According to Eusebius, this practice of tongues speaking was totally contrary to the practice of the Church. Indeed, Montanus and his followers were excommunicated from the Church.
J Edwards, the quote in question was about prophesying in a manner contrary to the tradition passed down from the beginning of the church, not speaking in tongues.
The commentator who wrote that the believers of this age were not unfamiliar with prophecy probably did so because of the other references to contemporary prophecy in the writings of that time. I am over here in Indonesia with limited access to literature on the subject. If you want proof of references to prophecies and other spiritual gifts during this time period, check out The Spirit and The Church:Volume I Antiquity by Burgess.
The commentator of one of the quotes also argued for ecstasy being a Biblical, but largely forgotten practice of this time. It leaves one to wonder what is meant by ‘ecstacy.’ If Montanus were foaming at the mouth, wallowing around on the floor, that may have been a different thing from what the sons of the prophets at Shiloh did.
J Edwards also wrote,
Quote
Though the word “Charismatic” comes from the Greek word for grace, it does not mean that all Charismatic activity is from God—the Book of Corinthians dismisses this as pure rubbish. Paul was correcting the Charismatic activity at Corinth. (Demonic; 1 Cor 12:3). ‘Charis” is used in several other words as well (i.e. charlatan, “a person who pretends to have skills or knowledge that they do not have”). There are false gifts (dumb idols, 1 Cor 12:2) and well as genuine gifts.
Paul uses a form of ‘pneumatikos’ to describe the ‘spiritual gifts’ of v. 1 and 2, and switches to forms of ‘charisma’ in verse 4 when he starts speaking specifically of the gifts of the Spirit. In I Corinthians 14:32, Paul also uses a form of ‘pneuma’ when he says that the ‘spirits’ of the prophets are subject to the prophets. If he has in mind to contrast pagan ‘spiritual gifts’ with Christian ‘spiritual gifts’, pehraps he used pneuma to refer to a wider category so as not to identify pagan spiritual gifts as coming from grace.
Covenant in Blood
Good point. I recently came across early arguments that Hermas was written by a Hermas mentioned in scripture. But apparently others believed it to be written by a later Hermas. My point was not that Hermas was inspired, or even completely theologically correct. I have not read the whole work. My point was that if works like this were accepted, then it showed a belief that charismatic experiences were accepted. But if you argue that people believed it was from an earlier time period, that is a valid point. I have no way of knowing what time the average Christian thought it was from. Of course, I have no reason to think that would have made a difference to them since I know of no evidence to think they believed the gifts ceased when the apostles died, and I see evidence that the gifts did not.
Another work, which I will not quote at this time, is the Didache, which shows that there were itinerate prophets around the turn of the 2nd century.
