The Risen Jesus Pours Out the Promised Spirit

Pentecost is Greek for “fiftieth”, the Feast of Weeks, counted fifty days from the offering of the first sheaf (Leviticus 23:15-16). As a pilgrim feast it filled Jerusalem. Later Jewish tradition tied it to the giving of the Law at Sinai. “Fully come” is the verb Luke uses when the days were being fulfilled for Jesus to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51).

Hebrew ruach and Greek pneuma both mean wind as well as spirit, which is why Ezekiel’s wind over the dry bones is also breath (Ezekiel 37:9-10) and why Jesus compares the Spirit to wind in John 3:8. “House” may be a private house; some argue for a hall of the temple, which was also called the house.

“Cloven” suggests forked flames, but the Greek diamerizomenai means distributed or parted out: the tongues were divided among them, one resting on each. Fire marks God’s presence at the bush and on Sinai (Exodus 3:2; 19:18). “It sat” is singular: each person had one.

“Utterance” is apophthengomai, a verb for weighty, inspired speech; the Greek Old Testament uses it of the Levites who prophesied with harps (1 Chronicles 25:1). “Other tongues” here are languages the hearers recognise, unlike the tongues of 1 Corinthians 14 that need an interpreter.

“Dwelling” is katoikountes, settled residents rather than visitors: Jews of the dispersion who had moved to Jerusalem, some to live out their days near the temple. “Devout” is eulabes, the word for old Simeon in the temple (Luke 2:25). “Every nation under heaven” is the language of Deuteronomy 2:25.

“Confounded” is syncheo, the verb of Babel in the Greek Old Testament: “let us go down, and there confound their language” (Genesis 11:7). At Babel one language became many and understanding failed; here many languages are spoken and every hearer understands. “Noised abroad” is literally “when this sound came”.

Galileans had a recognisable accent; the Talmud tells jokes about Galileans who could not keep their guttural letters apart (Eruvin 53b), and Peter’s speech gave him away in the high priest’s courtyard (Matthew 26:73). Men from the provinces, of all people, are heard in every language.

The word for “tongue” here is dialektos, the speech of a region, one’s own local way of talking, not just a broad language like Greek or Aramaic. Most of these hearers could manage Greek; what startles them is hearing the speech of home.

The list begins beyond the Roman frontier, in Parthia, Media and Elam, where descendants of the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles lived; Elam had not existed as a kingdom for centuries. Judaea sits oddly in a list of foreign places, and Tertullian read Armenia instead. Pontus, Cappadocia and Asia recur in the address of 1 Peter 1:1.

Philo reckoned the Jews of Egypt at not less than a million, most of them in Alexandria. Cyrene, in modern Libya, gave Simon who carried the cross (Luke 23:26), and its Jews had a synagogue in Jerusalem (6:9). The “strangers of Rome” were visitors from the capital. Proselytes were Gentiles who had fully converted to Judaism.

Cretans and Arabians are tacked on after the list, perhaps sea and desert added to catch everyone. Arabia here is the Nabataean kingdom east and south of Judaea, where Paul went after his conversion (Galatians 1:17). “Wonderful works” is megaleia, the mighty acts of God that the Psalms recount.

“What meaneth this?” is literally “what does this want to be?”, a Greek idiom for asking what something signifies. “In doubt” is diaporeo, thoroughly at a loss, the word Luke uses for Herod’s perplexity about Jesus (Luke 9:7).

“New wine” is gleukos, sweet wine. Pentecost falls in early summer, months before the grape harvest, so this could only be sweet wine kept from the previous year; the jibe does not bear examination any better than the season does.

“Hearken” is enotizomai, give ear, a word found only here in the New Testament. It is the word of Joel 1:2 in the Greek: “give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.” Peter is already speaking in Joel’s voice before he names him. “Said” is the same verb of inspired utterance used in verse 4.

The third hour is about nine in the morning. Drinking at that hour was a byword for dissipation: “Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink” (Isaiah 5:11). On a feast day, observant Jews would not yet have eaten or drunk before the morning prayers.

“This is that” is a formula of identification, the same move the Dead Sea Scrolls make in their commentaries on the prophets: this event is what the prophet meant. The book of Joel is short, and Paul quotes its closing line on calling upon the Lord in Romans 10:13.

Joel says “afterward”; Peter, or the Book of Acts, has “in the last days”, the phrase of Isaiah 2:2. “Saith God” is also added. The adjustment makes the claim explicit: the age the prophets spoke of has arrived.

In Joel these are “the servants and the handmaids”, slaves, with no “my”. The quotation in the Book of Acts adds “my”, turning slaves of men into servants of God, and also adds “and they shall prophesy” at the end, repeating the promise so that it lands on them too.

Joel has only “wonders in the heavens and in the earth”. The quotation adds “above”, “beneath” and “signs”, creating the pair “wonders and signs”. Three verses later Peter uses the same words of Jesus, “miracles and wonders and signs”, and in verse 43 of the apostles.

“Notable” translates epiphanes, glorious or manifest, where Joel’s Hebrew says “terrible”. The Greek translators appear to have read the Hebrew verb for fearing as the verb for seeing, which look alike. The moon turning to blood describes the red of an eclipse.

Joel goes on: “for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance.” Peter, standing in Jerusalem, stops before that line, then picks up its final words, “whom the LORD shall call”, in verse 39. In Joel “Lord” is the divine name; by verse 36 Peter will give the title to Jesus.

“Approved” means publicly attested, as a man is accredited by credentials. The three nouns are dynameis, terata and semeia: powers, wonders and signs. “As ye yourselves also know” appeals to what the crowd saw with its own eyes seven weeks earlier.

“Determinate counsel” is a plan with fixed limits. “Delivered” is ekdotos, handed over, found only here in the New Testament. “Wicked hands” is literally “hands of lawless men”, anomoi, which in Jewish usage can mean people outside the Law, the Gentiles; that is, the Romans who carried out the crucifixion.

“The pains of death” are literally the birth pangs of death. The phrase comes from the Greek of Psalm 18:4-5, where the Hebrew word for “cords” was read as the identical word for “pangs”. So death is pictured both as a rope that binds and as labour that cannot hold its child.

Peter quotes Psalm 16:8-11 from the Greek. In the psalm the LORD stands at David’s right hand as his protector. By verse 34 Peter will have the positions reversed: the Lord of David seated at God’s right hand.

Where the Greek says “my tongue was glad”, the Hebrew of the psalm has “my glory rejoiceth”. “My flesh shall rest in hope” uses kataskenoo, literally “shall pitch its tent”, so the body lies in the grave as in a tent, a temporary lodging.

“Holy One” is hosios, the loyal or faithful one, rendering the Hebrew chasid. The Hebrew word behind “corruption” can mean “the pit”, but the Greek translation took it as decay, and Peter’s argument uses that sense; Paul makes the same argument from the same verse in 13:35.

Peter ends the quotation on “thy countenance”, the presence of God, and leaves out the psalm’s last line about pleasures at God’s right hand forevermore. That phrase “right hand” will come back in his own words in verse 33.

“Freely” is meta parresias, with boldness, the quality the council will notice in Peter and John (4:13). The tomb of David was a known landmark: Josephus says the high priest Hyrcanus took three thousand talents of silver from it and that Herod later broke into it too. Nehemiah 3:16 mentions “the sepulchres of David”.

The oath is Psalm 132:11: “The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David... Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne,” resting on Nathan’s promise in 2 Samuel 7:12-16. “Loins” is the old seat of procreation; the promise concerns a physical descendant.

“Seeing this before” is proorao, the same verb as “I foresaw” at the start of the quotation (verse 25). The psalmist foresaw the Lord; Peter says he foresaw the resurrection. The psalm’s future tenses are now turned into past tenses: his soul “was not left”.

The Greek begins with “this Jesus”, set first for emphasis. “Whereof” can mean “of which” or “of whom”: they are witnesses of the raising, or witnesses of him. Either way the “we all” are the apostles standing with Peter (verse 14).

“By the right hand” can also be read “to the right hand”, a place rather than an instrument; Psalm 118:16 sings that “the right hand of the LORD is exalted”. “Shed forth” is ekcheo, the “pour out” of Joel in verses 17 and 18: what God promised to pour, Jesus pours.

Psalm 110:1 is the Old Testament verse the New Testament quotes and alludes to more than any other. Jesus himself had used it to puzzle the scribes: “David therefore calleth him Lord, how is he then his son?” (Luke 20:41-44).

Victorious kings put their feet on the necks of conquered rulers (Joshua 10:24), and royal footstools from Egypt were carved with bound foreign captives, so that the king rested his feet on his enemies every time he sat.

“Assuredly” is asphalos, the word family of Luke’s own purpose at the start of his Gospel: “that thou mightest know the certainty”, asphaleia (Luke 1:4). “All the house of Israel” is the whole nation, a phrase from the prophets (Ezekiel 37:11).

“Pricked” is katanyssomai, to be stabbed or pierced through, found only here in the New Testament. The crowd returns Peter’s own address, “Men and brethren”, to the apostles. Only now does the Book of Acts let the crowd speak rather than mutter among themselves.

In Greek “repent” is plural, spoken to the crowd, while “be baptized” shifts to the singular, “let each one of you be baptized”. The Book of Acts consistently speaks of baptism in the name of Jesus (8:16; 10:48; 19:5), where Matthew 28:19 has the name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

“Afar off” is the language of Isaiah 57:19, “Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near”, which Ephesians 2:17 applies to the Gentiles. “Your children” answers Joel’s “your sons and your daughters” from the start of the speech.

“Untoward” is skolios, crooked or twisted. Moses called Israel “a perverse and crooked generation” in his song (Deuteronomy 32:5), and Paul borrows the same phrase in Philippians 2:15. “Save yourselves” is passive in Greek: be saved, let yourselves be rescued.

“Gladly” is missing from the oldest manuscripts. After the golden calf about three thousand men died at Sinai (Exodus 32:28); later Christian writers set the two numbers side by side. The ritual baths excavated south of the Temple Mount show where large numbers could be immersed.

Each item has the article in Greek: the teaching of the apostles, the fellowship, the breaking of the bread, the prayers. “The prayers” may mean set prayers such as those at the temple hours (3:1). Koinonia, fellowship, is sharing; the fishermen Simon, James and John were koinonoi, partners (Luke 5:10).

The verbs are imperfect, describing what kept happening. The wonders are done “by” the apostles in the sense of through them, as Peter said God did wonders “by him” in verse 22: the apostles are the channel, not the source. “Every soul” is Hebrew idiom for every person.

“All things common” echoes a Greek proverb, “friends have all things in common”, found in Plato and Aristotle, and readers of the time would recognise the language of the ideal society. The Book of Acts will reach for Deuteronomy in 4:34 as well: there was no one among them who lacked.

“Sold” and “parted” are imperfects: they kept selling and distributing as needs arose, not all at once. “Parted” is diamerizo, the verb of the “cloven tongues” in verse 3; the tongues were distributed among them and now the goods are.

“Singleness” is aphelotes, found only here in the New Testament, a word used of smooth ground without stones, and so of simplicity and openness. “From house to house” can equally mean “at home”, household by household. “Meat” is simply food.

“Such as should be saved” is a present participle, “those being saved”, picking up “shall be saved” in the Joel quotation (verse 21). The best manuscripts do not have “to the church” here; the word ekklesia first appears in the Book of Acts at 5:11.