Mainas mainomai I. raving, frantic, Eur. 2. as Subst. a mad woman, Il.: esp. a Bacchante, Bacchanal, Maenad, Soph.; of the Furies, Aesch.; of Cassandra, Eur. II. act. causing madness, Pind.
Speaking in Tongues Speaking in tongues in Corinth was speaking a Barbarian Tongue which was not one of the major or minor dialects. The "uncovered prophesying" by the women in 1 Cor 11:5 was the gibberish produced by being METHUO which can be "drunk with wine" but most often means to be FLUTED DOWN or PIPED into submission in the charismatic, homosexual symposiums. Rather than going charismatic which is a sexual breakdown Paul insisted that we FILL UP with Spirit or the Words of Christ (John 6:63). Then we are to SPEAK or TEACH or PREACH to one another with the inspired Psalms known by many.
You will remember that in 1 Cor 12 Paul defined spiritual gifts but say that ANY of the carnal Corinthians had a single gift. When Pavoratti says, "But, I see that ALL of YOU are singing opera: BUT, you don't ALL know how to sing! Do you! Do you! Do you!" I SUPPOSE that some on this board would feel COMPLIMENTED?If Paul says that you are ALL speaking in tongues it is NOT something YOU should try unless you want to be a fool speaking foolishness.
If some coninthians has the gift of SPEAKING in tongues they had the gift of speaking say Persian. No one would have received this gift except through the power of an Apostle and then for the purpose of teaching others in that area where perhaps most were transients. If they wanted to tell a Persian about the Kingdom of Christ that did not mean that he understood what he was saying: he wa simply a tool of Christ the Spirit. Therefore, Paul told them that they should have the GIFT of interpreting that language. If he found himself in an assembly of Christ devoted solely to teaching the Word of Christ, and exercised the gift he would surely be flaunt his gift. If he was a PROPHET and spoke in a different language HE must interpret with his mind or have an interpreter. That is why Paul said that the ability to speak another language was worthless where everyone understood Koine.
Secondly, Paul used the sounds and clangs of musical instruments to DEFINE speaking in tongues to those NOT blinded already. His terms are identical to the machinery of war, witchcraft [familiar spirit old wineskin] or to the theater. In Chapter 14 he defined the SOUNDS of trumpets and relegated them to WARFARE just as did God in Numbers 10 and outlawed such sounds for the assembly, Qahal, synagogue or church in the wilderness.
Thirdly, if anyone spoke gibberish it is defined by the uncovered women prophesiers in 1 Cor 11:15. These are WELL DOCUMENTED as the Mad Women in Corinth. They are SIGNS of unbelievers in your presence and probably under Apollo whose Muses or "musical worship team" is defined in Revelation 18 and called sorcerers.
1 Cor. 14:23 If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues [dialects], and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?
Paul alludes to the Mad Women in Corinth where the uncovered prophesiers (1 Cor 11:5) were insane with wine or music and were honored for appearing insane. If everyone tried to exercise a real or pretend gift of speaking a foreign language they would BE mad because they did not know that church was for disciples to learn the word of God.
Mainomai I. to rage, be furious, Hom.; ho maneis the madman, Soph.: to be mad with wine, Od.:—of Bacchic frenzy, Il., Soph.; hupo tou theou m. to be driven mad by the god, Hdt.; to mainesthai madness, Soph.; plein ē mainomai more than madness, Ar.:—c. acc. cogn., memēnōs ou smikran noson mad with no slight disease, Aesch.
2. of fire, to rage, riot, Il.; so, mainomenē elpis Orac. ap. Hdt.; eris Aesch., etc.II. the aor1 act. emēna, in Causal sense, to madden, enrage, Eur., Xen.
Pausanias, Corinth; After the theater is a temple of Dionysus. The god is of gold and ivory, and by his side are Bacchanals of white marble. These women they say are sacred to Dionysus and maddened by his inspiration. The Sicyonians have also some images which are kept secret. These one night in each year they carry to the temple of Dionysus from what they call the Cosmeterium (Tiring-room), and they do so with lighted torches and native hymns.
Our copy of Pausanias on Corinth:
[2.2.6] The things worthy of mention in the city include the extant remains of antiquity, but the greater number of them belong to the period of its second ascendancy. On the market-place, where most of the sanctuaries are, stand Artemis surnamed Ephesian
and wooden images of Dionysus [phallic], which are covered with gold with the exception of their faces; these are ornamented with red paint. They are called Lysius and Baccheus,
In Jerusalem, they were called Jochin and Boaz!
Paul warned that speaking and singing and praying in their "native dialect" COULD make people believe they had visited a pagan temple.
"In the environment in which Christianity arose was surcharged with such phenomena (raving prophecy). In the Greek oracles messages were uttered by priests or priestesses in a state of ecstasy, consciousness being in abeyance, and it was necessary to interpret them to the laity, as both Plutarch and Heraclitus testify... In the orgies of the cult of Dionysus music, dancing, drink, and other means were employed to supereninduce the ecstatic state, in which the devotees ate raw flesh, disported themselves with frenzied enthusiasm in the forests, and indulged in wild phallic excesses.
The ecstatic person was 'in the divinity' and out of normal consciousness. Cicero makes prophecy and madness practically synonymous." (Clark, Elmer T., The Small Sects in America, p. 86, Abingdon) Clark defines the Cane Ridge Great Awakening in the same terms.
"The religious ecstasy induced by music expressed itself either in an outburst of emotions, thus giving rise to religious catharsis, or in a transfer to the state of prophecy.In this way music became an important factor in divination. In the mysteries of the Magna Mater this relationship between music and divination is particularly clear.
Through the din of tambourines, cymbals and flutes the ecstatic worshiper of the goddess prophesied the future to those present. [Johannes Quasten]Maenad
In Aeschylus Agamemnon:
Cassandra
And now, no more shall my prophecy peer forth from behind a veil like a new-wedded bride; but it will rush upon me clear as a fresh wind blowing against the sun's uprising so as to dash against its rays, like a wave, a woe far mightier than mine.
"In Greek ritual the sacrifice was accompanied by the invocatory cries of women.No more by riddles will I instruct you. And bear me witness, as, running close behind, ] I scent the track of crimes done long ago.
For from this roof never departs a choir chanting in unison, but singing no harmonious tune; for it tells not of good. And so, gorged on human blood, so as to be the more emboldened, a revel-rout of kindred Furies haunts the house, hard to be drive away.
Lodged within its halls they chant their chant, the primal sin; and, each in turn, they spurn with loathing a brother's bed, for they bitterly spurn the one who defiled it. Have I missed the mark, or, like a true archer, do I strike my quarry?
Or am I prophet of lies, a door-to-door babbler? Bear witness upon your oath that I know the deeds of sin, ancient in story, of this house.
Their purpose was to call the good gods so that they cound enjoy the sacrifice.Menander attests to the attribution of this significance to music. According to Plutarch,
Music had the same character of epiclesis. It was understood to "call down" the good gods.the inhabiants of Argos blew trumpets on the feast of Dionysos
so as to call the god up from the depths of the river Lerne for the sacrifice.Because song and music increased the efficacy of the epiclesis the words of epiclesis were nearly always sung to instrumental accompaniment.
Arnobius alludes to such songs of the pagans performed to flute accompaniment, and he mockingly asks whether the sleeping deities will be awakened by them." (Quasten, Johannes, Music and Worship in Pagan and Christian Antiquity, p. 17)Thus the Dionysian fellowship used the ritual of women in order to obtain the appearance of their god.
In 11:17 Paul BEGINS to speak of "when you come together" or when you SYNAGOGUE. All Simple Simons knew that "there was no praise service in the synagogue" as directly commanded by the Spirit OF Christ in Numbers 10 and NEVER as far as we know violated until the Pharisees (Jesus called hypocrites: speakers, singers, instrument players) seemed to have LAYED BY IN STORE to the sound of the TRUMPET!
Whatever they were doing in Corinth--which history proves was never restored by Paul or anyone--Paul defined ANY speaking role as revealing doctrinal truth: that would eleminate ALL of the males because God speaks through Prophets and Apostles and YOU are not one of those unless you are as old ad Peck. Paul utterly OUTLAWED women speaking in the public assembly because ONLY THEY would tend to wave unholy ARMS and not turn up HOLY PALMS to PREVENT the outbreak of wrath which is ORGE or OGRY.
The TASK was to Speak meaning the opposite of poetry or music and specificially to READ that which had been once for all revealed to the Saints. By outlawing glossa Paul outlawed what he called lifeless instruments or carnal weapons.
NO ONE in the actual assembly spoke in UNKNOWN tongues because there is NO SUCH THING. The gibberish induced just up the coast at Delphi with the woman oracle or the oracles of Apollo (Abaddon) always using FEMALE GIBBERISH speakers who were drunk on something, was NOT a language. They began using a WOMAN when the GOATS began "speaking gibberish" when they went into the crack and sniffed the gas.
History is so filled with the belief that God could only be addressed in one's NATIVE DIALECT that no one can be ignorant and be a Disciple.
glōssa II. language, “allē d' allōn g. memigmenē” Od.19.175, cf. Il.2.804; glōssan hienai speak a language or dialect, Hdt.1.57; g. Hellēnida,
3. people speaking a distinct language, LXX.Ju.3.8 (pl.), interpol. in Scyl.15.1. in Music, reed or tongue of a pipe, Aeschin.3.229
1Cor. 14:10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.
G880 aphōnos af'-o-nos From G1 (as a negative particle) and G5456 ; voiceless, that is, mute (by nature or choice); figuratively unmeaning:—dumb, without signification.1Cor. 14:11 Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice,
I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian,
and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.The Judas Bag (a parable) was "for carrying the mouthpieces of wind instruments" and Psalm 41 prophesied that he would try but fail to TRIUMPH OVER Jesus which includes both vocal and instrumental rejoicing. The SOP used uniquely at the supper has the same root meaning of PSALLO (to grind you into a fine powder) and it MARKED Judas so that "Satan entered him."
Aeschine against Ctesiphon: because he knew that he had not the ability to describe one of all the things he had accomplished, but saw in his accuser a man able to set forth to the hearers in all detail how he had himself administered things which had not been done by him at all. But when a man who is made up of words, and those words bitter words and useless--when such a man takes refuge in “simplicity” and “the facts,” who could have patience with him? If you treat him as you might a clarinet, and take out his tongue, you have nothing left!
Gallup did a survey and discovered that 80% of those preacher's FIRST PERSON illustrations were all fabricated: lies, if you will.
Didn't you hear Paul speak of Lifeless Instruments and Carnal Weapons?
Clement Stromati I
Euphorus and many other historians say that there are seventy-five nations and tongues, in consequence of hearing the statement made by Moses: "All the souls that sprang from Jacob, which went down into Egypt, were seventy-five." 289According to the true reckoning, there appear to be seventy-two generic dialects, as our Scriptures hand down.
The rest of the vulgar tongues are formed by the blending of two, or three, or more dialects.
A dialect is a mode of speech which exhibits a character peculiar to a locality, or a mode of speech which exhibits a character peculiar or common to a race.The Greeks say, that among them are five dialects-the Attic, Ionic, Doric, Aeolic, and the fifth the Common; and that the languages of the barbarians, which are innumerable, are not called dialects, but tongues.
Plato attributes a dialect also to the gods, forming this conjecture mainly from dreams and oracles, and especially from demoniacs, who do not speak their own language or dialect,
but that of the demons who have taken possession of them.
He thinks also that the irrational creatures have dialects, which those that belong to the same genus understand. 290 Accordingly, when an elephant falls into the mud and bellows out any other one that is at hand, on seeing what has happened, shortly turns, and brings with him a herd of elephants, and saves the one that has fallen in. It is said also in Libya, that a scorpion, if it does not succeed in stinging a man, goes away and returns with several more; and that, hanging on one to the other like a chain they make in this way the attempt to succeed in their cunning design.
The irrational creatures do not make use of an obscure intimation, or hint their meaning by assuming a particular attitude, but, as I think, by a dialect of their own. 291 And some others say, that if a fish which has been taken escape by breaking the line, no fish of the same kind will be caught in the same place that day.
But the first and generic barbarous dialects have terms by nature, since also men confess that prayers uttered in a barbarian tongue are more powerful.
And Plato, in the Cratylus, when wishing to interpreter (fire), says that it is a barbaric term. He testifies, accordingly, that the Phrygians use this term with a slight deviation.
- Dialektos discourse, conversation, discussion, debate, argument, Id.Tht.146b; opp. eris, Id.
2. common language, talk, d. hê pros allêlous Arist.Po.1449a26 ; hê eiôthuia d. Id.Rh. 1404b24 .
II. speech, language, Ar.Fr.685; kainên d. lalôn Antiph. 171 ; d. amniou, opp. ta endon drakontos, Hermipp.3; articulate speech, language, opp. phônê, Arist.HA535a28; tou anthrôpou mia phônê, alla dialektoi pollai Id.Pr.895a6 ; but also, spoken, opp. written language, D.H.Comp.11.
- 2. the language of a country, Plb.1.80.6, D.S.5.6, etc.: esp. dialect, as Ionic,
- Phônê including
- 3. musical instrument, Simon.31, f.l. in A.Fr.57.1 ; ho men di' organôn ekêlei anthrôpous, of Marsyas, Pl.Smp.215c ; aneu organôn psilois logois ibid., cf. Plt.268b ; o. poluchorda Id.R.399c , al.; met' ôidês kai tinôn organôn Phld.Mus.p.98K. ; of the pipe, Melanipp.2, Telest.1.2.
- Oregon:
- 4. of sounds made by inanimate objects, mostly Poet., kerkidos ph. S.Fr.595 ; suringôn E.Tr.127 (lyr.); aulôn Mnesim.4.56 (anap.); rare in early Prose, organôn phônai Pl.R.397a ; freq. in LXX, hê ph. tês salpingos LXX Ex.20.18 ; ph. brontês ib. Ps.103(104).7; hê ph. autou hôs ph. hudatôn pollôn Apoc.1.15 .
Clement of Alexandria and all church fathers agree that music and sorcery including speaking in "tongues" or insane madness was never Christian: it was introduced by Satan to keep people from worshiping God and learning of Him.
To me, therefore, that Thracian Orpheus, that Theban, and that Methymnaean,-men, and yet unworthy of the name,-seem to have been deceivers, who, under the pretence of poetry corrupting human life, possessed by a spirit of artful sorcery for purposes of destruction, celebrating crimes in their orgies, and making human woes the materials of religious worship, were the first to entice men to idols;
nay, to build up the stupidity of the nations with blocks of wood and stone,-that is, statues and images,-subjecting to the yoke of extremest bondage the truly noble freedom of those who lived as free citizens under heaven
by their songs and incantations.
The totality of the Greek language and religious practices confirm that this was magical incantations. This is why rhetoricians, sOPHISts (serpents), singers, musices and facilitators or craftsmen performed as SORCERERS. Because a guitar player had no role to play among the enlightened they were identified as parasites. A guitarIST or fluteIST or harpIST are all parasites.
From Lewis and Short.
Musica , ae, and mu-si(ce- , e-s, f., = mousikê, the art of music, music; acc. to the notions of the ancients, also every higher kind of artistic or scientific culture or pursuit: musicam Damone aut Aristoxeno tractante? etc., Cic. de Or. 3, 33, 132 : socci et cothurni,i. e. comic and dramatic poetry, Aus. Ep. 10, 43 : musice antiquis temporibus tantum venerationis habuit, ut, Quint. 1, 10, 9
Similar meaning:
Exegetice , es, f., = exêgêtikê, the art of interpretation, exegesis, Diom. 2, p. 421 P.
Peter outlaws "private interpretation" which is further expounding. It denies that God in Christ was competent to deliver His Word. Furthermore, it is a MARK which helps you eject people who are playing magical tricks on you to keep from working:
Magice- , e-s, f., = magikê (sc. technê), the magic art, magic, sorcery (post-Aug.): pariter utrasque artes effloruisse, medicinam [p. 1097] dico magicenque, Plin. 30, 1, 2, § 10; 30, 1, 2, § 7: magices factio, id. 30, 1, 2, § 11 .
Magia , ae, f., = mageia, the science of the Magi, magic, sorcery [end time Babylon church]
"Music" added to the Christian "synagogue of Christ" has always created sectarianism or divisions. The act is seen by God as sorcery and the result is the deliberate sowing of discord:
Factio , o-nis, f. [id.] II. (Acc. to facio, II. B.; lit., a taking part or siding with any one; hence concr.) A company of persons associated or acting together, a class, order, sect, faction, party (syn.: pars, partes, causa, rebellio, perduellio, seditio).
B. In partic., a company of political adherents or partisans, a party, side, faction
Mageia , hê, theology of the Magians, m. hê Zôroastrou Pl.Alc.1.122a .
"Zoroastrian prayers are only to be recited in the sacred language of Avesta (see the fire worship link below), whose words are "manthric", in that they are "thought" or "holy" words of Ahura Mazda and have more meaning and power than their mundane, literal translation. Some people today mistakenly recite the prayer's translation in their own language, i.e. English, which nullifies any spiritual effects. See how Edward Fudge and others appeal to Zoroaster as a forerunner of Christianity.
Techne is a crafty craftsman:
And the voice of harpers, and musicians, (Abaddon's Singing Team) and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; Rev 18:22
First, the charismatic speaking of the female oracles was caused by being drunk on gas from a fissure in the ground, smoking poppy seed, drinking wine or induced by music and dancing. This was the "uncovered prophesying" by the women in 1 Cor. 11:5.
Secondly, the word CHARISMATIC has a strong connection with DESIRING TO PLEASE. It has connections to pedestary: the love for a mature man for a young boy. The LUST TO PLEASE was the strong motive by which boys were seduced even thought speaking in tongues has been primarily a femine or effeminate activity. Kildahl has noted that the urge to speak in tongues is normally associated with the urge to please the one who wants them to speak in tongues. When the relationship goes sour he notes that the "disciple" normally ceases speaking in tongues. In the sense of gibberish speaking in tongues is almost totally associated with an unhealthy "love" relationship.
Therefore, the most dangerous thing the pagan women brought into the churches was This was insane ravings and is not what Paul would do or recommend even "out of church." All pagans believed that God spoke in madness or insanity. Therefore, to claim this power is not a recommendation. The "worship" in the form of ANY ritual or ACT claimed to have magical power over God or the "audience" is called threskia named ofter Orpheus who originated music and charismatic gibberish to fool the people:
Throughout the world music is played at religious ceremonies to increase the efficacy and appeal of prayers, hymns, and invocations to divinities.
The power of music to charm the gods is movingly expressed in the Greek story of Orpheus. This mythical figure goes to the underworld to try to have his dead wife, Eurydice, restored to life.
By means of his lyre playing and singing he is able to win over even the god of death, so that Eurydice is allowed to leave the underworld. The continuing potency of the myth (including its tragic conclusion--Orpheus is forbidden to look back at his wife but does so and thus loses her again) is shown by the fact that it has been retold in Europe by numerous composers of opera since the early 17th century. Britannica Members Online
"It is utterly inconceivable that, in the later historic times, when the Thracians were contemned as a barbarian race, a notion should have sprung up that the first civilisation of Greece was due to them; consequently we cannot doubt that this was a tradition handed down from a very early period. Now, if we are to understand it to mean that Eumolpus, Orpheus, Musaeus, and Thamyris were the fellow-countrymen of those Edonians, Odrysians, and Odomantians, who in the historical age occupied the Thracian territory, and who spoke a barbarian language, that is, one unintelligible to the Greeks, we must despair of being able to comprehend these accounts of the ancient Thracian minstrels, and of assigning them a place in the history of Grecian civilisation; since it is [p. 1181] manifest that at this early period, when there was scarcely any intercourse between different nations, or knowledge of foreign tongues, poets who sang in an unintelligible language could not have had more influence on the mental development of the people than the twittering of birds.
Worship which is conducted in musical rituals comes from the orgies of Orpheus:
"Nor are these Thracian orgies, from which the word Worship (threskia) is said to be derived; nor rites and mysteries of Orpheus, whom the Greeks admired so much for his wisdom that they devised for him a lyre which draws all things by its music. Nor the tortures of Mithras
The word in the Bible is:
Threskos (g2357) thrace'-kos; prob. from the base of 2360; ceremonious in worship (as demonstrative), i.e. pious: - religious.
Pagan Music and Dance Induced Ecstatic Speech:
Strabo Geography [10.3.9] "But I must now investigate how it comes about that so many names have been used of one and the same thing, and the theological element contained in their history.- Now this is common both to the Greeks and to the barbarians,
- to perform their sacred rites in connection with the relaxation of a festival, these rites being performed sometimes with religious frenzy, sometimes without it; sometimes with music, sometimes not; and sometimes in secret, sometimes openly.
And it is in accordance with the dictates of nature that this should be so, for, in the first place, the relaxation draws the mind away from human occupations and turns the real mind towards that which is divine; and, secondly, the religious frenzy seems to afford a kind of divine inspiration and to be very like that of the soothsayer; and, thirdly, the secrecy with which the sacred rites are concealed induces reverence for the divine, since it imitates the nature of the divine, which is to avoid being perceived by our human senses; and, (The musical practices among the Levites were closely-held secrets even as musical ministers keep the profane out of their business.) fourthly, music, which includes dancing as well as rhythm and melody, at the same time, by the delight it affords and by its artistic beauty, This form of ritual may be fun but it is Anti-Christian
brings us in touch with the divine, and this for the following reason;
for although it has been well said that human beings then act most like the gods when they are doing good to others,
yet one might better say, when they are happy; and such happiness consists of rejoicing, celebrating festivals, pursuing philosophy, and engaging in music.
- "Together with song and music goes the dance, which is a common way of expressing the encounter with the body. The dance is a spontaneous human expression of the sense of rapture, At a higher religious level it develops into an expression of the joy at the encounter with the Holy One, an act for the glory of God (II Samuel 6:20 ff)). It behooves one to give such visible and boisterous expression of the joy before Yahweh." (Sigmund Mowinckel, translated by D. R. Ap-Thomas, The Psalms in Israel's Worship (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962), p. 10)
To a person of a different background ecstatic speech would sound like the Barbarian tongues which were held to be "sacred tongues" of the gods and angels. Therefore, any religious exercises even of a more urban Greek might be in the Barbarian tongue even as priests do their exercises in Latin.
Next, the "unknown tongues" is not in the Biblical text. Rather, the word is "language" and it is a language known by someone.
The Barbarian tongues were all of the unclassified languages. Most of these languages would move through or settle in Corinth and it would be natural for some to chant their songs or prayers in the magical tongues considered much more powerful than the common Koine Greek. At the same time they might not understand the song in their rational mind any more than even Phd's understand what "raising my Eben-ezer" means.
For instance, Layard speaks of devil worshipers whose songs had more power because they were spoken in an UNKNOWN TONGUE. However, the songs were not gibberish but, like Latin in Catholicism, songs handed down in Arabic:
| Layard, Devil
Worship in Iraq:
I hastened to the sanctuary, and found Sheikh Nasr, surrounded by the priests, seated in the inner court. The place was illuminated by torches and lamps, which threw a soft light over the white-walls of the tomb and green foliage of the arbor. The sheikhs, in their white turbans and robes, all venerable men with long gray beards, were ranged on one side; on the opposite, seated on the stones, were about
The same slow and solemn strain, occasionally varied in the melody, lasted for nearly an hour; a part of it was called (Page 186)
|
However, Paul explained that this would not impress the outsider but that by speaking their dialect they would just appear mad or insane. Philo coined the word enthusiasm or Enthus O Mania meaning out of your mind or possessed by the demons. The observer would not be able to tell the difference between someone speaking an ancient, far-removed tongue and the gone-insane, frenzied chants of the pagan women.All people believe that their language was God-given: people still go to war to defend their language. Amont the pagans the Barbarian tongues--too disorganized to be a dialect--was believed to be the language of the priestly class or anyone who wanted to be heard by God.
The Jews believed that Hebrew was the sacred language. Therefore "speaking in tongues" recognized by the pilgrims from around the world was a supernatural sign from God to the Jewish clergy that God is the God of all the people and not just the Jews.
In Christian Europe the position of Hebrew as the language of the Old Testament gave valid grounds through many centuries for regarding Hebrew, the language in which God addressed Adam, as the parent language of all mankind. Such a view continued to be expressed even well into the 19th century. Only since the mid-1800s has linguistic science made sufficient progress finally to clarify the impracticability of speculation along these lines. Britannica Members
The Catholic used Latin as the only inspired language. And the magical songs of the Devil Worshiper musicians of the area of Iraq was always a foreign language not even known to the singers. See the similarity between Devil worship and charismatic worship.
The ancient but persistent recognition of the power of language is apparent in the respect for correctness in the use of language in any sphere of life having supernatural connections. Those credited with such connections employ special formulas and rigidly prescribed modes of diction;
examples of the language of magic and of magicians are widespread, ranging from the usages of shamans and witch doctors to the ritual "abracadabra" of the mock magic displayed by conjurors at children's parties. (See ritual.)
"The efficacy of religious worship and of prayers is frequently associated with the strict maintenance of correct forms of language, taught by priests to their successors, lest the ritual become invalid. In ancient India the preservation in all its supposed purity of the language used in the performance of certain religious rituals (Sanskrit) gave rise to one of the world's most important schools of linguistics and phonetics. In the Christian churches one can observe the value placed by Church of England and Episcopalian churchmen on the formal English of the Authorized Version of the Bible and of The Book of Common Prayer, despite recent attempts at replacing these ritual forms of language by forms taken from modern spoken vernaculars. Britannica Members
The Tongues in Corinth Were Known by Someone or at Times Possibly all.
Therefore, many in the Corinthian church had their magical incantations in speeches, prayers or songs. By speaking in these languages they believed that they were worshiping God. However, Paul said that they were just speaking into the air. He told them that they should use their minor dialect in their private lives but not "in church." Clement in Stromata1 notes that:
Euphorus and many other historians say that there are seventy-five nations and tongues, in consequence of hearing the statement made by Moses: "All the souls that sprang from Jacob, which went down into Egypt, were seventy-five."
According to the true reckoning, there appear to be seventy-two generic dialects, as our Scriptures hand down.
The rest of the vulgar tongues are formed by the blending of two, or three, or more dialects.The Greeks say, that among them are five dialects-the Attic, Ionic, Doric, Aeolic, and the fifth the Common;
A dialect is a mode of speech which exhibits a character peculiar to a locality, or a mode of speech which exhibits a character peculiar or common to a race.
and that the languages of the barbarians, which are innumerable,are not called dialects, but tongues.
Plato attributes a dialect also to the gods, forming this conjecture mainly from dreams and oracles,
and especially from demoniacs, who do not speak their own language or dialect, but that of the demons who have taken possession of them.No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 1Co.10:20
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. 1Co.10:21
If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? 1Co.14:23
Many of them said, "He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?" Jn.10:20
The irrational creatures do not make use of an obscure intimation, or hint their meaning by assuming a particular attitude, but, as I think, by a dialect of their own. And some others say, that if a fish which has been taken escape by breaking the line, no fish of the same kind will be caught in the same place that day.
But the first and generic barbarous dialects have terms by nature, since also men confess that prayers uttered in a barbarian tongue are more powerful.
And Plato, in the Cratylus, when wishing to interpreter (fire), says that it is a barbaric term. He testifies, accordingly, that the Phrygians use this term with a slight deviation.
Other Barbarian Practices in Corinth: Speaking to the Air Gods or Godesses: the Principalities and Powers in Heavenly Places.
Jesus condemned the Pharisees (preaching-praying for pay), Scribes (book, song, sermon writers) and Hypocrites. The Hypocrites was a SECT in the Greek world. They were performance rhetoricians, sOPHISts (serpents in Revelation), singers and musicians. They performed as SORCERERS and because they produced nothing of value they were known as parasites.
Hippolytus notes of similar practices: Then (the sorcerer), appearing to be borne away under divine influence, (and) hurrying into a corner (of the house),
utters a loud and harsh cry, and unintelligible to all, . . .
and orders all those present to enter,
crying out (at the same time), and invoking Phryn, or some other demon.But after passing into the house, and when those that were present stood side by side, the sorcerer,
flinging the attendant upon a bed, utters to him several words,
partly in the Greek, and partly, as it were, the Hebrew language, (embodying) the customary incantations employed by the magicians.[This was speaking in tongues]
In Ephesus:
The Ephesian Letters were magic characters. The Ephesians were greatly addicted to magic. Magic characters were marked on the crown, cincture, and feet of Diana; and, at the preaching of Paul, many which used curious [magical] books burnt them. (Acts xix:19.)
The source was the Ephesian poet. Hippo'nax who was born at Ephesus in the sixth century B.C.
And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Ac 19:18
Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. Ac.19:19
Periergos (g4021) per-ee'-er-gos; from 4012 and 2041; working all around, i.e. officious (meddlesome, neut. plur. magic): - busybody, curious arts.
And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. 1Ti.5:13
"There is an interesting reason why Paul may have written the Ephesians. It was a city filled with magical arts and there were Ephesian Letters with supposed magical powers. " (These Ephesian letters) seem to have consisted of certain combinations of letters or words, which, by being pronounced with certain intonations of voice, were believed to be effectual in expelling diseases, or evil spirits; or which, by being written on parchment and worn, were supposed to operate as amulets, or charms, to guard from evil spirits, or from danger. Thus Plutarch (Sympos. 7) says, 'the magicians compel those who are possessed with a demon to recite and pronounce the Ephesian letters, in a certain order, by themselves.'" [Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Acts of the Apostles, by A. Barnes, 1858, page 264]
Socrates That objects should be imitated in letters and syllables, and so find expression, may appear ridiculous, Hermogenes, but it cannot be avoided- there is no better principle to which we can look for the truth of first names.
Deprived of this, we must have recourse to divine help, like the tragic poets,
who in any perplexity have their Gods waiting in the air;\and must get out of our difficulty in like fashion, by saying that "the Gods gave the first names, and therefore they are right."This will be the best contrivance, or perhaps that other notion may be even better still, of deriving them from some barbarous people, for the barbarians are older than we are; or we may say that
antiquity has cast a veil over them, which is the same sort of excuse as the last;
for all these are not reasons but only ingenious excuses for having no reasons concerning the truth of words.But now, does not a similar mode of thought remove Juno from the list of gods?
For if she is the air , as you have been wont to jest and say,
repeating in reversed order the syllables of the Greek name,
Strabo noted the musical instrument and Barbarian connection:
"From its melody and rhythm and instruments, all Thracian music has been considered to be Asiatic. And this is clear, first, from the places
where the Muses have been worshipped,
"for Pieria and Olympus and Pimpla and Leibethrum were in ancient times Thracian places and mountains, though they are now held by the Macedonians; and again, Helicon (home of Thespiaae and Eros) was consecrated to the Muses by the Thracians who settled in Boeotia, the same who consecrated the cave of the nymphs called Leibethrides.
And again, those who devoted their attention to the music of early times are called Thracians, I mean Orpheus, Thracians, and Thracians; and Thracians, (sweet singer) too, got his name from there.
And those writers who have consecrated the whole of Asia,
as far as India, to Dionysus, derive the greater part of music from there.And one writer says, "striking the Asiatic cithara"; another calls flutes "Berecyntian" and "Phrygian"; and some of the instruments have been called by barbarian names, "nablas," "sambyce," "barbitos," "magadis," and several others.
Below: Barbarian lying on a bed with the Barbaton
Thrêsk-eia,Ion. thrêsk-eiê , hê, ( [thrêskeuô] ) religious worship, cult, ritual, hê peri ta hira th. Hdt.2.18, IG12(5).141.5 (Paros, iii B.C.), J.AJ17.9.3, etc.; touApollônos SIG801 D (Delph., i A.D.); hê peri tinos th. ib. 867.48 (Ephesus, ii A.D.): pl., rites, Hdt.2.37, D.H.2.63, PGnom. 185 (ii A.D.), Wilcken Chr.72 (iii A.D.).Threskeia (g2356) thrace-ki'-ah; from a der. of 2357; ceremonial observance: - religion, worshipping.2. religion, service of God, LXX Wi.14.18, Act.Ap.26.5, Ep.Jac.1.26; th. tou theou mia esti, mê einai kakon Corp.Herm.12 fin.; hekatera th., i.e. Christianity and Paganism, Them.Or.5.69c; th. tôn angelôn worshipping of angels, Ep.Col.2.18
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, Col.2:18
"Voluntary" (g2309) means determined, delightful, pleasurable. It is from:Clement in Stromata also notes:
- Haireomai (g138) hahee-reh'-om-ahee; prob. akin to 142; to take for oneself, i.e. to prefer: - choose. Some of the forms are borrowed from a cognate heålloåmai +tx hel'-lom-ahee; # which is otherwise obsolete
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than (choosing) to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Heb.11:25
3. in bad sense, religious formalism, anti hosiotêtos Ph.1.195; th. biôtikê VULGAR SUPERSTITION.And he called the myths themselves "children," as if the progeny of those, wise in their own conceits among the Greeks, who had but little insight meaning by the "hoary studies" the truth which was possessed by the barbarians, dating from the highest antiquity. To which expression he opposed the phrase "child fable," censuring the mythical character of the attempts of the moderns, as, like children, having nothing of age in them, and affirming both in common-their fables and their speeches-to be puerile.
Divinely, therefore, the power which spoke to Hermas by revelation said,
"The visions and revelations are for those who are of double mind,
who doubt in their hearts if these things are or are not."And Paul agreed:
For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit 1 Cor 14:2
So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. 1 Cor 14:9
All of the "tongues" Paul suggests as acceptable either in private or along with someone to interpret were NOT UNKNOWN TONGUES. Paul said that all of the languages in the world, quite logically, conveyed meaning:
There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices (languages, tongues) in the world, and none of them is without signification. 1 Cor 14:10
However, it was important not to slip into using a tongue within the church any more than it would be acceptable to the preacher to begin to speak in Latin which he believed was a more holy language than the Greek in Corinth:
Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. 1 Co.14:11
One barbarian would not be understood by another Barbarian. However, neither of them would be speaking the charismatic gibberish of the temple oracle speaker who was always female. By restricting females in the assembly Paul could guard against singing superstitious "praise songs" which is just speaking in an unknown tongues.
Speaking In Tongues is Speaking in a Language Known to Someone
Chapter XVI.-That the Inventors of Other Arts Were Mostly Barbarian
I have added a few details from them, in order to confirm the inventive and practically useful genius of the barbarians, by whom the Greeks profited in their studies.
And if any one objects to the barbarous language, Anacharsis says, "All the Greeks speak Scythian to me." It was he who was held in admiration by the Greeks, who said,
"My covering is a cloak; my supper, milk and cheese."
You see that the barbarian philosophy professes deeds, not words.The apostle thus speaks: "So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue a word easy to be understood, how shall ye know what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.
There are, it may be, so many kind of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me." And, "Let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret."
See The Golden Bough on Dionysus Worship
"Accustomed to personify the forces of nature, to tinge her cold abstractions with the warm hues of imagination, to clothe her naked realities with the gorgeous drapery of a mythic fancy,
he fashioned for himself a train of gods and goddesses, of spirits and elves (fairy), out of the shifting panorama of the seasons, and followed the annual fluctuations of their fortunes with alternate emotions of cheerfulness and dejection, of gladness and sorrow, which found their natural expression in alternate rites of rejoicing and lamentation, of revelry and mourning.
"A consideration of some of the Greek divinities who thus died and rose again from the dead may furnish us with a series of companion pictures to set side by side with the sad figures of Adonis, Attis, and Osiris. We begin with Dionysus.
The god Dionysus or Bacchus is best known to us
as a personification of the vine and of
the exhilaration produced by the juice of the grape.Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris, agents of a new Wineskins Religion note that:
"The wine is the bubbling, churning gospel. It is the ever-arriving-yet-never-fully-realized-on-Earth kingdom of God. It is the powerful presence of the Spirit of God among believers. The wineskins are the points of contact between the wine and culture. They are the forms and programs we maintain, the organizations and institutions, or the patterns and procedures... (Shelly - Harris, Second Incarnation, p. 11).
"The tired, uninspiring event called worship in our churches must give way to an exhilarating experience of God that simultaneously exhibits and nurtures life in the worshippers." (Rubel Shelly - Randy Harris, Second Incarnation, p. 12-13)
"His ecstatic worship, characterised by wild dances, thrilling music, and tipsy excess, appears to have originated among the rude tribes of Thrace, who were notoriously addicted to drunkenness.
"Its mystic doctrines and extravagant rites were essentially foreign to the clear intelligence and sober temperament of the Greek race.
Yet appealing as it did to that love of mystery and that proneness to revert to savagery which seem to be innate in most men,
the religion spread like wildfire through Greece until the god whom Homer hardly deigned to notice had become the most popular figure of the pantheon.
Clement continues the concept of speaking unknown Barbarian tongues by making fun of the Sophists or preachers.
Of the Gnostics who gave rise to female leadership in the church the Catholic Encyclopedia notes:
An extraordinary prominence is given to the utterance of the vowels: alpha, epsilon, eta, iota, omicron, upsilon, omega.
The Saviour and His disciples are supposed in the midst of their sentences to have broken out in an interminable gibberish of only vowels;
magic spells have come down to us consisting of vowels by the fourscore; on amulets the seven vowels, repeated according to all sorts of artifices,
form a very common inscription. Within the last few years these Gnostic vowels, so long a mystery, have been the object of careful study by Ruelle, Poirée, and Leclercq, and it may be considered proven that
each vowel represents one of the seven planets, or archons; that the seven together represent the Universe, but without consonants they represent the Ideal and Infinite not yet imprisoned and limited by matter;
that they represent a musical scale, probably like the Gregorian 1 tone re-re, or d, e, f, g, a, b, c, and many a Gnostic sheet of vowels is in fact a sheet of music. But research on this subject has only just begun.
With a growing mixture of Asians, Mexicans and others it is probable that much of the church assembly could be conducted in their languages. Or at other times all might understand Spanish and we should not forbid to speak in the Spanish tongues.
However, in Corinth, Koine Greek would be the almost universal language even among Jews. Therefore, to begin praying in an African tongue or type of Greek because one believed that it had more power with God as magic would violate the first principle established by Christ at Pentecost: God can be taught and praised in every language on the earth.
Some might speak the "tongues of angels" or some mystical barbarian song or chant out of the "spirit" even as many churchy songs are sung without the mind engaged. Therefore, by insisting that they speak the Word one to another they would have to speak that which their mind grasped and therefore others could understand and agree with.
Therefore, Paul excluded the "uncovered prophesying" by the women in 1 Cor. 11:5 which was the "gone made" charismatic gibberish as well as the magical chants in barbarian tongues which the speaker might not even understand with hisi mind.
Paul outlaws the music or drug induced gibberish for all times and restricts singing or chanting the magical encantations in the POWER LANGUAGES which they might not grasp.
Plato in Cratylus defines many words:
Her. What do you say of edone (pleasure), lupe (pain), epithumia (desire), and the like, Socrates?
Soc. I do not think, Hermogenes, that there is any great difficulty about them- edone is e onesis, the action which tends to advantage; and the original form may be supposed to have been eone, but this has been altered by the insertion of the d. Lupe appears to be derived from the relaxation (luein) which the body feels when in sorrow; ania (trouble) is the hindrance of motion (a and ienai); algedon (distress), if I am not mistaken, is a foreign word, which is derived from aleinos (grievous); odune (grief) is called from the putting on (endusis) sorrow; in achthedon (vexation) "the word too labours,"
as any one may see; chara (joy) is the very expression of the fluency and diffusion of the soul (cheo); terpsis (delight) is so called from the pleasure creeping (erpon) through the soul, which may be likened to a breath (pnoe) and is properly erpnoun, but has been altered by time into terpnon; eupherosune (cheerfulness) and epithumia explain themselves; the former, which ought to be eupherosune and has been changed euphrosune, is named, as every one may see,
from the soul moving (pheresthai) in harmony with nature;
epithumia is really e epi ton thumon iousa dunamis, the power which enters into the soul; thumos (passion) is called from the rushing (thuseos) and boiling of the soul; imeros (desire) denotes the stream (rous) which most draws the soul dia ten esin tes roes- because flowing with desire (iemenos),
and expresses a longing after things and violent attraction of the soul to them, and is termed imeros from possessing this power;
pothos (longing) is expressive of the desire of that which is not present but absent, and in another place (pou); this is the reason why the name pothos is applied to things absent, as imeros is to things present; eros (love) is so called because flowing in (esron) from without;
the stream is not inherent, but is an influence introduced through the eyes, and from flowing in was called esros (influx) in the old time when they used o (short) for o (long), and is called eros, now that o (long) is substituted for o (short). But why do you not give me another word?
Her. Yes, they are wise.
Soc. And therefore I have the most entire conviction that he called them demons, because they were daemones (knowing or wise), and in our older Attic dialect the word itself occurs. Now he and other poets say truly, that when a good man dies he has honour and a mighty portion among the dead, and becomes a demon;
which is a name given to him signifying wisdom. And I say too, that every wise man who happens to be a good man is more than human (daimonion) both in life and death, and is rightly called a demon.
Her. Then I rather think that I am of one mind with you; but what is the meaning of the word "hero"? (eros)
Soc. I think that there is no difficulty in explaining, for the name is not much altered, and signifies that they were born of love.
Her. What do you mean?
Soc. Do you not know that the heroes are demigods?
Her. What then?
Soc. All of them sprang either from the love of a God for a mortal woman, or of a mortal man for a Goddess; think of the word in the old Attic, and you will see better that the name heros is only a slight alteration of Eros, from whom the heroes sprang: either this is the meaning, or, if not this, then they must have been skilful as rhetoricians and dialecticians, and able to put the question (erotan), for eirein is equivalent to legein.
And therefore, as I was saying, in the Attic dialect the heroes turn out to be rhetoricians and questioners. All this is easy enough; the noble breed of heroes are a tribe of sophists and rhetors. But can you tell me why men are called anthropoi?- that is more difficult.
Her. No, I cannot; and I would not try even if I could, because I think that you are the more likely to succeed.
Soc. That is to say, you trust to the inspiration of Euthyphro.
Her. Of course.
ALL musical words and names of Instruments in the Bible and ancient languages connected music which is the Greek sumphonia with charismatic and with pedestary or homosexuality. The MUSIC has always been said to have a perverting influence because it shuts down the rational or spiritual mind and opens up the emotional. The emotions are in turn influenced by the music-inducing endorphines or natural morphine. This is turn creates the effects of FIGHT, FLIGHT or SEXUALITY.
Sumphôn-ia, concord or unison of sound, tên en têi ôidêi harmonian, ê dê s. kaleitai Pl.Cra.405d ; hê gar harmonia s. esti, s. de homologia tis Id.Smp.187b , cf. R.430e; logos arithmôn en oxei ê barei Arist.AP0.90a18 , cf. de An.426a29; krasis esti logon echontôn enantiôn pros allêla Id.Pr.921a2 .
2. of two sounds only, musical concord, accord, such as the fourth, fifth, and octave, Pl.R.531a, 531c; hê dia pasôn s. Arist.Pr.921a13, cf. Hp.Vict.1.8; distd. from mere homophônia, Arist.Pol.1263b35.
3. harmonious union of many voices or sounds, concert, hoi tôn s. logoi, the Pythagorean doctrine of the music of the spheres
III. band, orchestra, Hellênika 1.19 (Gytheum, i A.D.), PFlor.74.5 (ii A.D.), POxy.1275.9 (iii A.D.), and so perh. in Plb.26.1.4, 30.26.8, but used of a musical instrument in LXXDa.3.5; so Lat. symphonia, of a kind of drum, Isid.Etym.3.22.14, but of a wind instrument, Plin.HN8.157; symphoniae et cymbala strepitusque, Cels.3.18.10; êkouse sumphônias kai Chorôn Ev.Luc.15.25 .
Chresis (g5540) khray'-sis; from 5530; employment, i.e. (spec.) sexual intercourse
For the zeal (jealousy) of thine house (temple) hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. Psalm 69:9
Cherphah (h2781) kher-paw'; from 2778; contumely, disgrace, the pudenda: - rebuke, reproach (-fully), shame.
Charizesthai erastais Pederasty musicians, odes, Mousa paidikee, which are mere play for him. A nomos for cinaedi by a Sybarite Hemitheon is mentioned by Lucian adv. ind. 23 (cf. Pseudo-Lucian 3).
"We know of pederasty in Thera from the ancient rock inscriptions (7th century?) that, due to their content and the location where they were found, appear to point to a connection
with gymnastics and cultic ritual [See the connection with Zeus/Dionysus and the Abomination in the Temple and Gymnasium in Jerusalem]
(IG XII 3.536-601, 1410-1493, also Hiller v. Gaertringen, Thera I 152, III 67); the crude oifein is found only in Nos. 536-538, for example in 537 ton deina] nai ton Delfinion h(o) Krimoon te(i)de ooiphe, paida Bathukleos. Similar forms are also found elsewhere, whether under Dorian influence or as an old legacy from the age of knighthood. Plato, in Symp. 182b, and
Xenophon, in Symp. 8.32, say that pederasty was the usual custom in Elis and Thebes, and Plato adds that charizesthai erastais was not considered dishonorable because the people there were too inarticulate to persuade with words.
chrêstêrios [chraô3] of or from an oracle, oracular, prophetic, Aesch., Eur.; Apollon chrêstêrie author of oracles, Hdt.
chrauô to scrape, graze, wound slightly, hon rha te poimên chrausêi Il.; cf. enchrauô, epichraô.
chrêstêrios , a, on, also os, on A.Eu.241: (chraô (B) A): oracular, prophetic, ephetmai l. c.; ornithes Id.Th.26 ; chrêstêrian esthêta Id.Ag. 1270 ; tripous ch. E.Ion1320 ; tounoma Id.Hel.822 ; also Apollon chrêstêrie author of oracles, Hdt.6.80 , cf. OGI312 (Aegae, ii B. C.).
Apollo or Abaddon or Apollyon or Apollon is the father of musical harmony and he will arouse the MUSES or LUCUSTS to afflict the end times of the church. He is the father of Lord, Lord saying prophesying. The lady at the Oracle of Delphi (site of the Python or Serpent's oracle also) sniffed gas from a fissure, chewed laurel leaves to drive herself mad, frothed at the mouth and SPOKE IN TONGUES. The Priest "interpreted" the speaking in tongues and the musician put it into verse. Of course, the oracles were staffed with frauds who could "unseal" the seekers question, give it to the "interpreter" and then reseal it--for a price too high.
Chrysostom wrote of the Pythoness of Delphi: explaining Paul in 1 Corinthians 12.
The word glossolalia came from the Greek vernacular, pneuma and lalein glossais.
It is actually a derivative of words used to describe the utterances of the worshippers of pagan Greek gods and goddesses.
[2.] "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant;" calling the signs "spiritual," because they are the works of the Spirit alone, human effort contributing nothing to the working such wonders. And intending to discourse concerning them, first, as I said,
he lays down the difference between soothsaying and prophecy, thus saying,
"Ye know that when ye were Gentiles, ye were led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever ye might be led." Now what he means is this: "In the idol-temples," saith he, "if any were at any time possessed by an unclean spirit and began to divine, even as one dragged away, so was he drawn by that spirit in chains:
knowing nothing of the things which he utters.
For this is peculiar to the soothsayer, to be beside himself, to be under compulsion, to be pushed, to be dragged, to be haled as a mad-man. But the prophet not so, but with sober mind and composed temper and knowing what he is saying, he uttereth all things.
Therefore even before the event do thou from this distinguish the soothsayer and the prophet.
And consider how he frees his discourse of all suspicion; calling themselves to witness who had made trial of the matter. As if he had said, "that I lie not nor rashly traduce the religion of the Gentiles, feigning like an enemy, do ye yourselves bear me witness: knowing as ye do, when ye were Gentiles, how ye were pulled and dragged away then."
"But if any should say that these too are suspected as believers, come, even from them that are without will I make this manifest to you.
Hear, for example, Plato saying thus: (Apol. Soc. c. 7.) "Even as they who deliver oracles and the soothsayers say many and excellent things, but know nothing of what they utter."
Hear again another, a poet, giving the same intimation. For whereas by certain mystical rites and witchcrafts a certain person had imprisoned a demon in a man, and the man divined, and in his divination was thrown down and torn, and was unable to endure the violence of the demon, but was on the point of perishing in that convulsion; he saith to the persons who were practicing such mystical arts, Loose me, I pray you:The mighty God no longer mortal flesh Can hold.And again, Unbind my wreaths, and bathe my feet in drops From the pure stream; erase these mystic lines, And let me go. For these and such like things, (for one might mention many more,) point out to us both of these facts which follow; the compulsion which holds down the demons and makes them slaves; and the violence to which they submit who have once given themselves up to them, so as to swerve even from their natural reason. And the Pythoness too: (for I am compelled now to bring forward and expose another disgraceful custom of theirs, which it were well to pass by, because it is unseemly for us to mention such things; but that you may more clearly know their shame it is necessary to mention it, that hence at least ye may come to know the madness and exceeding mockery of those that make use of the soothsayers:) this same Pythoness then is said, being a female, to sit at times upon the tripod of Apollo astride,
and thus the evil spirit ascending from beneath and entering the lower part of her body, fills the woman with madness, and she with dishevelled hair begins to play the bacchanal and to foam at the mouth, and thus being in a frenzy to utter the words of her madness. I know that you are ashamed and blush when you hear these things: but they glory both in the disgrace and in themadness which I have described. These then and all such things.
Paul was bringing forward when he said, "Ye know that when ye were Gentiles, ye were led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever ye might be led."
Such of the images as were constructed of precious material, andwhatever else was valuable, were purified by fire, and became public property. The brazen images which were skillfully wrought were carried to the city, named after the emperor, and placed there as objects of embellishment, where they may still be seen in public places, as in the streets, the hippodrome, and the palaces. Amongst them was the statue of Apollo which was in the seat of the oracle of the Pythoness, and likewise the statues of the Muses from Helicon, the tripods from Delphos, and the much extolled Pan, which Pausanias the Lacedaemonian and the Grecian cities had devoted,-after the war against the Medes.
"The Hithpa'el of nb', in the ancient texts, refers to ecstasy and delirium rather than to the emission of a 'prophecy'." (de Vaux, Roland, The Bible and the Ancient Near East, p. 243 Doubleday
"Maniac inspirations, the violent possession which threw sibyls and priestesses into contortions--the foaming lip and streaming hair and glazed or glaring eyes--
have no place in the self-controlling dignity of Christian inspiration. Even Jewish prophets, in the paroxysm of emotion, might lie naked on the ground and rave (1 Sam. xix. 24);
but the genuine inspiration in Christian ages never obliterates the self-consciousness or overpowers the reason. It abhors the hysteria and stimulation and frenzy which have sometimes disgraced revivalism and filled lunatic asylums." (Pulpit Commentary, 1 Cor., p. 460).
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Tongues at Corinth: Languages, not Ecstasies!