At Pentecost God perfectly fulfilled his promise to empower His disciples to be His witnesses. Promise fulfillment provides certainty of God’s plan and pattern for His church. We are to be witnesses to the mighty works of God. We are to proclaim all that Christ has taught making disciples of all nations.

We have seen that Acts 2:1–13 is an oft-misinterpreted passage of Scripture. However, I’ve argued in the previous article on these verses that we can confidently understand Luke’s intent for recording this specific paragraph: we see the purpose of Pentecost. We first considered the promise fulfillment—Christ promised that He would send the Holy Spirit, so the disciples faithfully obeyed and waited, and the Spirit indeed came like a mighty wind. Today, we will see the propagation of the works of God in vv. 5–13.

The Gathered Pilgrims

Notice what Luke describes next,

“Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.”
(Acts 2:5)

During Pentecost, there were Jews from every nation under heaven lodging in Jerusalem. The Greek word for nations is ethnos, the word from which we get ethnicities. This is another clue that helps us interpret this passage rightly—there are multiple nations/ethnicities gathered who speak multiple languages.

They have gathered for Passover and for the following Feast of Weeks celebration. Luke describes these Jews as devout men. These God-fearing men had gathered to worship through the celebration of their annual feasts. There were foreign-speaking Jews gathered in Jerusalem that needed to hear God’s Word proclaimed in their own tongue. Watch the Spirit accomplish His purpose. He has fulfilled Christ’s promise, and now he will empower His people.

“And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.”
(Acts 2:6)

At the sound of all of these disciples speaking in other tongues, a large number of folks gathered to hear what was going on. As you can imagine, when they came together, they were bewildered. The crowd was confused—they did not know what was going on. Why were they confused? Luke explains, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

The Clamorous Blend of Languages

I can understand the confusion, can you? Here you have a multitude of Jews from different nations or ethnicities who hear this clamorous talking, then they realize they can hear these men speaking in their own language so that they can understand them. Luke continues,

“And they were amazed and astonished, saying, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?’”
(Luke 2:7)

They recognize that these folks that are speaking all of these different tongues or languages are all Galilean. Gill refers to the Galileans as, “rude, unpolished, and unlearned men; who had never been brought up in any school of learning, and had never learned any language but their mother tongue; and that they pronounced with an ill grace, and in a very odd manner; and which made the thing the more astonishing to them.”¹

Again, this event is not a prescription to the church; rather it is a description of what is going on at Pentecost. Most of us know that even though we have been called to go to Ecuador, not one of us have been gifted the ability to speak in their language without learning it. In their confusion the crowds ask,

“And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?”
(Acts 2:8)

Language here in v. 8 is the same word and carries the same meaning as v. 6. These Jews from every ethnos under heaven can hear these disciples speaking their language and can understand them. How is this happening? How are these Galileans speaking a different dialect than their own language? Luke continues to record what these devout Jews are saying. In vv. 9–11 Luke unpacks the languages or foreign tongues these Galileans are speaking by describing the nations of origin for these Jews:

“Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome…”
(Acts 2:9–10)

Every one of these carries a different language than the language spoken by the disciples. But as Luke has clearly stated, the disciples are not speaking their own native tongues—they’re speaking in these plethora of different languages. Now notice what they do next: they move from national descriptions for the Jews, to descriptions of their birth and conversion—those who had the bloodline and those who were brought in.

“…both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians…”
(Acts 2:11a)

Tyndale translated proselytes “converts, and paraphrased in the Geneva Bible, those that were converted to the Jewish religion.”²

In v. 11b, Luke drives home the point: Why are they speaking these foreign tongues? So,

“We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”
(Acts 2:11b)

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