Interpretation of Tongues

First Corinthians 12:10 lists this gift immediately after tongues itself: "and to still another, the interpretation of tongues." In Greek, hermeneia glosson — the same root behind our English word "hermeneutics," the study of interpretation. This gift is the Spirit-given ability to understand and communicate the meaning of a message spoken in tongues to people who didn't understand the original language or utterance, without having learned that language naturally.

Paul treats this gift as the necessary partner to tongues in a church gathering, not an optional add-on. His instruction is blunt: if someone speaks in a tongue in the assembly without an interpreter present, "the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God" (1 Corinthians 14:28). Without interpretation, Paul says, tongues in public worship are like a trumpet giving an unclear sound — nobody knows what's being communicated, and "you will just be speaking into the air" (1 Corinthians 14:8-9). Interpretation is what turns a private utterance into something that can "instruct" and build up the whole church (1 Corinthians 14:5, 19).

The two views, stated fairly

Because this gift exists specifically to accompany tongues, the same basic divide applies to it. Cessationists, holding that the gift of tongues itself ceased with the close of the apostolic, foundation-laying era of the church, generally hold that the gift of interpreting tongues ceased alongside it, since one has no function without the other. Continuationists, holding that tongues continue today, correspondingly affirm that the gift of interpretation continues as well, and in churches that practice tongues in a gathered setting, they generally hold firmly to Paul's rule: no uninterpreted tongues-speaking in public worship. Both positions, notably, agree on the underlying principle even where they disagree on whether either gift is currently active: unintelligible speech that edifies no one has no place in corporate worship, and clarity for the whole body matters more than any individual's private spiritual experience.

What practicing this gift well looks like

In settings that affirm this gift, it typically looks like a believer sensing, as someone speaks in tongues during a service, a clear sense of what the message means, and offering that interpretation calmly and in an orderly way, so the whole gathered church can understand and be built up by it — never being spoken over the top of the original utterance or in a way that creates confusion. Because tongues and interpretation are presented as functioning together, this is one of the more relationally dependent gifts: a person with the gift of interpretation serves alongside, not instead of, someone speaking in tongues, much like a translator at an international gathering serves the whole room rather than performing for attention.

It's also worth noting Paul's own practical counsel for a situation where no interpreter is present but someone still feels compelled to speak in a tongue: the gathered church simply waits, or the person speaks silently to themselves and God rather than aloud to the group. This small instruction reveals something important about how the New Testament holds this gift in tension with corporate order — spiritual gifts, even genuine ones, are never treated as more important than the clarity and edification of the whole gathered body.

Common misconceptions

A common misconception is that interpretation means a word-for-word, mechanical translation, the way a bilingual person might translate a speech. Scripture doesn't describe the mechanics this precisely; it may be closer to Spirit-given understanding of the message's meaning and intent than formal linguistic translation, which is part of why it's listed as its own distinct gift rather than simply "also knowing the language." A second misconception is treating interpretation as a lesser, secondary gift because it depends on tongues occurring first — but Paul's instructions make it, if anything, the gift that makes tongues usable in church at all, which argues for its real importance rather than its unimportance.

For readers encountering this gift for the first time, it may be the clearest single illustration in the New Testament of a principle that runs through every gift on this list: a gift is never really about the person who has it. Tongues, left uninterpreted, serves only the speaker's private experience with God; interpretation is what turns that private moment into something the whole room can be built up by — which is exactly the standard Paul applies to every spiritual gift, not just this pair.

Growing in and stewarding this gift

Those who sense this gift should prioritize humility and restraint, offering an interpretation only when reasonably confident of it, and welcoming the correction of other mature believers if the interpretation seems questionable. Like tongues itself, this gift calls for order rather than impulsiveness — waiting for an appropriate moment, and never using the role of interpreter to add personal opinion disguised as interpretation.

The shadow side

This gift's particular shadow is fabrication under pressure — offering an invented or exaggerated interpretation to avoid the discomfort of silence after someone speaks in tongues, or using the role to subtly steer a congregation's emotions or decisions under claimed spiritual authority. Because an interpretation can carry real weight in the room, the temptation to overstate confidence is a serious one, and Paul's broader instruction to "test" what's offered applies here as much as to prophecy.

The body needs this gift

Wherever tongues are practiced, this gift is what keeps the practice from becoming self-focused rather than church-focused — it's the hinge that turns a private spiritual experience into something "the church may be edified" by (1 Corinthians 14:5). It stands as a clear, concrete example of Paul's whole argument in 1 Corinthians 12-14: gifts exist to build up the body together, not to showcase an individual apart from it.