The Ceasing of Tongues in 70AD

Paul in 1 Cor. 14:20-22 writes:

Brothers,do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. In the Law it is written, "By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord." Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.

Where does Paul get this from? It is written right? So, where is it written? Paul is quoting Isaiah.

For by people of strange lips
and with a foreign tongue
the LORD will speak to this people,(28:11)

What is Isaiah talking about? Well, we have to go to Isaiah to understand that. Well, reading through Isaiah we understand that it's context is that of judgment on Ephraim, rather, Israel. If you continue reading to v. 13 you'll see what I'm talking about. He would cause Israel to "fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken".

Jeremiah has his own prophecy as well:

Behold, I am bringing against you
a nation from afar, O house of Israel,
declares the LORD.It is an enduring nation;
it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
nor can you understand what they say.(5:15)

What are these other strange lips? What are these foreign tongues? Are they what we hear from our charismatic brothers and sisters? No, they were the languages of those who battled against them. They were the Babylonians.

Our Lord had told Israel that if they act up that he would bring another nation against them. A nation whose language they do not understand.

Deut. 28:45-50
"All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young.

This is the background of what Paul is speaking of. This phenomena is not new to the New Testament. Reading through all of Deut. 28 we find YHWH's promise of blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. I can tell you right now that Israel disobeyed. Do not think that the Judgment in 70AD was just by happenstance.

What was our Lord communicating to us? What is Paul communicating to us? Is it that we will have this "spiritual language" that we can't understand? Or is it to show us that judgment is at the door? Why would it be any different when the writers of the NT say it? Was their understanding not that of Isaiah, Moses, or Jeremiah?

Paul goes on to say that tongues is a sign for unbelievers, not for believers. We have to ask. A sign for what? Could it be as it was in the OT, a sign of judgment. Those who in Acts 2 heard them speaking in their native language mocked them and called them drunkards and other asked "what does this mean".

Peter explains to them by appealing to Joel. Joel says that this will be in the last days. All the writers agreed that they were in the last days. What would happen in the last days folks? Was it not the judgment of Israel. Wasn't one of the questions the disciples asked in regards to the close of the age? Yeshua goes on to describe all the events leading up to the end, and the destruction of Israel, which happened in 70AD was one of them. It was the ending of the Mosaic Economy and the beginning of the Messianic Age.

Is there no connection here? Another nation (Rome) judged Israel. Given the OT background, I'd say it's more likely the understanding that what we've seen from those who believe in a "spiritual language".

Paul in 1 Cor. 13 says that tongues will cease when that which is Perfect comes. That which is Perfect was said to be almost there. It says they saw in a mirror "dimly".[1] That which was perfect was the Messianic Age. Which was established in 70AD at the ending of the Old Economy, the Mosaic Age.





[1] The mirrors that they used were not the mirrors we have now. They were like these bronze instruments that they could barely see in, hence, dimly. As opposed to "face to face" which would be like looking in the mirrors we have today. We don't see dimly, we see exactly what it is. We have the full representation of it.