IS BIBLICAL SPEAKING IN TONGUES SUPPOSED TO BE GIBBERISH? Gibberish is a false form of speaking in tongues, and it is just another phony teaching infiltrating the Christian Church today. Looking at this topic as it is portrayed in the Bible, to be a true gift from the Holy Spirit and not a demonic connection, speaking in tongues must be a known language. There is also debate as to whether those gifts are even still functioning for Christians in our time. Either way, the Bible's Acts 2 talks about what happened when the tongues went forth in the early Church, and the Greek word used is "glossolalia," which means "languages." So, biblical speaking in tongues was specific languages—not gibberish. The people in Acts 2 heard the tongues in their own languages.