So likewise you, except you utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for you shall speak into the air.
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Clement Of Alexandria
AD 215
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."
So likewise ye . . . how shall it be known what is spoken. For the tongue is the stamp, the image, the index, and messenger of the mind. As Aristotle says (Peri Hermen. lib. ii.), "words are signs of the feelings which lie concealed in the soul." Hence Socrates used to determine the mind and character of any one from his voice, and would say, "Speak, young Prayer of Manasseh , that I may see you." But this cannot be if the language of the speaker is unknown to the hearer.
If speaking in tongues is useless, why was it given? It was given for the benefit of the person who has it. But if it is to help others also, then there must be some interpretation.
4. But if it be unprofitable, why was it given? says one. So as to be useful to him that has received it. But if it is to be so to others also, there must be added interpretation. Now this he says, bringing them near to one another; that if a person himself have not the gift of interpretation, he may take unto him another that has it, and make his own gift useful through him. Wherefore he every where points out its imperfection, that so he may bind them together. Any how, he that accounts it to be sufficient for itself, does not so much commend it as disparage it, not suffering it to shine brightly by the interpretation. For excellent indeed and necessary is the gift, but it is so when it has one to explain what is spoken. Since the finger too is a necessary thing, but when you separate it from the other members, it will not be equally useful: and the trumpet is necessary, but when it sounds at random, it is rather an annoyance. Yea, neither shall any art come to light, without matter ...
