Acts 10:46
Acts 10:4646For they heard them speaking in tongues and exalting God. Then Peter said,
The rs book's pp. 400-405 treatment of tongues argues that Acts 2 tongues were real foreign languages (miraculous xenolalia serving a missional purpose at Pentecost), while modern charismatic tongues are "ecstatic babble" not linked to any evangelistic function. 's "they heard them speaking with tongues and magnifying God" is acknowledged as genuine but framed as a first-century-only phenomenon tied to apostolic authentication — which has ceased.
is the second witness (with verse 44) that the Spirit's tongues-gift at Cornelius's house happened without apostolic laying on of hands. The Gentiles are "magnifying God" in tongues — praise directed to God — which matches Paul's later regulation in ("he who speaks in a tongue speaks, not to men, but to God... he speaks sacred secrets by the spirit"). Paul himself recognises a category of tongues directed to God that the speaker does not rationally understand. This is not the Acts 2 xenolalia category — it is a distinct prayer-language category Paul explicitly permits.
Paul's rule in is the strongest form of the point, and it stands in the NWT: "keep zealously seeking the prophesying, and yet do not forbid the speaking in tongues." Paul explicitly forbids the most stringent form of cessationism — outright prohibition — while permitting orderly regulation (14:27-28). The rs dichotomy between "real Acts 2 tongues versus fake modern babble" is a false binary Paul does not allow. Whatever position one takes on continuation or cessation, Paul's rule rules out blanket prohibition and the Watchtower's specific cessation mechanism (apostolic laying on of hands) is refuted by Acts 10 itself.
Two NWT-distinctive renderings in the same verse. (1) NWT renders glōssais as "foreign languages" rather than "tongues" throughout the Acts narratives — load-bearing for the rs cessationism argument (pp. 400-405), which treats Acts 2 as xenolalia and modern charismatic tongues as "ecstatic babble." Rendering Acts 10 tongues as "foreign languages" fuses Acts 2 and Acts 10 phenomena under one category at the vocabulary level. (2) Lowercase "holy spirit" continues the depersonalising typography that runs through every NT Spirit reference (compare , 13:2).