Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Acts 2:5 - 2:13

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Acts 2:5 - 2:13


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The effect of the miracle upon the multitude:

v. 5. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

v. 6. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

v. 7. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans?

v. 8. And how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born?

v. 9. Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,

v. 10. Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and In the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,

v. 11. Cretes and Arabians; we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

v. 12. And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?

v. 13. Others, mocking, said, These men are full of new wine.

Since this was the festival of Pentecost. one of the feasts upon which all the Jews were to appear at Jerusalem, Exo_23:13-17; Deu_16:1-22, there were people from all parts of the world living, or sojourning for the time, in Jerusalem. Many of them that had formerly lived in distant countries may have returned to the city of their fathers in order to spend their declining years in their sacred city and to die within sight of the Temple. The people here referred to were sincere, devout men, Luk_2:25, not hypocrites like the Jewish rulers. And they hailed from every nation under heaven. Since the time of the Babylonian exile the merchandizing proclivities of the Jews had drawn them out into other countries more and more. In some countries, as in Egypt, there were large colonies of them, with influential men of the class of Philo. And that they were by no means few in number throughout Asia Minor, as well as in parts of Greece and in Italy, appears from the many passages in Acts in which the synagogues of the Jews are mentioned. These Jews, known as the Jews of the Diaspora, spoke the language of the people among whom they lived, retaining the Hebrew only for Sabbath services. Now when that great sound, as of the mighty wind, was heard, the attention of all the hearers was naturally directed to the hall where the apostles and disciples were assembled, and a great multitude came together to find out the reason for this supernatural occurrence. And what they saw and heard filled their minds with such trouble and perturbation that they were no longer sure of their senses; they were altogether confounded and mixed up. For here they heard, every man, the language of the people where he had been born. There were present Eastern or Babylonian Jews, Parthians, from the region of the Caspian Sea, Medes, from the southwestern shore of the same sea, Elamites, in what is now western Persia, dwellers in Mesopotamia, along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers; there were present Syrian Jews, from Judea, the southern part of what is now Syria, from Cappadocia, in eastern Asia Minor, from Pontus, south of the Black Sea, from Asia, the parts of western Asia Minor in general, along the Aegean Sea, from Phrygia, in western Asia Minor, from Pamphylia, in southern Asia Minor; there were present Egyptian Jews, from Egypt itself, as well as from the parts of Libya in the western part, about Cyrene, the modern Tripoli; there were present Roman Jews, sojourners from that city. And finally Luke mentions Jews from the island of Crete, in the Mediterranean, and from Arabia, as being present in only small numbers. Both Jews and proselytes were represented in the assembly, such as belonged to the Jewish nation by birth, and such as had become proselytes of the gate (by acknowledging the truth of the Jewish teaching) or of righteousness (by formally accepting all the rites and ceremonies, as well as the teaching). And all the various members of this' big gathering heard the apostles speak in their own tongue, fluently addressing them, as though they had spoken the dialects and languages all their life. Such a miracle was unheard of, and Luke exhausts his vocabulary in trying to describe its effect upon the multitude: they were confounded, they were amazed, they marveled, they were perplexed, they asked one another as to the meaning of the wonderful thing they were witnessing. And all the while the apostles were preaching the great and wonderful works of God, namely, that God had fulfilled the prophecies made to their fathers, that He had sent His Son Jesus to work the redemption of the whole world, and that this salvation was now being offered to all of them without exception. But while the majority of the assembled Jews were ready to accept the evidence of an extraordinary manifestation of God's power in these unlearned Galileans, as they called them, there were also some that scoffed and mocked, derisively declaring that the apostles were full of sweet wine, either the must of grapes still in the fermenting state or a choice sweet wine in use in Palestine. Note: wherever the Spirit of God works through the Word, there are always some that accept the glorious truth, while others are willfully offended and mock at the Spirit that lives in the Christians.