What Does Acts 19:6 Mean?

(6) **They spake with tongues, and prophesied.**—Better, *they were speaking with tongues and prophesying, *the verbs implying continuous action. As to the nature and relation of the two gifts, see Notes on Acts 2:4; Acts 10:46. Here all the facts of the case confirm the view which has there been stated. The mere power of speaking foreign languages without learning them, as other men learn, seems a much less adequate result of the new gift than that which we find in the new enthusiasm and intensity of spiritual joy, of which the gift of tongues was the natural expression. It is not without interest to remember that the discussion of the two gifts in 1 Corinthians 14, in which the connection of the “tongues” with jubilant and ecstatic praise is unmistakable (1Corinthians 14:14-16), was written not very long after this incident, and while the facts must yet have been fresh in St. Paul’s memory. On the “laying on of hands,” which was the “outward and visible sign” of the “inward and spiritual grace,” see Notes on Acts 8:14-18, where the laying-on of hands is followed by a gift of the Holy Ghost.