XV.  They spoke with strange tongues, and not those of their native land; and the wonder was great, a language spoken by those who had not learnt it.  And the sign is to them that believe not,67    1 Cor. xiv. 22. and not to them that believe, that it may be an accusation of the unbelievers, as it is written, With other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people, and not even so will they listen to Me68    Isa. xxviii. 11. saith the Lord.  But they heard.  Here stop a little and raise a question, how you are to divide the words.  For the expression has an ambiguity, which is to be determined by the punctuation.  Did they each hear in their own dialect69    The actual order of the words in the Greek of Acts ii. 6 is, They heard each individual in his own dialect them speaking; so that the position of the comma affects the meaning. so that if I may so say, one sound was uttered, but many were heard; the air being thus beaten and, so to speak, sounds being produced more clear than the original sound; or are we to put the stop after “they Heard,” and then to add “them speaking in their own languages” to what follows, so that it would be speaking in languages their own to the hearers, which would be foreign to the speakers?  I prefer to put it this latter way; for on the other plan the miracle would be rather of the hearers than of the speakers; whereas in this it would be on the speakers’ side; and it was they who were reproached for drunkenness, evidently because they by the Spirit wrought a miracle in the matter of the tongues.

ΙΕʹ. Ἐλάλουν μὲν οὖν ξέναις γλώσσαις, καὶ οὐ πατρίοις, καὶ τὸ θαῦμα μέγα, λόγος ὑπὸ τῶν οὐ μαθόντων λαλούμενος: καὶ τὸ σημεῖον τοῖς ἀπίστοις, οὐ τοῖς πιστεύουσιν, ἵν' ᾖ τῶν ἀπίστων κατήγορον, καθὼς γέγραπται: Ὅτι ἐν ἑτερογλώσσοις, καὶ ἐν χείλεσιν ἑτέροις, λαλήσω τῷ λαῷ τούτῳ, καὶ οὐδ' οὕτως εἰσακούσονταί μου, λέγει Κύριος. Ἤκουον δέ. Μικρὸν ἐνταῦθα ἐπίσχες, καὶ διαπόρησον, πῶς διαιρήσεις τὸν λόγον. Ἔχει γάρ τι ἀμφίβολον ἡ λέξις, τῇ στιγμῇ διαιρούμενον Ἆρα γὰρ ἤκουον ταῖς ἑαυτῶν διαλέκτοις ἕκαστος, ὡς φέρε εἰπεῖν, μίαν μὲν ἐξηχεῖσθαι φωνὴν, πολλὰς δὲ ἀκούεσθαι, οὕτω κτυπουμένου τοῦ ἀέρος, καὶ, ἵν' εἴπω σαφέστερον, τῆς φωνῆς φωνῶν γινομένων: ἢ τὸ μὲν, Ἤκουον, ἀναπαυστέον, τὸ δὲ, Λαλούντων ταῖς ἰδίαις φωναῖς, τῷ ἑξῆς προσθετέον, ἵν' ᾖ, Λαλούντων φωναῖς, ταῖς ἰδίαις τῶν ἀκουόντων, ὅπερ γίνεται, ἀλλοτρίαις: καθὰ καὶ μᾶλλον τίθεμαι. Ἐκείνως μὲν γὰρ τῶν ἀκουόντων ἂν εἴη μᾶλλον, ἣ τῶν λεγόντων, τὸ θαῦμα: οὕτω δὲ τῶν λεγόντων: οἳ καὶ μέθην καταγινώσκονται, δῆλον ὡς αὐτοὶ θαυματουργοῦντες περὶ τὰς φωνὰς τῷ Πνεύματι.