Vincent Word Studies - Acts 19:2 - 19:2

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com

Vincent Word Studies - Acts 19:2 - 19:2


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?

The two verbs are in the aorist tense, and therefore denote instantaneous acts. The A. V. therefore gives an entirely wrong idea, as there is no question about what happened after believing; but the question relates to what occurred when they believed. Hence Rev., rightly, Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?

We have not heard

Also the aorist. We did not hear; referring back to the time of their beginning.

Whether there be any Holy Ghost

But, as Bengel observes, “They could not have followed either Moses or John the Baptist without having heard of the Holy Ghost.” The words, therefore, are to be explained, not of their being unaware of the existence of the Holy Ghost, but of his presence and baptism on earth. The word ἔστιν, there be, is to be taken in the sense of be present, or be given, as in Joh 7:39, where it is said, “The Holy Ghost was not yet (οὔπω ἦν),” and where the translators rightly render, “was not yet given.”