γλῶσσα

γλωσης, ἡ (from Homer down), the tongue;
1. the tongue, a member of the body, the organ of speech: Mk 7:33, Mk 7:35; Lk 1:64; Lk 16:24; 1 Cor 14:9; Jas 1:26; Jas 3:5, Jas 3:6, Jas 3:8; 1 Pet 3:10; 1 Jn 3:18; (Rev 16:10). 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 Acts 2:26 (ἠγαλλιάσατο ἡ γλῶσσα μου); Rom 3:13; Rom 14:11; Phm 2:11 (the tongue of every man); of the little tongue-like flames symbolizing the gift of foreign tongues, in Acts 2:3.
2. a tongue, i. e. the language used by a particular people in distinction from that of other nations: Acts 2:11; hence, in later Jewish usage (Isa 66:18; Dan 3:4; Dan 5:19 Theod.; Dan 6:25; Theod.; Judg 3:8) joined with φυλή, λαός, ἔθνος, it serves to designate people of various languages (cf. Winer's Grammar, 32), Rev 5:9; Rev 7:9; Rev 10:11; Rev 11:9; Rev 13:7; Rev 14:6; Rev 17:15. λαλεῖν ἑτέραις γλώσσαις to speak with other than their native i. e. in foreign tongues, Acts 2:4, cf. Acts 2:6-11; γλώσσαις λαλεῖν καιναῖς to speak with new tongues which the speaker has not learned previously, Mk 16:17 (but Tr text WH text omit; Tr marginal reading brackets καιναῖς); cf. DeWette on Acts, p. 27ff (correct and supplement his references by Meyer on 1 Cor 12:10; cf. also B. D. under the word Tongues, Gift of). From both these expressions must be carefully distinguished the simple phrases λαλεῖν γλώσσαις, γλώσσαις λαλεῖν, λαλεῖν γλώσσῃ, γλώσσῃ λαλεῖν (and προσεύχεσθαι γλώσσῃ, 1 Cor 14:14), to speak with (in) a tongue (the organ of speech), to speak with tongues; this, as appears from 1 Cor 14:7ff, 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: Acts 10:46; Acts 19:6; 1 Cor 12:30; 1 Cor 13:1; 1 Cor 14:2, 1 Cor 14:4-6, 1 Cor 14:13, 1 Cor 14:18, 1 Cor 14:23, 1 Cor 14:27, 1 Cor 14:39. 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 (ἡ τῶν θείων ὕμνων μελῳδός, 4 Macc. 10:21, cf. Psalm 34:28; Psalms 65:17> (); Psalms 70:24> (); Ps 125:2; Acts 2:26; Phm 2:11; λαλεῖν ἐν γλώσσῃ, Ps 38:4, and that according to the more rigorous conception of inspiration nothing human in an inspired man was thought to be active except the tongue, put in motion by the Holy Spirit (κατάχρηται ἕτερος αὐτοῦ τοῖς φωνητηριοις ὀργάνοις, στόματι καί γλωττη πρός μηνυσιν ὧν ἄν θέλῃ, Philo, rer. div. haer. § 53 (i. 510, Mang. edition)); hence, the contrast διατουνως (critical editions τῷ νοιλαλεῖν, 1 Cor 14:19 cf. 1 Cor 14:9. The plural in the phrase γλώσσαις λαλεῖν, used even of a single person (1 Cor 14:5f), refers to the various motions of the tongue. By metonymy, of the cause for the effect, γλῶσσαι tongues are equivalent to λόγοι ἐν γλώσσῃ (1 Cor 14:19) words spoken in a tongue (Zungenvorträge): 1 Cor 13:8; 1 Cor 14:22; γένη γλωσσῶν, 1 Cor 12:10, 1 Cor 12:28, of which two kinds are mentioned viz. προσευχή and ψαλμός, 1 Cor 14:15; γλῶσσαν ἔχω, something to utter with a tongue, 1 Cor 14:26. (On 'Speaking with Tongues' see, in addition to the discussions above referred to, Wendt in the 5th edition of Meyer on Acts (Acts 2:4); Heinrici, Korinthierbriefe, i., 372ff; Schaff, Hist. of the Chr. Church, i. 234-245 (1882); Farrar, St. Paul, i. 95ff.)