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Pentecost
2
1 When the day of Pentecost had come,*This was no more than eight days after the Ascension. In John 14:18 the Lord had said, “I will not leave you orphans”—they only had to wait one week for the Holy Spirit; albeit on resurrection night Jesus had breathed on them at least a portion of the Holy Spirit (John 20:22). they were all together with one purpose.†See 1:14 above. What was that ‘purpose’? I assume that they were obeying the Lord's command, they were waiting for ‘the promise of the Father’, the baptism with Holy Spirit. 2 And suddenly a roar came out of the sky, like the rushing of a violent wind,‡Why the noise? Presumably to attract attention—God wanted to impact the whole city. Since everyone moved on foot, people would be arriving for a number of minutes, depending on where they started (the city was small in those days). and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.§They were sitting, so presumably the ‘house’ wasn't the temple; I imagine it was the ‘upper room’. 3 Fiery tongues appeared and were distributed to them, and it [a tongue] landed*I understand from the grammar that the tongue actually touched down on the person, there was contact. on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with Holy Spirit and began to speak different languages,†These are human languages, spoken somewhere on earth, as the following context makes clear. as the Spirit was granting to them to speak out.‡“Speak out” translates a different word than the “speak” in the middle of the verse; the idea is to proclaim or project the voice. Notice that the speaking was controlled by the Spirit. The Text is emphatic that they were all filled, but they did not all start spouting languages; the languages were directed to specific hearers, as the following context makes clear. As the crowd began to gather the Spirit presumably sent the disciples (probably the same 120, at least) out to mingle with the people, and the Spirit proclaimed ‘the great works of God’ to each one in his mother tongue, using the mouths of the disciples. But there would also need to be a miracle in the ear of each hearer, to filter his own language out from the welter of sound (many languages being proclaimed at the same time). I would imagine that this activity lasted at least 10 or 15 minutes.
People from all over
5 Now there were devout men, Jews, from every nation under heaven, dwelling in Jerusalem.§If these were people who had come for a short time, they would not be tied to business activities, and might even be bored, so any promise of something different would be welcome. So the ‘foreigners’ probably outnumbered the local citizens in that crowd. 6 So when that roar occurred, the crowd came together, and was bewildered, because each one was hearing them speaking to him in his own dialect.*The word rendered ‘dialect’ is different from the word rendered ‘language’. What each one heard was what was spoken in his home town, complete with peculiarities—the only explanation for what was happening was supernatural activity. 7 So they were amazed and marveled, saying to one another:†I gather that the material within quotes represents a sampling from a variety of speakers. “Hey, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 So how can each of us be hearing our own dialect in which we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites; those dwelling in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, 10 in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene; and visitors from Rome—both Jews and proselytes— 11 Cretans and Arabians; we hear them declaring the great works of God in our own languages.” 12 Yes they were all amazed and perplexed, saying one to another, “Whatever is going on?” 13 But different ones were jeering, saying, “They are full of sweet wine!”‡In ‘sweet’ wine the fermentation process was just beginning, so the alcohol content was still low; but if you drank enough of it you got ‘happy’. So the mockers are saying that the disciples had tanked up and were feeling the effects. (On the other hand, 120 bellyfuls would represent a respectable quantity of liquid, much more than would normally be available, so the mockers' hypothesis is not very plausible—and being drunk does not give you the ability to speak a different language [in fact, you don't even speak your own correctly].) But as Peter points out in verse 15, it was 9:00 a.m., too early for anyone to be drunk.
Peter's proclamation
14 So Peter, standing with the eleven,§Many versions render ‘standing up’, as if Peter and the others had been sitting in the house all this time (did the crowd invade the house?). The basic meaning of the verb here is more like ‘standing still’ (stopping)—I take it that the Eleven had been mingling with the crowd too, but Peter now gathers them to form a nucleus upon which the crowd can focus its attention. raised his voice and proclaimed to them: “Men—Jews and all who are dwelling in Jerusalem—let this be known to you; indeed, listen to my speech! 15 Because these are not drunk, as you suppose (since it is only the third hour of the day), 16 but this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘It will be in the last days, says God:
I will pour out from my Spirit upon all flesh;
your sons and your daughters will prophesy;
your young men will see visions;
your old men will dream a dream.*“Visions” is plural, but “dream” is singular, in the Text (albeit 15% of the Greek manuscripts do have ‘dreams’). When I was young I had all sorts of ‘visions’ of what I thought I was going to achieve in my lifetime. Now that I am old I am pretty well reduced to one ‘dream’. One's focus must accompany his energy level. (My personal experience is probably not the intended meaning of the Text, but I am not sure what it might be—do all old men have the same dream?)
18 In those days I will indeed pour out from my Spirit upon my male slaves and upon my female slaves,
and they will prophesy.†As is typical in Hebrew, verse 18 repeats part of verse 17. Similarly, verse 20 complements verse19. I take it that verses 19 and 20 will be fulfilled during the Great Tribulation, literally, so it was verses 17 and 18 that were immediately applicable to what was happening there. So why did Peter quote the material in 19 and 20? Perhaps he (and the others) thought that ‘the day of the Lord’ had already started—so much so that no one went home; the believers stayed on in Jerusalem until the persecution sent them running (Acts 8:1).
19 I will show wonders in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below:
blood and fire and smoke vapor.
20 The sun will be turned into darkness
and the moon into ‘blood’
before the great and glorious day of the Lord will come.
21 And it will be: whoever calls on the name of the Lord‡To call on the ‘name’ of the Lord is to call on Him. To ‘call’ on Him is to place yourself under His protection, which involves a recognition of His rulership.
will be saved!’
22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Natsorean,§‘Natsorean’, not ‘Nazarene’. The Text has ‘the’ Natsorean, the Branch-man (see Matthew 2:23 and Isaiah 11:1). In Acts 22:8 the glorified Jesus identifies Himself to Saul as ‘the Natsorean’, which Saul would understand as being the Messiah. a man from God attested to you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in your midst, as you yourselves well know,*Peter here addresses specifically the Israelites, presumably residents of Jerusalem and Judea, since they had been eyewitnesses of what Jesus did. 23 Him—being delivered up by the established purpose and foreknowledge of God—you murdered, having taken Him with lawless hands and crucified Him;†“You took with lawless hands”—‘take’ and ‘lawless’ clearly give the idea that they were responsible for their actions. “Being delivered up by the established purpose and foreknowledge of God” is a clear statement of God's sovereignty in action. So here we have divine sovereignty and human responsibility side by side; they are both true, whether we understand it or not. (Less than 3% of the Greek manuscripts, of inferior quality, omit ‘having taken’.) 24 whom God raised up, ending the labor pains of death,‡In Revelation 1:5 Jesus is called “the firstborn from among the dead”. Death is pictured as a huge womb, pregnant with all the dead, and Jesus Christ was the first one out, literally the ‘firstborn’. Resurrection is the process by which one is ‘born’ out of physical death. The figure of death as a womb is strong, but effective. That ‘womb’ had been holding people for thousands of years, but now finally ‘gives birth’. (People like Lazarus who were returned to this life for a while had to die all over again; they have to wait for the resurrection like the rest of us.) because it was not possible that He should be held by it. 25 For David says concerning Him:
‘I always saw the Lord before my face,
because He is at my right side so that I not be shaken.§Nothing like having God at your side, literally, to give you confidence, but nothing like the awareness that He is looking at you to keep you in line! The quote is from Psalm 16:8-11.
26 Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced.
Furthermore, even my flesh will repose upon hope,*I take it that the emphasis here is upon the physical body; Jesus' body was preserved from decay by divine intervention—there was no bad smell in the empty tomb. The resurrection accounts refer to the wrappings, but not to the 100 pounds of spices—I wonder what happened to them (you know, that much spice would be hard to ignore).
27 because You will not abandon my soul in Hades,†This is the other side of the coin: for the body not to see decay, it would have to be resurrected; but for resurrection to happen the soul must be reunited with the body, and therefore could not remain in Hades. David had no way of knowing that, so evidently wrote under divine inspiration.
nor will You allow Your Holy One to see decay.
28 You have made known to me roads of life;‡Life, not death.
with Your presence You make me full of gladness.’§If you are a God-lover there is nothing like His presence to make you glad (on the other hand, for a God-hater that Presence is the worst thing in the universe [which is why a God-hater would rather be in hell than in heaven]).
29 “Men, brothers, be it permitted to speak to you plainly about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.*David was buried in Jerusalem, and evidently his tomb could still be identified at that time. 30 So then, he being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn to him with an oath that of the fruit, according to flesh,†Peter is being theologically precise here; David's genes contributed only to the Messiah's body, not to His soul and spirit. of his loins‡The term rendered ‘loins’ when singular refers to the waist, where a belt is worn. When plural it was used to refer to the place of the reproductive organs—actually, the prostate gland is not all that far below the waist. He would raise up the Messiah§The Text, being Greek, has ‘Christ’, but king David spoke Hebrew and to him it was ‘Messiah’ (and Peter was presumably speaking in Hebrew). Peter makes the overt connection to Jesus in verse 32. Two percent of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit “according to flesh, He would raise up the Messiah” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). to sit on his throne, 31 he foreseeing this*“He foreseeing this” is parallel to “he being a prophet” in verse 30. spoke about the resurrection of the Messiah, that His soul†Two percent of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit “His soul” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). The omission weakens the point of the argument. was not abandoned in Hades, nor did His flesh see decay.‡Peter's reasoning is impressive, a prime instance of illumination. (By ‘illumination’ we mean divine assistance in interpreting divinely inspired writing. ‘Inspiration’ attaches to the writing, ‘illumination’ attaches to the interpretation of inspired writing.)
32 “This Jesus God raised, to which we all are witnesses. 33 Therefore, having been exalted to God's right hand, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this that you now see and hear. 34 Further, David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says:
‘The Lord said to my Lord:§Peter was there when Jesus used this text to silence the Pharisees (Matthew 22:41-46).
Sit at my right hand
35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’
36 Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified!”*Nothing like making sure your audience gets the point! But why “both Lord and Christ”? Perhaps there were a variety of ideas about the ‘Messiah’ out there and Peter nails down His identity as the Lord.
The reaction
37 Now upon hearing this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter, and the rest of the Apostles, “Men, brothers, what shall we do?!” 38 So Peter said to them: “Repent and be baptized, each one of you, upon the name of Jesus Christ,†This is the first use of the title, Jesus Christ, after the Gospels; the Lord had Himself inaugurated the title fifty days before (John 17:3)—it affirms that Jesus is the Messiah. Anyone being baptized upon that name would be publicly declaring allegiance to Jesus as the Messiah. Notice that Peter promises forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit to any who enter into that commitment. for forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far away‡I assume that “all who are far away” is a reference to Gentiles, and the promise applies only to the ‘called’.—as many, that is, as the Lord our God may call.” 40 With many different words he both testified and kept exhorting, saying, “Escape from this perverse generation!”§The ‘generation’ in question was the one that had crucified the Messiah. By being baptized upon the name of Jesus Christ they would be formally disassociating themselves from that generation, and the judgment that was coming upon it. The worst curse in all human history is recorded in Matthew 27:25, “And all the people answered and said, ‘His blood be on us and on our children’.” Terrible, terrible, terrible—just terrible! (The persecutions later sent them scattering and probably very few were in Jerusalem when it was destroyed in AD 70.)
The beginning of the Church
41 Then those who gladly*Perhaps 3% of the Greek manuscripts, of inferior quality, omit “gladly” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). The word is significant and should not be omitted on such flimsy evidence. It emphasizes sincerity and commitment. received his word were baptized, and that day about three thousand souls were added. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching and in the fellowship, both in the breaking of the bread and in the prayers.†I take “the breaking of the bread” to refer to the Lord's Supper, which with the “prayers” gives the content of the “fellowship”, but that fellowship cannot be disassociated from the Apostles' teaching. 43 Fear came upon every soul—many wonders and signs were taking place through the Apostles.‡Evidently it was not just Peter; the others were also producing.
All things in common
44 Now all who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they started selling both possessions and goods and were distributing to all according as anyone had need.§No one wanted to go home to his own area; they did not want to miss anything (it appears that they were expecting the Lord's return at any moment). But what happens after all the goods and possessions have been sold? God sends persecution, and if there is nothing to leave behind it is easier to go somewhere else and start over. 46 So day by day they continued steadfastly with one purpose in the temple*Since Jesus had formally abandoned the temple, Matthew 23:38-24:1, why were they still using it? It was probably the largest structure in town, and the only one that could hold their increasing number. It would also be strategic for evangelizing unconverted Jews. But it later became a snare, as illustrated by the episode that resulted in Paul's imprisonment. and broke bread from house to house;†Here we have the regular meals. they received their share of food with gladness and singleness of heart,‡This sort of thing can work for a while, but tends to go sour; see 6:1 below. [Many years ago I observed a community in Ann Arbor, Michigan try this, but they had trouble with free loaders and moochers.] 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And day by day the Lord added§Notice who does the adding, and He cannot be deceived. to the Church*Three percent of the Greek manuscripts, of inferior quality, omit “to the Church” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). those who were being saved.

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*2:1 This was no more than eight days after the Ascension. In John 14:18 the Lord had said, “I will not leave you orphans”—they only had to wait one week for the Holy Spirit; albeit on resurrection night Jesus had breathed on them at least a portion of the Holy Spirit (John 20:22).

†2:1 See 1:14 above. What was that ‘purpose’? I assume that they were obeying the Lord's command, they were waiting for ‘the promise of the Father’, the baptism with Holy Spirit.

‡2:2 Why the noise? Presumably to attract attention—God wanted to impact the whole city. Since everyone moved on foot, people would be arriving for a number of minutes, depending on where they started (the city was small in those days).

§2:2 They were sitting, so presumably the ‘house’ wasn't the temple; I imagine it was the ‘upper room’.

*2:3 I understand from the grammar that the tongue actually touched down on the person, there was contact.

†2:4 These are human languages, spoken somewhere on earth, as the following context makes clear.

‡2:4 “Speak out” translates a different word than the “speak” in the middle of the verse; the idea is to proclaim or project the voice. Notice that the speaking was controlled by the Spirit. The Text is emphatic that they were all filled, but they did not all start spouting languages; the languages were directed to specific hearers, as the following context makes clear. As the crowd began to gather the Spirit presumably sent the disciples (probably the same 120, at least) out to mingle with the people, and the Spirit proclaimed ‘the great works of God’ to each one in his mother tongue, using the mouths of the disciples. But there would also need to be a miracle in the ear of each hearer, to filter his own language out from the welter of sound (many languages being proclaimed at the same time). I would imagine that this activity lasted at least 10 or 15 minutes.

§2:5 If these were people who had come for a short time, they would not be tied to business activities, and might even be bored, so any promise of something different would be welcome. So the ‘foreigners’ probably outnumbered the local citizens in that crowd.

*2:6 The word rendered ‘dialect’ is different from the word rendered ‘language’. What each one heard was what was spoken in his home town, complete with peculiarities—the only explanation for what was happening was supernatural activity.

†2:7 I gather that the material within quotes represents a sampling from a variety of speakers.

‡2:13 In ‘sweet’ wine the fermentation process was just beginning, so the alcohol content was still low; but if you drank enough of it you got ‘happy’. So the mockers are saying that the disciples had tanked up and were feeling the effects. (On the other hand, 120 bellyfuls would represent a respectable quantity of liquid, much more than would normally be available, so the mockers' hypothesis is not very plausible—and being drunk does not give you the ability to speak a different language [in fact, you don't even speak your own correctly].) But as Peter points out in verse 15, it was 9:00 a.m., too early for anyone to be drunk.

§2:14 Many versions render ‘standing up’, as if Peter and the others had been sitting in the house all this time (did the crowd invade the house?). The basic meaning of the verb here is more like ‘standing still’ (stopping)—I take it that the Eleven had been mingling with the crowd too, but Peter now gathers them to form a nucleus upon which the crowd can focus its attention.

*2:17 “Visions” is plural, but “dream” is singular, in the Text (albeit 15% of the Greek manuscripts do have ‘dreams’). When I was young I had all sorts of ‘visions’ of what I thought I was going to achieve in my lifetime. Now that I am old I am pretty well reduced to one ‘dream’. One's focus must accompany his energy level. (My personal experience is probably not the intended meaning of the Text, but I am not sure what it might be—do all old men have the same dream?)

†2:18 As is typical in Hebrew, verse 18 repeats part of verse 17. Similarly, verse 20 complements verse19. I take it that verses 19 and 20 will be fulfilled during the Great Tribulation, literally, so it was verses 17 and 18 that were immediately applicable to what was happening there. So why did Peter quote the material in 19 and 20? Perhaps he (and the others) thought that ‘the day of the Lord’ had already started—so much so that no one went home; the believers stayed on in Jerusalem until the persecution sent them running (Acts 8:1).

‡2:21 To call on the ‘name’ of the Lord is to call on Him. To ‘call’ on Him is to place yourself under His protection, which involves a recognition of His rulership.

§2:22 ‘Natsorean’, not ‘Nazarene’. The Text has ‘the’ Natsorean, the Branch-man (see Matthew 2:23 and Isaiah 11:1). In Acts 22:8 the glorified Jesus identifies Himself to Saul as ‘the Natsorean’, which Saul would understand as being the Messiah.

*2:22 Peter here addresses specifically the Israelites, presumably residents of Jerusalem and Judea, since they had been eyewitnesses of what Jesus did.

†2:23 “You took with lawless hands”—‘take’ and ‘lawless’ clearly give the idea that they were responsible for their actions. “Being delivered up by the established purpose and foreknowledge of God” is a clear statement of God's sovereignty in action. So here we have divine sovereignty and human responsibility side by side; they are both true, whether we understand it or not. (Less than 3% of the Greek manuscripts, of inferior quality, omit ‘having taken’.)

‡2:24 In Revelation 1:5 Jesus is called “the firstborn from among the dead”. Death is pictured as a huge womb, pregnant with all the dead, and Jesus Christ was the first one out, literally the ‘firstborn’. Resurrection is the process by which one is ‘born’ out of physical death. The figure of death as a womb is strong, but effective. That ‘womb’ had been holding people for thousands of years, but now finally ‘gives birth’. (People like Lazarus who were returned to this life for a while had to die all over again; they have to wait for the resurrection like the rest of us.)

§2:25 Nothing like having God at your side, literally, to give you confidence, but nothing like the awareness that He is looking at you to keep you in line! The quote is from Psalm 16:8-11.

*2:26 I take it that the emphasis here is upon the physical body; Jesus' body was preserved from decay by divine intervention—there was no bad smell in the empty tomb. The resurrection accounts refer to the wrappings, but not to the 100 pounds of spices—I wonder what happened to them (you know, that much spice would be hard to ignore).

†2:27 This is the other side of the coin: for the body not to see decay, it would have to be resurrected; but for resurrection to happen the soul must be reunited with the body, and therefore could not remain in Hades. David had no way of knowing that, so evidently wrote under divine inspiration.

‡2:28 Life, not death.

§2:28 If you are a God-lover there is nothing like His presence to make you glad (on the other hand, for a God-hater that Presence is the worst thing in the universe [which is why a God-hater would rather be in hell than in heaven]).

*2:29 David was buried in Jerusalem, and evidently his tomb could still be identified at that time.

†2:30 Peter is being theologically precise here; David's genes contributed only to the Messiah's body, not to His soul and spirit.

‡2:30 The term rendered ‘loins’ when singular refers to the waist, where a belt is worn. When plural it was used to refer to the place of the reproductive organs—actually, the prostate gland is not all that far below the waist.

§2:30 The Text, being Greek, has ‘Christ’, but king David spoke Hebrew and to him it was ‘Messiah’ (and Peter was presumably speaking in Hebrew). Peter makes the overt connection to Jesus in verse 32. Two percent of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit “according to flesh, He would raise up the Messiah” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).

*2:31 “He foreseeing this” is parallel to “he being a prophet” in verse 30.

†2:31 Two percent of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit “His soul” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). The omission weakens the point of the argument.

‡2:31 Peter's reasoning is impressive, a prime instance of illumination. (By ‘illumination’ we mean divine assistance in interpreting divinely inspired writing. ‘Inspiration’ attaches to the writing, ‘illumination’ attaches to the interpretation of inspired writing.)

§2:34 Peter was there when Jesus used this text to silence the Pharisees (Matthew 22:41-46).

*2:36 Nothing like making sure your audience gets the point! But why “both Lord and Christ”? Perhaps there were a variety of ideas about the ‘Messiah’ out there and Peter nails down His identity as the Lord.

†2:38 This is the first use of the title, Jesus Christ, after the Gospels; the Lord had Himself inaugurated the title fifty days before (John 17:3)—it affirms that Jesus is the Messiah. Anyone being baptized upon that name would be publicly declaring allegiance to Jesus as the Messiah. Notice that Peter promises forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit to any who enter into that commitment.

‡2:39 I assume that “all who are far away” is a reference to Gentiles, and the promise applies only to the ‘called’.

§2:40 The ‘generation’ in question was the one that had crucified the Messiah. By being baptized upon the name of Jesus Christ they would be formally disassociating themselves from that generation, and the judgment that was coming upon it. The worst curse in all human history is recorded in Matthew 27:25, “And all the people answered and said, ‘His blood be on us and on our children’.” Terrible, terrible, terrible—just terrible! (The persecutions later sent them scattering and probably very few were in Jerusalem when it was destroyed in AD 70.)

*2:41 Perhaps 3% of the Greek manuscripts, of inferior quality, omit “gladly” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). The word is significant and should not be omitted on such flimsy evidence. It emphasizes sincerity and commitment.

†2:42 I take “the breaking of the bread” to refer to the Lord's Supper, which with the “prayers” gives the content of the “fellowship”, but that fellowship cannot be disassociated from the Apostles' teaching.

‡2:43 Evidently it was not just Peter; the others were also producing.

§2:45 No one wanted to go home to his own area; they did not want to miss anything (it appears that they were expecting the Lord's return at any moment). But what happens after all the goods and possessions have been sold? God sends persecution, and if there is nothing to leave behind it is easier to go somewhere else and start over.

*2:46 Since Jesus had formally abandoned the temple, Matthew 23:38-24:1, why were they still using it? It was probably the largest structure in town, and the only one that could hold their increasing number. It would also be strategic for evangelizing unconverted Jews. But it later became a snare, as illustrated by the episode that resulted in Paul's imprisonment.

†2:46 Here we have the regular meals.

‡2:46 This sort of thing can work for a while, but tends to go sour; see 6:1 below. [Many years ago I observed a community in Ann Arbor, Michigan try this, but they had trouble with free loaders and moochers.]

§2:47 Notice who does the adding, and He cannot be deceived.

*2:47 Three percent of the Greek manuscripts, of inferior quality, omit “to the Church” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).

© 2016 Wilbur N. Pickering, ThM, PhD