33.2 γλῶσσαb, ης f: a language, with the possible implication of its distinctive form—‘language, dialect, speech.’ ἤρξαντο λαλεῖν ἑτέραις γλώσσαις ‘they began to talk in other languages’ Ac 2:4. The miracle described in Ac 2:4 may have been a miracle of speaking or a miracle of hearing, but at any rate people understood fully, and therefore it seems appropriate in this context to speak of ‘languages’ in contrast with 1 Cor 14:2, in which case people required an interpreter if they were to receive the presumed content of the speech (see 33.3).

33.3 γλῶσσαc, ης f: an utterance having the form of language but requiring an inspired interpreter for an understanding of the content—‘ecstatic language, tongue, ecstatic speech.’ ὁ γὰρ λαλῶν γλώσσῃ οὐκ ἀνθρώποις λαλεῖ ἀλλὰ θεῷ ‘he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God’ 1 Cor 14:2. Most scholars assume that the phenomena described in Ac 2:4 (see 33.2) and in 1 Cor 14:2 are significantly different in that in one instance people understood in their own regional language or dialect and in the other instance an interpreter was required. It is for that reason that many interpret γλῶσσα in 1 Cor 14:2 as ecstatic speech, which was also an element in Hellenistic religions and constituted a symbol of divine inspiration.