Acts 2, Pentecost, and Tongues

The Holy Ghost is a Spirit (John 3:8; John 4:24) and therefore unseen. Yet, the work of the Spirit is manifest to the ears and eyes. The sound is not wind, but comparable to a mighty wind that rushes. The source is from heaven. (Filling the house might also suggest the sense of touch. The evidence like wind that “filled all the house” compares to the filling of the disciples – “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.”)  The sight is not fire, but comparable to fire. What appeared like tongues of fire divided to rest on each disciple. Cloven tongues – the idea seems to be “tongues that are parting asunder.” The tongue is the physical organ of the mouth representing language. The Greek διαμεριζομεναι expresses to be distributed, divided in parts, divided asunder. As an adjective in English “cloven” means split or divided in two. Compare verses such as Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:24; Acts 2:45 (parted); Luke 11:17-18; Luke 12:52-53; Luke 22:17 (divided). In the animal world, cloven means a type of divided hoof (e.g. Deuteronomy 14:7). 

Verse 4: God poured out his Spirit on the church, the approximately 120 believers present in one place in one accord – not on all the Jews present “dwelling at Jerusalem.” Verses 1-4 speak of “they,” the 120, the church at Jerusalem. It is not until verse 5 that Luke speaks of Jews from all over the empire. These (about 120) “were all” (1) filled with the Holy Ghost, and (2) spoke in tongues (ετεραις γλωσσαις cf. vs. 6, 8; Isaiah 28:11). Tongues are a miracle of speech, words spoken – “began to speak.”

Verse 5: This group by “religious ethnicity” were Jews and Jewish proselytes; by geography, they were from “every nation under heaven.”  “Dwelling at Jerusalem” – dwelling is κατοικεω/katoikeo “to dwell, settle, inhabit.”  This suggests Jewish Diaspora who had returned to Jerusalem to live rather than people traveling and gathered there solely for the feast of Pentecost.  Jews from regions beyond had their own synagogue in Jerusalem (Cf. Acts 6:9). Nevertheless, the law required all Jewish males to travel to Jerusalem three times in the year (Exodus 23:14–17; 34:22–23; Deuteronomy 16:16) – Feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Therefore, there should have been people there for the purpose of the feast. Jews did travel to Jerusalem for Pentecost, then return to their homes – so both types would be present.

Some Bible students believe the miracle in the baptism of the Holy Ghost manifested in the ears of the hearers. However, that is not what Luke records – it is a miracle in the tongues/speaking and in the disciples, not in the ears/hearing of the dwellers at Jerusalem. All 120 disciples spoke in tongues, apparently, and when they spoke to a “dweller,” they were speaking in that dweller’s native language.

John Walvoord writes:

Any view which denies that speaking in tongues used actual languages is difficult to harmonize with the Scriptural concept of a spiritual gift. By its nature, a spiritual gift has reality, and being supernatural, needs no naturalistic explanation. (The Holy Spirit, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1978, p. 182.)

Notes on tongues in the Old and New Testaments

• There is at least one reference to the gift of tongues in the Old Testament – Isaiah 28:11 (As mentioned by Paul in writing to the Corinthians – 14:21. Referencing the Isaiah passage, he notes that tongues are “for a sign,” and especially for unbelievers.)  
• There is one reference to the gift of tongues in the Gospels – Mark 16:17
• There are three references to the gift of tongues in the Acts of the Apostles – Acts 2:3-11; 10:46; 19:6 (Some Bible students think they find the gift of tongues suggested in Acts 8:17-18. Regardless, Luke does not directly mention speaking in tongues there.)
• There is one (quite lengthy) reference to the gift of tongues in the Epistles – I Corinthians 12:10:-14:39

Notes on tongues and the day of Pentecost

• The disciples and the crowd present all shared a common language (vs. 7, 12, 14, 37, 40). 
• The 120 began to speak with other tongues, as a spiritual gift rather than natural manifestation (v. 4).
• The languages spoken by the disciples were “other tongues” (v. 4). They were tongues/languages – not some non-communicable sounds or utterances.
• The words used by Luke are words about language, not noise: v. 4, speak (λαλειν), other tongues (ετεραις γλωσσαις), utterance (αποφθεγγεσθαιι); v. 6, heard (ηκουον), speak (λαλουντων), language (διαλεκτω); v. 8, hear (ακουομεν), tongue (διαλεκτω); v. 11, hear (ακουομεν), speak (λαλουντων), our tongues (ημετεραις γλωσσαις).
• Others present heard the disciples speak in their own languages (v. 6) the wonderful works of God (v. 11).
• Those who spoke in tongues were predominantly or noticeably Galileans (v. 7), uneducated (Acts 4:13), and not native speakers of the languages being spoken. 
• Peter preached to them in a common language (12-14, 37-38).

See Genesis 11:1-9 for the beginning of multiple languages. God confounded man’s language at the tower of Babel, in the land of Shinar. Before that time “the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech” (Genesis 11:1).

Verses 6-7: The crowd react to hearing the disciples’ speaking in tongues. They “came together” – had not all been together in one place. They were confounded (v. 6, συνεχυθη, bewildered, surprised, or confused) because separately they are each hearing their own languages spoken. They were amazed and marvelled (v. 7, εξισταντο, astonished, wondering; εθαυμαζον, admiring, filled with wonder) because all the speakers appeared to be Galileans. See Luke 22:59; Matthew 27:73; Mark 14:70. Peter has speech and or accent recognizable as a Galilean. διαλεκτος is used 6 times in Acts (1:19; 2:6, 8; 21:40; 22:2; 26:14), once translated “language” and translated “tongues” five times. γλωσσα is used 6 times in Acts (2:3-4, 11, 26; 10:46; 19:6), translated “tongues” five times and once “tongue” singular (the physical organ). (Cf. also “amazed” and “in doubt” in verse 12.)

Verses 7-8: The crowd asks themselves two questions: (1) “are not all these which speak Galilæans” and (2) “how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?” The crowd was not amazed by sounds they could not understand, but precisely because they could understand – in their own language, and in the dialect of their nativity! They further marveled because of the apparent miraculous nature of the events. It was neither ordinary nor expected.

Verses 9:11: The words of verses 9-11 appear to be the dwellers at Jerusalem speaking among themselves about their various origins, rather than a commentary of the author Luke on them. The Bible mentions most of these people or locations elsewhere. 

• Parthians (Acts 2:9), and
• Medes (II Kings 18:11; Esther 1:19; Daniel 5:28), and 
• Elamites (Genesis 14:1; Ezra 4:9; Isaiah 21:2; Jeremiah 25:25; Daniel 8:2), and 
• the dwellers in Mesopotamia (Genesis 24:10; Judges 3:8; Acts 7;2), and 
• in Judæa (Acts 1:8; 9:31; II Corinthians 1:16; Galatians 1:22), and 
• Cappadocia (I Peter 1:1), 
• in Pontus (Acts 18:2; I Peter 1:1), and 
• Asia (Acts 6:9; 16:6; 19:10; I Corinthians 16:19; I Peter 1:1; Revelation 1:4), 
• Phrygia (Acts 16:6; Acts 18:23), and 
• Pamphylia (Acts 13:13; Acts 14:24; Acts 15:38; Acts 27:5), 
• in Egypt (Genesis 12:10; Genesis 39:1; Exodus 1:8; Isaiah 19:1; Matthew 2:13-19; Acts 21:38), and 
• in the parts of Libya about Cyrene (Jeremiah 46:9; Ezekiel 30:5; Matthew 27:32; Acts 11:20; 13:1), and 
• strangers of Rome (Acts 19:21; Romans 1:15; II Timothy 1:17), Jews and proselytes (Acts 6:5; 13:43), 
• Cretes (Acts 27:7, 12-13, 21; Titus 1:5) and 
• Arabians (II Chronicles 17:11; 21:16; 26:7; Galatians 1:17; 4:25).

The list mixes people (citizens) and places (countries), beginning with Parthia, the easternmost region mentioned, and ends with Rome, westernmost and northernmost. Egypt and Libya, in the middle, represent the southernmost (and on the continent of Africa). Rome to Parthia was roughly 3500 miles – about the equivalent of driving across the United States from New York, New York to San Francisco, California, and then driving from San Francisco up to Portland, Oregon. Several well-known persons from early post-apostolic Christianity resided in North Africa, including: Clement, of Alexandria (ca. AD 150 – ca. 215); Tertullian, of Carthage (ca. AD 155 – ca. 240); Origen, of Alexandria (ca. AD 184 – ca. 253); Cyprian, of Carthage (ca. AD 200 – 258); Athanasius, of Alexandria (ca. AD 297 – 373); and Augustine, of Hippo (AD 354 – 430).  “Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians” appears to modify “strangers of Rome.” If so, the list names thirteen locations and peoples. If only “Jews and proselytes” and not “Cretes and Arabians” modifies “strangers of Rome,” then fifteen are named rather than of thirteen.

The gift of tongues to the disciples for the multitude gathered at Jerusalem foreshadows God moving his kingdom from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the earth. For more exposition on tongues, see “Testimony on Tongues.”

Verses 12-13: The emphasis once again returns to the reaction of the crowd, which is in two parts (Cf. vs. 6-7) Part of the crowd reacted in amazement and bewilderment (we do not understand, v. 12) and another in mockery (let us explain it, v. 13).  

And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

They had called the master a winebibber (Luke 7:34). It should be no surprise that they thus accuse his servants (Matthew 10:24-25).