The tongue; by implication, a language (specially, one naturally unacquired)
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γλῶσσα (glōssa) can name the physical tongue, a language, or speech viewed through the tongue as its human instrument. Mark uses the bodily sense when Jesus touches the tongue of a man who cannot hear and can scarcely speak.
Reader summary
Full entry for γλῶσσα (G1100) · Open the biblical lexicon
γλῶσσα (glōssa) can name the physical tongue, a language, or speech viewed through the tongue as its human instrument. Mark uses the bodily sense when Jesus touches the tongue of a man who cannot hear and can scarcely speak.
The BSB source-word alignment has 50 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include tongue (16), tongues (12), in tongues (9), in a tongue (5), a tongue (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 7:33. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (21), Revelation (8), Acts (6), James (5).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
γλῶσσα (glōssa) can name the physical tongue, a language, or speech viewed through the tongue as its human instrument. Mark uses the bodily sense when Jesus touches the tongue of a man who cannot hear and can scarcely speak. Acts uses the language sense when the Spirit enables the gathered disciples to speak in other tongues and the multinational hearers recognize their own languages.
Paul addresses congregational speech in which a tongue must be interpreted or made intelligible if it is to build up others. James uses the bodily organ as a vivid image for the disproportionate power of human speech, while Revelation gathers every tribe and tongue into the Lamb’s redeemed people. These uses belong together without becoming identical. The physical organ does not explain every spiritual gift, and the word alone does not settle every debate about tongues.
Context must distinguish anatomy, ordinary language, Spirit-enabled speech, and the moral agency expressed through words.
γλῶσσα moves from the bodily tongue to language and speech. The selected passages join Jesus’ embodied mercy, Pentecost’s Spirit-enabled proclamation, intelligibility in worship, the tongue’s moral danger, and the Lamb’s multilingual redeemed people.
So Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, and put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spit and touched the man’s tongue.
The noun names the man’s physical tongue within an embodied healing scene. Jesus deals personally with his inability to hear and speak, and the narrative does not turn the body into a mere symbol.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
The Spirit enables speech in other tongues, and the following verses identify hearers from many nations recognizing their own languages. The event serves public witness to God’s mighty works.
So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air.
Paul’s governing concern is intelligible edification in the gathered church. Whatever the precise form of the tongue, speech that others cannot understand requires the controls he gives in the chapter.
In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it boasts of great things. Consider how small a spark sets a great forest ablaze.
James uses the small organ to portray speech’s immense capacity for harm. The image keeps responsibility personal: words arise from embodied speakers whose teaching and conduct face God’s judgment.
And they sang a new song: “Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
Tongue marks linguistic peoples within the worldwide company purchased by the Lamb’s blood. Redemption creates worshiping unity without erasing the languages and peoples gathered before God.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Refers to actual human languages or ecstatic speech phenomenon, depending on Corinthian context usage.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 50 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
the tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read versethe tongue, a language, nation
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 8 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 50 lexical occurrence verses.
γλῶσσα is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
The intelligible nature of these languages confirms that the miracle serves proclamation of God’s mighty works.Acts 2:1-13
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The tongue is small, but Scripture places bodily mercy, public witness, church order, destructive speech, and global worship around it. Jesus touches a disabled man’s tongue and restores his capacity to speak, dignifying the body rather than treating it as a disposable shell. At Pentecost, the Spirit gives speech that crosses linguistic boundaries and announces God’s mighty works to scattered nations.
In Corinth, Paul refuses to make spiritual speech an arena for self-display. The gathered church must be built up, which requires interpretation, intelligibility, and ordered participation. James then exposes the darker power of speech: a small tongue can ignite a social world like a spark in a forest. Revelation answers neither with silence nor with one culture swallowing all others.
The slain Lamb purchases people from every tongue, and their diversity becomes part of heaven’s praise. Christian speech should therefore be embodied, truthful, understandable, restrained, and centered on God’s saving work in Christ. The same mouth that can wound a neighbor is summoned to confess the Lord and join the multilingual worship His blood has secured.
Acts.2.4
The noun’s concrete sense is the tongue as an organ. By natural extension it can denote language or speech associated with that organ. The referent is controlled by setting and syntax: a tongue can be touched, can name a linguistic people, or can describe speech requiring interpretation. Lexical range does not by itself decide the nature or duration of a spiritual gift.
The Old Testament portrays God creating speech, judging proud human language at Babel, calling prophets to speak, and promising that the nations will worship Him. Pentecost announces God’s works across languages, while Revelation shows the slain Lamb redeeming worshipers from every tongue without collapsing their created diversity.