Derek Prince - Discovering the Gift of Interpretation
The gift of interpretation has no meaning apart from the gift of tongues. But, if someone has spoken in an unknown tongue by the Holy Spirit, the gift of interpretation enables either that person or another person by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, not through intellectual understanding, to speak out in a known language that which was said beforehand in an unknown language.
Now, it is interpretation, it’s not exactly translation. That’s interesting because I don’t know how many of you have spoken through an interpreter in a foreign country. I’ve done it many times. We discover all interpreters are different. Every one uses certain words, some use a lot of words, some use fewer words.
I remember we had a Canadian come out to Kenya when I was there, he was speaking through one of the best interpreters in the country. He said a short sentence and the interpreter took off and spoke for about two minutes. So, the Canadian turned to his interpreter and said, “Did I say all that?” So the interpreter said, “No, but in order to make them understand what you said, I had to say all that.” That’s interpreting. It’s communicating the sense.
A brother that I know quite well from Britain who is now in the States told me that in the early days when they had Pentecostal rallies in the center of London, there was a situation in which somebody gave an utterance in tongues and they waited for the interpretation and when it came, it came from a man who was a Cockney. How many of you know what a Cockney is? Theoretically, born within the sound of the Bow Bells in London.
I cannot imitate Cockney, it’s outside my abilities. But, the interpretation was this, and I don’t think you Americans will understand it: “Hafa mo, my people, hafa mo.” Well, “hafa mo” is half a moment. In other words, hold on a moment, don’t be so rapid. You see, that was the interpretation. It’s characteristic as a Cockney interpretation. So, there’s quite a lot of room for flexibility in this area of interpretation. However, it is communicating in a known language the sense of what was said previously in an unknown language.