How Much Does a Tongue Weigh?

By Jerry Long, Minister of Pastoral Care

Out of curiosity recently I did some research concerning the largest ship ever to sail the seven seas.  The ship, no longer in existence, was named Seawise Giant.  It was a cargo ship so large that that it would not fit into the Panama nor Suez canals nor the English Channel.  It was 1504’ long and 225 feet wide. Turned on its end, it would have been taller than the Empire State Building.  Fully loaded with crew, supplies, and cargo, it tipped the scales at 564,763 dead weight tonnage, which translates to 1,245,076,510 pounds.  For a captain to steer such a large ship that needed 1.86 miles to turn around and 5.6 miles to stop, it required a rudder weighing 230 tons or 460,000 pounds.  Now that’s no small chunk of steel but compared to the overall weight it had to steer, the rudder was only 0.04% of the fully loaded cargo weight. Thus, by comparison to everything else combined, the rudder was very small.

My curiosity about the largest ship ever was prompted recently by a passage of scripture I read in James 3:1-12.  In discussing the need for, and also the difficulty we face in controlling our tongues, James 3:3-5 says, “If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also, the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.” Verse 4 suggests to us that if we want to establish how powerful the human tongue is, then comparing it to the rudder on the Seawise Giant will do quite well. 

How much does a tongue weigh?  According to my research the average man’s tongue weighs 3.5 ounces.  The average woman’s tongue weighs 2.8 ounces.  Taking a 150 lb man, that means his tongue is only 0.14 % of his body weight.  Similarly, the tongue of a 125 lb woman is 0.02% of her body weight.  Using James’ analogy of the tongue and a rudder, the relative power and impact of a human tongue is equivalent to the power of a 230 ton rudder.  Though the tongue is a small member of the human body, “it boasts of great things (v. 5).”

That both a rudder and the tongue have tremendous power is where the comparison ends. Whereas the captain of the Seawise Giant could “tame its rudder” and steer it wherever he wanted, James 3:8 reminds us that “no human being can tame the tongue.” James points to the schizophrenic nature of the tongue as evidence.  A person can use his tongue to do good or he can use it to do bad – even evil. The same tongue we use to praise God and praise others can be used to curse, berate, and tear down someone else’s self-esteem.  The same tongue we use to build up and encourage an individual by speaking kindly and gently can be used to sabotage his/her reputation with gossip, rumor, slander, or by a betrayed confidence.  The same tongue that sets people free by speaking truth, can be used to enslave others with lies and false information.

When James 3:8 says no human being can tame his tongue, what he means is that no one can tame his tongue using his own strength or ingenuity.  We must have help. If we are to get any control over the schizophrenic nature of our tongues, we must first get control of our hearts. The tongue is not where all the ugly and evil starts.  The evil and ugly spoken by a tongue start in a person’s heart.  The mouth is just the loudspeaker that broadcasts what’s in the heart.  Jesus spoke that truth when He said in Matthew 15:18 (ESV) He says, “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.”  The challenge we meet in trying to tame our hearts is that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV).  Therefore, it is the heart that is schizophrenic – housing both good and evil, praise and pain, love and hate, and on and on.  The tongue just announces it to everyone.  The heart must be captured and transformed if the tongue is to be tamed. 

So how can that transformation happen? We’ve already established it can’t be through human strength or ingenuity.  Because our conflicted hearts reveal a rebellion-against-God problem, they require a God-solution. God speaks of that solution in Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV, where He is quoted as saying, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”  Only a personal relationship with Jesus Christ can result in the life transformation necessary to tame the tongue.

Should a person experience this heart transformation, what practical changes can he expect? Having put away falsehood, he can speak truth with others.  Having received a heart that desires reconciliation over his uncontrolled, revenge-seeking anger, he can address his anger in a healthy fashion rather than spew verbal venom all over the object of his anger.  With a transformed heart, corrupt talk can be eliminated.  Instead, he can speak words of grace that build others up. And with a transformed heart, once bitterness, wrath, clamor, slander, and malice have been removed, he can speak to others in a kind and tenderhearted way.¹

When I was a boy moving towards my early teens, I loved to watch TV shows that had a Wild West theme.  Some of the shows featured the interaction of Native Americans with White Americans.  One sentence of dialog stands out in my memory.  Responding to the commander of the US calvary who was trying to negotiate a treaty, the chief of the tribe said, “White man speaks with a forked tongue.”

The Apostle James could not have said it better.

¹Summary of Ephesians 4:24-32 (ESV)