Bible Commentaries
Acts 2

Verses 1-47

II 1-42 The Day of Pentecost—1-4 The Descent of the Holy Spirit —1. "When the day of Pentecost arrived’. Originally a thanksgiving for the harvest, Pentecost later celebrated also the giving of the Law on Sinai; cf.§ 113h. If the Crucifixion was on 14th Nisan, Pentecost fell on a Sunday, the traditional day, and, if in a.d. 30, on May 28th. The scene and actors are the same as in 1:13-15, and their unity is again emphasized.

2. The coming of the Holy Spirit was made known, first by sound, the wind that could be heard in the City, v 6. The wind was a symbol of the Holy Spirit, cf.John 3:8, who would soon disperse the little community to the whole world.

3. The second sign was for sight, tongues of fire. ’And there appeared to them tongues, as it were of fire, which parted and rested on each one of them’. ’Observe how it is always "as it were", and rightly: that you may have no gross sensible notions of the Spirit’. Chrys., Hom. in Act 4 PG 60, 40. Fire symbolized the power and presence of God, Exodus 3:2; Malachi 3:2-3. Cf. the prophecy that our Lord would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire, 1:5; Luke 3:16 and 12:49-50. The tongues were first united, a sign of unity, and then parted, so that there was one over each person present, to show that they were to preach to all the ’nations dispersed’, for this was what the tongues symbolized, as the next verse shows.

4. All were filled with the Holy Spirit, although the Apostles had already received him, John 20:22. ’And they began to speak in other languages, according as the Spirit gave them utterance’. Their word was to reach all nations who would understand each in his own tongue. A new spiritual language was to be spoken to the whole world. The Spirit has now been given, John 7:39, as the rest of Acts exemplifies. All receive the Spirit, and all must share in the apostolic work. The Holy Spirit brings the Church to life and begins to form the members of a new universal kingdom. The Apostles especially are inspired. St Peter can now preach boldly and interpret prophecy. The external gifts of the Spirit are designed to manifest his internalmission. The Spirit the adoption of sons is poured out in abundance. Many of the Fathers go further than this and see in Pentecost the first giving of the divine adoption and indwelling. Thus they make a distinction between the grace of the OT, and the giving of the Spirit there only foretold, Isaiah 32:15; Jeremiah 31:33; Ez 11:19; 36:26; Zach 12:10; Joel 2:28; cf. G. Philips, La Grâce des Justes de l’Ancien Testament, ETL 23 ( 1947) 521 ff. There is a parallel too between Sinai and the Upper Room, cf.Exodus 20:18. On the feast of the Law, a new Law is given, but for all nations.

5-13 The Miracle of Pentecost —5. Many Jews from the Dispersion must have been in Jerusalem for the feast, though the text seems to suggest that those present were permanent dwellers there, e.g. for study, like St Paul, but who had been born abroad. Yet these too would be bilingual. cf. R. A. Knox, Epistles and Gospels, 151.

6. ’And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language’. The sound of the wind drew the crowds towards the Upper Room. All would have understood Greek sufficiently, but the miracle taught that the preaching was to go to the Gentiles, ’to every nation under heaven’.

7-8. As the disciples moved into the street and, no doubt, towards the temple to give thanks, the different national groups each heard one who spoke their language. The miracle was one of speaking, not of hearing.

9-10. The list goes roughly from east to west.

11. ’Both Jews and proselytes’ perhaps qualifies only the visitors from Rome, but the presence of proselytes further stresses universality. The Fathers draw the parallel between Babel, when God, because of their spirit of pride, dispersed men by confusing their tongues, and Pentecost when the Spirit of God brought all to unity again, in the Church. Chrys. ibid, St Aug. in Ps.50, PL36, 636.

12-13. To those who could only understand one or two of the languages the scene must have resembled that in 1 Corinthians 14:23, except that the ordinary gift of tongues could be understood by none of the audience. Gk ’sweet wine’. It was too early for the new.

14-36 St Peter’s Speech —The change in the disciple who had denied his Master constitutes psychological evidence of the Resurrection. Still more, in the clear explanations St Peter gives of his faith, here and subsequently, we see the Holy Spirit working in the way our Lord had promised during his last discourse, e.g.John 14:26; John 16:7-14. St Luke explains, v 40, that he has only given a summary of this tactful speech, which begins with an apologia for the disciples, and then shows, chiefly because of his Resurrection, that Jesus is the Messias.

14-21 The Miracle Explained —14. On the leadership of St Peter, see § 819d, e. The solemn exordium reveals his new confidence.

15. The day was divided from daybreak into twelve hours, making the third about 9 a.m. 16. Joel 2:28-32, quoted from LXX, has been fulfilled. This described the outpouring of the Spirit which was to herald the establishment of the kingdom of the Messias. v 22 ff. will prove that the Messias has come.

17. To interpret the prophecy, St Peter adds ’in the last days’, i.e. the last age, Messianic times, cf.Isaiah 2:2. ’All flesh’ will receive the Spirit, and no longer only prophets. Old and young, all mankind is to be saved, cf. 21.

19-20. Cf. art. on the Second Coming, § 671q.21. The Lord in Jl is Yahweh, but St Peter seems to refer to our Lord, whose kingdom must be entered by those to be saved.

22-24 Although he died, Jesus rose again, and is therefore the Messias —22. St Luke faithfully reproduces the archaic guarded phrases, so necessary if these fiercely monotheistic Jews were to be led to the truth, but so unlike Matthew 16:16, and so unnecessary in a.d. 63.

23. St Peter removes the difficulty that had once been his, Matthew 16:21-22, how one crucified could be the Messias. All was by God’s plan and foreknowledge, so too St Paul, 13:27-29. Jesus, submitting to the will of his Father was delivered up by him, cf.Romans 8:32. Jews killed our Lord, ’wicked men’, Gentiles were only instruments. 24. Gk, ’The Sorrows [Heb. ’Bonds’] of death, because it was not possible for it [death] to hold him’.

25-31 A Scripture Proof of the Resurrection —This is based on Ps 15( 16):8-11. David spoke, in view of the Messias, words which were only fulfilled in his case, and not in David’s. So too St Paul, 13:36. Jews set great store by such proofs.

25. ’I saw the Lord always before me’, at my right, as my defender. 26. The joy is because his body will live on.

27. Hell or Hades, not in the modern sense, but Sheol the abode of the dead, is a synonym for death, ’the place of death’, cf.1 Peter 3:19.

28. The speaker will see God.

29’. The triumphant conclusion: the psalm cannot apply to David, whose tomb is mentioned by Josephus, and was known to St Jerome.

30. Yet David was a prophet, and knew that one of his descendants would be Messias, Ps 102( 103):2.

31. So it must apply to the Resurrection, which he foresaw. The Jews interpreted Ps 15 of the Messias, not David, Ez 34:23; 37:24. For explanation of the prophecy see E. F. Sutcliffe , The OT and the Future Life ( 1946) 79.

32-36 The Apostles’ Witness to the Resurrection: Conclusion —32. Fifty days afterwards, St Peter can proclaim without fear of contradiction, that our Lord rose, and that his tomb was empty, cf. note on 1:22.

33. After his Ascension, Christ does what was attributed to God in 17, and sends the Promise, see note on 1:4. Thus the Spirit is on earth, because Christ is in heaven, John 16:7.

34-35. One more psalm, 109:1, in which David speaks either of himself or the Messias, shows that Jesus is the Messias. St Peter learned this from our Lord, Matthew 22:43, as also his other applications of psalms, Luke 24:44. Jesus receives the divine name ’Lord’, and ’sit on my right’ means ’have the same power as I’.

36. The texts converge to the final , Jesus is Lord, (Kyrios), and Messias’. The two words are roughly synonymous here. Jesus is the Messianic King, he exercises the sovereign powers of God, following his exaltation (v 33). See L. Cerfaux, Le Titre Kyrios. RSPT 12 ( 1923) 137-8, where the purely Jewish and OT origin of the title is proved. On how the Resurrection manifested our Lord’s sovereignty, and allowed his divine power to shine out, see M. de la Taille, Mysterium Fidei, 171 and 286.

37-40 The Effect of St Peter’s Speech —37. Many realize that they have crucified their Messias.

38. ’Repent’. The Baptist and our Lord had begun thus, Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17, and the Apostles had been told to continue, Luke 24:47. To Semites the name is the person. ’Baptism in the name’ means ’to be, by the fact of baptism, consecrated, dedicated, subjected to someone’, F. Prat, op cit, II (1945) 466; § 650a-o. Jesus has been shown to be the Messias. To join his community, to belong to him, his baptism must be received. Thus ’baptism in the name of Jesus’ is not a liturgical formula, but distinguishes Christian baptism from e.g. that of John the Baptist, 19:5, or that given to proselytes. Matthew 28:19 and St Paul’s question in 19:3 show that knowledge of the Holy Trinity was necessary, and each Person is mentioned here in 38-39. Forgiveness of sins, a divine prerogative, comes through Jesus. The gift of the Holy Spirit included the divine Indwelling, Sanctifying Grace and Confirmation.

39. Salvation is first ’for the Jews, but also for those ’far off’, not Jews of the Dispersion, who were already called, but Gentiles. The Prophets had taught that the reign of the Messias would be universal, cf. 2:17, and there were our Lord’s express commands. The enlightenment St Peter still required was as to the way men were to be admitted to the Church. See note on 10:1.

40. The perverse generation are the Jews who have rejected the Messias, cf.Matthew 12:39. 824f

41-42 The Life led by the Newly Baptized —41. Most would already have been familiar with our Lord’s life and teaching. All were perhaps not baptized that day; and see John 4:1.

42. ’In the teaching of the apostles and in fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers’. Vg and DV reduce to three these ’four marks’. There is authoritative teaching from the first, cf. § 819c, and obviously a much fuller doctrine than that to be found in the apologetic discourses of the Apostles. The whole group, Apostles, old disciples and converts form a ’communion’, united with each other and with Jesus. ’Chrysostom and many nonCatholics see in the ’breaking of bread’ a reference only to common meals, which are mentioned in 46. It is true that this breaking was originally a Jewish rite of thanksgiving for food, but it soon became the earliest technical term for the Eucharist, which at first was celebrated at a meal. It is used of the Eucharist in 20:7, 11, and very probably in 46, and perhaps 27:35 and Luke 24:35. All the accounts of the Institution say that our Lord ’broke bread’. In 1 Corinthians 10:16 St Paul uses the phrase, and emphasizes how the Eucharist symbolizes and causes the union mentioned in 42. His teaching came from the Twelve, 1 Corinthians 15:3, 1 Corinthians 15:11. The prayers are those surrounding the Eucharist, the beginnings of the Christian liturgy, held in private assemblies, rather than prayers in the temple.

II 43-V 42 The Heroic Primitive Days at Jerusalem. II 43-47 The Life of the First Christians —The whole section which St Luke must have derived from an eyewitness in the church at Jerusalem, is broken by three summaries, vv 42-47, 4:32-35, 5:12-16, describing the state of the community, and the impression it made externally.

43. These vv even more than the miracle of Pentecost, reveal the Power that had come to dwell in the Church. Awe was caused by miracles, cf. Luke 5:26, etc., but also by the union and love shown, and it was felt by those outside.

44-45. St Luke in the Gospel stressed our Lord’s teaching on voluntary poverty more than the other. evangelists, Luke 12:32-34; Luke 16:19; Luke 6:20. Here he shows the Apostles teaching the life they had learned and lived with Jesus. The kingdom is sought first, hence the simplicity and joy, but the sharing of goods, though an effect of detachment, is also the especial proof of mutual love and unity, and attracts those who do not believe, cf.John 13:35. See on 4:32-35 for the voluntary character of this ’communism’, inspired by faith and love, and respecting individual rights, which is still practised by the Religious Orders.

46. Besides common goods, there are common prayers in the temple, and a common table. All give themselves up to the Spirit. For centuries in the Church, this was the model for a ’religious life’. Parallel with the temple liturgy, the Eucharist (for the technical term can hardly have a different meaning from that in 42) was celebrated in private houses, as in 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15, etc. 47. ’And the Lord added daily to the company of those who were being saved’. There is a parallel with our Lord, Luke 2:52. Men ’were being saved’, thanks to joining the community, of. 1 Corinthians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 2:15.