What is a general survey of early Catholic exegetes who have interpreted Romans 8:23-27 as parallel to speaking in tongues?
1
vote
0
answers
35
views
In Romans 8:23-27 there is a description of praying with inarticulate "sighs and groanings." There are some who interpret this as, in addition to literal sighs and groans, also being a type of synecdoche for a semantic range of polysyllabic utterances that could include praying in tongues. For example, R.C.H. Lenski writes:
> Later writers state that the charisma of tongues was a speaking in
> non-human language and either identify these 'groanings' with this non
> human language or conceive of them as parallel to it." (*The
> Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans,* p. 547)
Lenski does not provide any footnotes or references. However, the 19th century theologian, Frederic Godet , writes about this passage:
> In every particular case, he who is the object of this assistance
> feels no distinct words fully express to God the infinite good after
> which he sighs. The pact proves that the aspiration is not his own,
> but that is produced in his heart by the Spirit of Him of whom John
> said, 'that He is greater than our heart' (1 Hohn 3:20). We here find
> ourselves in the domain analogous to that of the *glossais lalein*,
> speaking in tongues, to which 1 Cor. 14 reefers; compare vv. 14 and
> 15, where Paul says: "When I pray in a tongue, my spirit (*pneuma*)
> prayeth indeed, but my understanding (*nous*) is unfruitful.'"
Godet adds:
> The understanding cannot control, nor even follow the movement of the
> spirit, which, exalted by the Sprit of God, plunges into the depths of
> the divine. Thus at the moment when the believer already feels the
> impulse of hope failing within him, a groan more elevated, holy, and
> intense than anything which can go forth even from his renewed heart
> is uttered within him, coming from God and going to God, like a pure
> breath, and relieves the poor downcast heart (*Commentary on the St.
> Paul's Epistle to the Romans*, p. 102)
The theologian, referenced above is a Protestant. But, according to Lenski, there were "writers" that interpreted Romans 8:23-27 as parallel to speaking in tongues. What is a general survey of Catholic exegetes, prior to Lenski in the early 20th century, that interpreted Romans 8:23-27 as Lenski described?
Asked by Jess
(3702 rep)
Oct 20, 2022, 11:18 PM