Abstract Although the Corinthian phenomenon of tongues has long been understood as unintelligible utterances, Ekaputra Tupamahu’s Contesting Languages challenges this assumption by arguing, based on a reception history approach, that tongues actually refer to ordinary languages. While he provides a novel exegetical context for understanding tongues in 1 Cor 12–14 as ordinary languages using postcolonial hermeneutics, the exegetical context for tongues in Acts appears to be missing. In this essay, therefore, I aim to fill this lacuna by interpreting tongues in Acts 2:4–11 as xenolalia, and in Acts 10:46 and 19:6 as naturally acquired languages, challenging the prevalent view of tongues as xenolalia/glossolalia in Acts 2:4–11 and glossolalia in Acts 10:46 and 19:6. The use of tongues as languages in these passages signifies the ethnolinguistic diversity of early Christianity. This understanding also potentially sheds new light on why the Corinthian church would have debated the use of different languages.
Joshua H.M. Chan (2026) studied this question.