The Coming of the Holy Spirit
1 And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all together in one place.
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and one rested on each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out.
τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς πεντηκοστῆς (tēn hēmeran tēs pentēkostēs) — v.1: Pentecost (Πεντηκοστή, “Fiftieth”) was the Greek name for the Jewish festival of Shavuot (“Weeks”), celebrated fifty days after Passover. In its Old Testament origin, it was a harvest festival — the celebration of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest (Exodus 23:16, Leviticus 23:15–21). By the first century, Jewish tradition had also come to associate Shavuot with the giving of the Torah at Sinai. The convergence is theologically rich: on the day commemorating God giving the Law to Israel, God now gives the Spirit to the church. The old covenant was written on stone; the new covenant is written on hearts (Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36:26–27).
συμπληροῦσθαι (symplērousthai) — v.1: “Had fully come” — the verb συμπληρόω means “to fill up completely,” “to be fulfilled.” It conveys not just that the day arrived on the calendar but that a divine timetable has reached its appointed moment. The day was “filled full” — everything it was meant to contain has now arrived.
v.1: “All together in one place” — the “all” (πάντες) most naturally refers to the 120 mentioned in 1:15, not just the Twelve. The Spirit falls on the entire community, not just on the apostles. This is important: Pentecost is not an ordination ceremony for leaders; it is the empowerment of the whole people of God.
ἤχος ὥσπερ φερομένης πνοῆς βιαίας (ēchos hōsper pheromenēs pnoēs biaias) — v.2: “A sound like a violent rushing wind” — Luke is careful with his language. It was not wind; it was a sound like wind. The word πνοή (pnoē, “breath,” “blowing”) is closely related to πνεῦμα (pneuma, “spirit,” “breath,” “wind”). The connection is fundamental: in both Hebrew (ruach) and Greek (pneuma), the same word means “wind,” “breath,” and “spirit.” The sound of wind is the audible signature of the Spirit. The imagery reaches back to creation itself: “The Spirit/wind of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). Pentecost is a new creation.
γλῶσσαι ὡσεὶ πυρός (glōssai hōsei pyros) — v.3: “Tongues as of fire” — again, Luke uses the language of simile: not actual fire, but something that looked like fire. The word γλῶσσαι (glōssai) means both “tongues” (the physical organ) and “languages” — a double meaning that bridges the visual phenomenon (tongue-shaped flames) and the vocal phenomenon (speaking in other languages) that immediately follows. Fire in the Old Testament is associated with God’s presence: the burning bush (Exodus 3:2), the pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21–22), the fire on Sinai (Exodus 19:18), the fire consuming sacrifices (Leviticus 9:24, 1 Kings 18:38). The Sinai parallel is especially resonant: Jewish tradition (recorded in the Talmud, Shabbat 88b) held that when God spoke at Sinai, the voice divided into seventy tongues of fire, one for each nation of the world. If this tradition was current in the first century, Luke’s audience would see Pentecost as the new Sinai.
v.3: “Distributing themselves, and one rested on each of them” — the fire divides and settles individually. The Spirit is not a collective force that hovers over the group; it comes to each person, one by one. The universality is achieved through individuality: every single person in the room receives a personal endowment.
ἑτέραις γλώσσαις (heterais glōssais) — v.4: “Other tongues” — the word ἑτέραις (heterais) means “different,” “of another kind.” As the following verses make clear, these are actual human languages, not ecstatic utterance — Parthians hear Parthian, Medes hear Median, and so on. This distinguishes the Pentecost phenomenon from the “speaking in tongues” Paul discusses in 1 Corinthians 12–14, which appears to be ecstatic speech requiring interpretation. At Pentecost, the miracle is comprehension: people hear their own native languages being spoken by Galileans who have never learned them.
The Crowd’s Amazement
5 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.
6 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and were bewildered, because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.
7 They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
8 And how is it that we each hear them in our own native language?
9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and those living in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and the province of Asia,
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
11 Cretans and Arabs — we hear them speaking in our own tongues the mighty deeds of God!”
12 And they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
13 But others were mocking and saying, “They are full of sweet wine.”
v.5: The crowd is composed of diaspora Jews — Jews who had been born and raised in foreign countries but had come to Jerusalem for the festival, or who had settled there in retirement. “Every nation under heaven” is hyperbolic but makes a theological point: Pentecost is not a local event but a global one. The list that follows in vv.9–11 gives geographic specificity to this universality.
τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ (tē idia dialektō) — v.6: “In his own language” — διάλεκτος (dialektos, from which we get “dialect”) means native language, mother tongue. The emphasis is on intimacy: each person hears not just a foreign language they happen to know, but their own language, the one they grew up speaking. God speaks to each person in the language of home.
v.7: The crowd’s astonishment centers on the identity of the speakers: “Are not these Galileans?” Galilee was regarded as a provincial backwater. Galileans were known for their distinctive (and mocked) accent (cf. Matthew 26:73, where Peter’s Galilean speech betrays him). The idea that uneducated Galilean fishermen and laborers are suddenly fluent in Parthian, Egyptian, and a dozen other languages is the source of the amazement. The social reversal is part of the miracle: God has chosen the unlearned to speak in the languages of the learned.
vv.9–11: The nations list moves roughly from east to west, tracing an arc across the known world. Parthia, Media, and Elam are in modern Iran/Iraq — the ancient heartland of the Jewish diaspora dating back to the Babylonian exile. Mesopotamia is modern Iraq. Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia are in modern Turkey. Egypt and Libya represent North Africa. Rome represents the western empire. Crete is in the Mediterranean, and Arabia represents the south and east. The list is not exhaustive but representative: it covers the compass points and major population centers of the Jewish diaspora. The implicit message: the gospel has been proclaimed in miniature to the entire world. What the rest of Acts will accomplish geographically, Pentecost accomplishes linguistically in a single morning.
vv.9–11: The list has sometimes been compared to ancient astrological geography (the assignment of nations to zodiac signs) or to the Table of Nations in Genesis 10. Whether Luke had a specific literary model in mind or was simply cataloguing the diaspora communities present in Jerusalem is debated. What is clear is the reversal of Babel (Genesis 11:1–9): at Babel, one language was fractured into many and humanity was scattered; at Pentecost, many languages become one message and humanity is gathered.
γλεύκους (gleukous) — v.13: “Sweet wine” — γλεῦκος (gleukos) was new wine, freshly pressed and still in early fermentation — sweet but already mildly alcoholic. The accusation is that the disciples are drunk at nine in the morning. It’s a dismissive explanation for behavior the mockers can’t otherwise account for. Peter will address this directly in his sermon. The divided response — some amazed, some mocking — is the pattern that will repeat throughout Acts: the gospel always produces a split.
Peter’s Sermon: The Explanation
14 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.
15 For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day.
16 But this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 and even on my male servants and on my female servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will display wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below — blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.
21 And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
v.14: Peter’s first public sermon after the resurrection. The fisherman who denied Jesus three times now stands before thousands and proclaims him. Luke presents this as the inaugural address of the church, and he gives it to Peter — the man Jesus said would be the rock on which the church was built (Matthew 16:18). The transformation from the courtyard of the high priest to the streets of Jerusalem on Pentecost morning is itself a testimony to the power Peter is about to describe.
v.15: “The third hour of the day” is approximately 9:00 AM. Peter’s response to the drunkenness charge is disarmingly practical: it’s too early in the morning for anyone to be drunk. The humor is deliberate — he disposes of the absurd explanation quickly and moves immediately to the real one.
vv.17–21: Peter quotes Joel 2:28–32 (Joel 3:1–5 in the Hebrew numbering), one of the great prophetic passages about the outpouring of the Spirit. The quotation follows the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) closely, with one significant modification: where Joel says “afterward,” Peter says “in the last days” (ἐν ταῖς ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις). This change is theologically interpretive: Peter is declaring that the “last days” have arrived. Pentecost is not a temporary phenomenon; it is the inauguration of the final age of history.
vv.17–18: The Joel quotation emphasizes radical inclusivity. The Spirit falls on sons and daughters, young and old, male servants and female servants. Every social boundary — gender, age, class — is crossed. The pouring out is “on all flesh” (ἐπὶ πᾶσαν σάρκα, epi pasan sarka), not on a priestly elite or a prophetic minority. This democratization of the Spirit is one of the most revolutionary claims in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the Spirit came upon specific individuals for specific tasks — kings, prophets, craftsmen. Now it comes upon everyone.
v.21: The quotation climaxes with a universal promise: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” In Joel’s original context, “the Lord” (κύριος, kyrios) refers to YHWH, the God of Israel. Peter will spend the rest of his sermon arguing that Jesus is this Lord. The shift is momentous: calling on the name of the Lord now means calling on the name of Jesus.
Peter’s Sermon: Jesus the Messiah
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know —
23 this man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put to death.
24 But God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
25 For David says of him: ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced; moreover, my flesh also will dwell in hope,
27 because you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see decay.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with gladness in your presence.’
29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
30 So, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne,
31 he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see decay.
32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.
ἀποδεδειγμένον ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ (apodedeigmenon apo tou theou) — v.22: “Attested to you by God” — the verb ἀποδείκνυμι (apodeiknymi) means “to display publicly,” “to prove by demonstration.” Peter’s argument is empirical: you saw the miracles. The mighty works, wonders, and signs are not hearsay; they happened “in your midst” (ἐν μέσῳ ὑμῶν), and “you yourselves know” (καθὼς αὐτοὶ οἴδατε). Peter appeals to the audience’s own experience. This is not done in a corner.
v.23: One of the most theologically dense verses in the New Testament. Two truths are held together without resolution: Jesus was delivered up “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (τῇ ὡρισμένῃ βουλῇ καὶ προγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ) and “you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men.” Divine sovereignty and human responsibility coexist in the same sentence. God’s plan did not excuse the actors; the actors’ guilt does not override God’s plan. Peter does not attempt to resolve the tension. He simply states both.
λύσας τὰς ὠδῖνας τοῦ θανάτου (lysas tas ōdinas tou thanatou) — v.24: “Loosing the pangs of death” — the word ὠδῖνες (ōdines) means “birth pangs.” The image is startling: death is in labor, and resurrection is what it gives birth to. Death tried to hold Jesus and could not — not because Jesus was too strong, but because “it was not possible” (οὐκ ἦν δυνατόν) for death to keep him. The impossibility is ontological: death cannot permanently hold the author of life. The metaphor of birth pangs also implies that the resurrection was not an escape from death but something death itself produced — unwillingly, inevitably.
vv.25–28: Peter quotes Psalm 16:8–11, attributed to David, in the Septuagint version. The argument is straightforward: David wrote “you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow your Holy One to see decay.” But David did die and was buried, and his body did decay — his tomb was a known landmark in Jerusalem (v.29). Therefore David could not have been writing about himself. He was writing prophetically about his descendant, the Messiah, whose body would not see decay because God would raise him from the dead. This is the hermeneutical method of early Christianity in action: reading the Psalms as messianic prophecy.
v.32: “Of that we are all witnesses” — the “all” refers to the apostles standing with Peter (v.14). This is a public claim of eyewitness testimony, made in Jerusalem, within a generation of the events, before an audience that could investigate. The word μάρτυρες (martyres, “witnesses”) echoes the commission of 1:8. The apostles are doing what Jesus told them to do: they are witnessing to the resurrection.
Peter’s Sermon: The Exaltation and the Spirit
33 “Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you both see and hear.
34 For David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand,
35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’
36 Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah — this Jesus whom you crucified.”
v.33: Peter now connects Pentecost to the ascension. The logic is a chain: Jesus was raised from the dead (v.24), exalted to God’s right hand (v.33), received the promised Spirit from the Father (v.33), and poured it out on the church (v.33). The phenomena the crowd is witnessing — the languages, the fire, the sound — are not random spiritual events; they are evidence that Jesus is alive, exalted, and active. The Spirit is proof of the ascension.
vv.34–35: Peter quotes Psalm 110:1, the most frequently cited Old Testament verse in the New Testament. “The Lord [YHWH] said to my Lord [the Messiah], sit at my right hand.” Peter applies the same logic as with Psalm 16: David didn’t ascend to heaven, so he can’t be talking about himself. He is speaking prophetically about someone greater — his Lord, the Messiah. The right hand of God is the position of supreme authority and honor. Peter is claiming that Jesus now occupies the highest possible position in the universe.
καὶ κύριον αὐτὸν καὶ χριστόν (kai kyrion auton kai christon) — v.36: “Both Lord and Messiah” — this is the climactic declaration, the sentence toward which the entire sermon has been building. Κύριος (Kyrios, “Lord”) is the title used for YHWH in the Septuagint, and Χριστός (Christos, “Messiah/Christ”) is the title of Israel’s anointed king. Peter is claiming both: Jesus is God’s anointed king and he shares in the divine name. The final clause — “this Jesus whom you crucified” — lands like a hammer. The one you killed is the one God made Lord of all.
The Response of the Crowd
37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off — as many as the Lord our God will call.”
40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept urging them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!”
41 So then, those who received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added.
κατενύγησαν τὴν καρδίαν (katenugēsan tēn kardian) — v.37: “Pierced to the heart” — the verb κατανύσσω (katanyssō) means to stab, to pierce sharply. It describes a sudden, painful realization — the moment the truth penetrates. The crowd has just been told that the man their leaders crucified is the Lord and Messiah. The implications are terrifying: they participated in the murder of God’s anointed. Their question — “What shall we do?” — is not academic; it is desperate.
v.38: Peter’s answer is the first gospel invitation in the history of the church: repent, be baptized in Jesus’s name for the forgiveness of sins, and receive the Holy Spirit. The simplicity is striking. No complex theological system, no extended catechesis, no probationary period. Repent. Be baptized. Receive the Spirit. Three steps, one response, available today. The relationship between these elements (does baptism cause forgiveness? does the Spirit come at baptism or separately?) has generated centuries of theological debate, but Peter presents them as a unified package, not a sequential process.
v.39: “For you and your children and for all who are far off” — the promise expands in concentric circles. “You” = the present audience. “Your children” = the next generation. “All who are far off” = the diaspora Jews and, ultimately, the Gentiles. The phrase “as many as the Lord our God will call” makes the scope unlimited. Peter may not yet fully grasp the Gentile implications of what he is saying (it will take the Cornelius episode in chapter 10 to bring that home), but the language is already universal.
ψυχαὶ ὡσεὶ τρισχίλιαι (psychai hōsei trischiliai) — v.41: “About three thousand souls” — ψυχή (psychē, “soul”) here simply means “person.” The number is enormous: the community goes from 120 to 3,120 in a single day. Whether the number is precise or approximate (Luke says “about”, ὡσεί), the scale is transformative. The practical question of baptizing 3,000 people in Jerusalem is sometimes raised; the pools of Bethesda and Siloam, the ritual baths (mikva’ot) around the temple mount (dozens of which have been excavated), and any other water sources would have been available. The logistics were demanding but not impossible.
The Life of the First Community
42 And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43 And a sense of awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.
44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common;
45 and they would sell their property and possessions and share them with all, according as anyone had need.
46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
v.42: Luke’s summary of the early community’s life identifies four pillars: (1) the apostles’ teaching (διδαχή, didachē — instruction, doctrine), (2) fellowship (κοινωνία, koinōnia — sharing, participation, community), (3) the breaking of bread (κλάσις τοῦ ἄρτου, klasis tou artou), and (4) prayer (προσευχή, proseuchē). These four elements have been understood by the church for two millennia as the essential components of Christian community. “Breaking of bread” likely refers to communal meals that included (or culminated in) the Lord’s Supper — not yet formalized as a separate liturgical act but integrated into shared meals.
κοινωνία (koinōnia) — v.42: “Fellowship” — this word carries far more weight than its English translation suggests. Κοινωνία means shared participation in something — a partnership, a common life, a mutual stake in the same reality. It is not socializing; it is the deep interconnection of lives lived together around a shared center. The word was used in Greek for business partnerships, marriage bonds, and political alliances. Applied to the church, it describes a community whose members belong to each other because they belong to Christ.
vv.44–45: The community’s sharing of possessions is described in idealized but specific terms: they “had all things in common” and sold property to distribute to those in need. This is not a mandated economic system but a spontaneous response to the Spirit — as the next chapters will make clear (Ananias and Sapphira’s sin in chapter 5 was lying about their contribution, not failing to give everything). The practice echoes the Greek philosophical ideal of friends holding property in common (Aristotle: “the goods of friends are common”) but is motivated not by philosophy but by the Spirit’s work.
v.46: The community exists in two spaces: the temple (public, Jewish worship) and private homes (the distinctively Christian “breaking of bread”). They have not broken from Judaism. They worship daily in the temple courts and eat together in homes. The church is still entirely Jewish, still centered on Jerusalem, and still operating within the framework of Jewish worship. The separation from the synagogue and temple will be a gradual, painful process that unfolds over the next several decades.
ἀφελότητι καρδίας (aphelotēti kardias) — v.46: “Sincerity of heart” — ἀφελότης (aphelotēs) means simplicity, generosity, freedom from pretense. It describes a community without hidden agendas — people who share meals and lives with uncomplicated joy. Combined with “gladness” (ἀγαλλίασις, agalliasis, a strong word meaning exultation, jubilant joy), the picture is of a community radiating happiness. This attractiveness produces growth: “the Lord was adding to their number day by day.” The church grows not by strategy but by the sheer magnetic force of a joyful, generous community.
v.47: The final verse is the seed summary of the entire book of Acts. The Lord adds. The growth is divine, not organizational. People are “being saved” (τοὺς σῳζομένους, tous sōzomenous — present participle, indicating an ongoing process). The story that began with 120 people in an upper room has, in a single chapter, become a movement of thousands. And the growth will not stop.
General Notes on the Chapter
Acts 2 is the foundational chapter of the Christian church. Everything that follows in Acts — the expansion, the conflicts, the missions, the theology — flows from what happens here. Pentecost is the birth of the church in the same way that Sinai was the birth of Israel: a community is constituted by a divine act, empowered by a divine presence, and given a divine mission. The parallels between Sinai and Pentecost are extensive: the sound, the fire, the voice, the law/Spirit given to a gathered assembly on the fiftieth day after a great deliverance (Passover/the cross). Luke is telling his readers that this is Sinai 2.0 — the new covenant inauguration.
Peter’s sermon is a model of early Christian preaching. It follows a clear structure: (1) explanation of the phenomenon (vv.14–21, quoting Joel), (2) proclamation of Jesus’s death and resurrection (vv.22–32, quoting Psalm 16), (3) exaltation of Jesus as Lord and Messiah (vv.33–36, quoting Psalm 110), and (4) a call to response (vv.38–40). This basic pattern — Scripture fulfilled, Jesus crucified and risen, therefore repent — appears in every major speech in Acts. Peter invented it, and the early church followed it.
The community described in vv.42–47 has been called the “Summary of the Early Church” and has served as an ideal for Christian communities ever since. Its features — teaching, fellowship, shared meals, prayer, generosity, joy, and growth — are aspirational but not utopian. The chapters that follow will show this community facing internal problems (deception, favoritism, theological conflict) even as it grows. Luke is not painting a fantasy. He is describing a real community in its first flush of Spirit-empowered life, and he is honest enough to show both the glory and the difficulties in the chapters ahead.
The reversal of Babel stands as the most profound theological image in the chapter. At Babel, humanity’s arrogance led to the fracturing of language and the scattering of peoples. At Pentecost, God’s Spirit reunites the languages and gathers the scattered nations. The gospel is proclaimed in every tongue simultaneously, not because the listeners have learned one sacred language but because God speaks every language. The diversity of human language is not erased but honored. Unity comes not through uniformity but through a message that can be heard in every mother tongue.