Inward Groans and Unknown Tongues

The following article examines the reception of Rom. 8.26 in early North American Pentecostal literature. The author will review the variety of perspectives offered on the passage from various early Pentecostal publications, noting how their reception betrayed an intuitive grasp of key interpretative questions that continue to dominate scholarly work on Paul’s unique claims about pneumatic intercession. While many early Pentecostals interpreted Rom. 8.26 as another reference to glossolalic prayer, not all did. Nevertheless, the interpretative connections made by early Pentecostals reveal a dynamic hermeneutical practice that integrated lived pneumatic experiences with close intertextual readings of Scripture in response to important interpretative issues.