the ancient, Jewish sages, such as Rabbi Paul, who taught on this subject using their Mishnaic commentaries and Jewish education.
The subject of angels with respect to the ancient Jewish understanding is quite vast. Humans and angels were often compared in order to point out the differences between the two creations. Their similarities were also pointed out. One similarity that was taught by the Jewish sages was that “they both converse in the Holy Tongue” (Chag. 16a).
In Paul’s day, there were many Hellenistic Jews who had continued to use the language which they had obtained during their time of exile in Babylon. The language that these Jews used was Aramaic, unlike the Hebraic Jews who, after the Maccabean Revolt, had chosen to re-adopt their ancient language of Hebrew. The language of Hebrew was to be used in all Torah teachings and it was called the language of prayer for the Jews of the first century (Abraham Cohen, Everyman’s Talmud, 49).
The rabbis, like Paul, also believed and taught that the angels were ignorant of Aramaic, therefore, no petition to God should be made in this language since it was the angels’ duty to carry the prayers of God’s people to God’s Throne (Sot. 33a).
The Holy Language, Heavenly Language, or Language of Angels was considered to be none other than Hebrew. “The Hebrew services included prominent expressions of praise to God which were believed to be carried by the angels and placed as a crown upon the Head of the Holy One…” (Cohen, 49).
Many blessings,
Johnny
© 2007 Jonathan P. Gainey and Flock’s Diner.
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August 24th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
A bit further down in 1 Cor is an example of one of the “dark glass” pronouncements that stop me dead in reading Paul’s epistles:
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
“They?” “It?” “But?”
Any hints on what on (or off?) earth he is talking about?
August 24th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
As David Stern points out in his Jewish New Testament Commentary, the Spiritual gifts that are used for teaching the Word and Ways of God will no longer be needed when Jesus returns. But faith, hope, and love will always exist.
“These are all inner spiritual qualities, but because love is an inner state that results in outward action the greatest of them is love. For this reason, Paul’s final advice on the matter is, ‘Pursue love’” (Stern, 482).
Blessings,
Johnny
August 25th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
When we fully enter the Kingdom, will hope be needed? Possible? I..e., when one eneters the kingdom, what is left to hope for?
“…because love is an inner state that results in outward action the greatest of them is love.”
Certainly hope is also an inner state that results in outward action: in fact, when the effects of absence of love is compared to the effects of absence of hope, I wonder which is, in fact, demonstrably “greater?”
And what is faith without outward action? A few months ago you were talking about how the word faith, in 1st century Jewish life, was (my paraphrase) an acrtive verb - faith is action, not just a feeling.
[Or, perhaps, my minds is distracted by word games - a not uncommon state for me ]
Namaste!
August 28th, 2007 at 5:14 am
Hey Walker,
I agree with your assessment. I really don’t have the complete answers to what seems to be a bit of a contradiction from our viewpoint.
What I would assume is that, like faith (chutzpah), the English word hope only touches the surface of its Hebrew original. And because faith is action, it’s possible that Stern means love leads to that chutzpah, like the love the two friends had for their paralyzed friend when they took him through the roof of the house to be healed by Jesus.
I’m sure that David Stern could explain. Unfortunately, I don’t know his phone number and he doesn’t have a blog site. This is one place that I’d love to get some clarification from an author.
Thanks for not letting this slip by unchallenged. I had the same questions when I read it.
Blessings,
Johnny
August 28th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Johnny,
Thanks for the info on this. I’ve had this question for a LONG time.
Des