But the rumour of this having spread, the multitude came together and were confounded, because each one heard them speaking in his own dialect.
A sound from heaven drew a crowd of visiting Jews to the spot. Each man there heard his own home speech from the mouths of Galileans — so where does the wonder lie, and why languages at all?
No one arranged this gathering. A sound reached them, and the surprise came after they arrived.
The sound drew them to the spot. There they heard the disciples speaking in the tones and accents that belonged to each one. Many of them were far from home. In that country Aramaic was the language of the common people, and Greek was fairly well understood as the language of trade in that day. Yet they heard voices that spoke to them in their own mother tongue, and told of the mighty works of God.
The gift fitted each hearer more closely than a national language would. It also turned an old event in Genesis on its head.
News of what had happened spread, and the crowd came together. They were bewildered, because each one heard the disciples speaking in his own language. This completely reversed what happened at the tower of Babel (Gen. 11). There the Lord confused the language of the people so that they would not understand one another's speech. And it was not only that each heard in his own tongue, but in his own dialect.
Some explanations shift the wonder from the disciples to the listeners. Others reduce the speech to excited noise. Writers have long answered both.
Some have tried to find in the account the same kind of senseless jargon... others argue for a highly excited or ecstatic style of speech, suited to telling out the marvels of grace... The older rationalists supposed it was no other than their native tongue. Others, from Gregory of Nyssa and Cyprian to Erasmus and men of our own day, added to this the strange idea that the Spirit caused the crowd of foreigners to hear, each in his own tongue! But Gregory of Nazianzus rejects that notion. It makes the marvel lie with the hearers rather than the speakers, and that is contrary to the clear statement of Scripture.
God's judgment at Babel left the nations divided by speech. Grace does not undo that division; it goes out to men where the judgment left them.
God's judgment had inflicted these various tongues on them. It had completely broken up their ambitious plan to join together and build a unity of their own through the tower of Babel. But the grace of God went out exactly where His judgment had placed them. If a crushing blow laid their pride in many separate ditches, then the grace of God went out to those ditches. It blessed them where they lay, and raised them out of their fallen state.
The many languages marked a change. They showed who God's word was now going out to.
But the languages were as real as they were different from their mother tongue, or from any language learned in the ordinary way... God had given His law to Israel, and that law was in itself the expression of man's moral duty. What could testify more clearly that He was now about to make known His grace in the gospel to every race and tongue? ...This was not the wiping out of difference in language. Nor was it the power that will one day make the whole earth of one lip and the same speech. It was grace lifting its objects and instruments above the effects of that judgment at Babel.
God had already made dealings between nations hard. Luke then gives three words for the crowd, and each answers to something different.
By an exercise of His power He had made dealings between nations difficult, in some measure. By power joined with grace He made provision that different nations, and those speaking different tongues, should hear about His Son and about salvation in their own language, with nothing to hinder them. Bewildered, amazed, and in doubt (or, perplexed) — this is how Luke describes the crowd. Bewildered, when each man heard his own language. Amazed, as they remembered that those addressing them were Galileans. Perplexed, since they could not understand what it meant. Something new, something strange, had undoubtedly happened.
- Sound gathers. The noise from heaven brought the crowd. The languages held them.
- Language reaches. Not just a national tongue, but each hearer's own dialect. It was the speech he was born into, so no one could call it someone else's message.
- Speakers, not hearers. The wonder was in the Galileans who spoke, not in the ears that heard. Explanations that reverse this contradict the account.
- Grace follows judgment. Babel scattered men by confusing their speech. Now God's grace goes to the very ditches His judgment dug, and blesses men where they lay.
- Law to one, grace to all. The many tongues announced the change: God gave His law to one nation, and now He makes His grace known to every race and tongue.
And all were amazed and wondered, saying, Behold, are not all these who are speaking Galilaeans?
The crowd at Pentecost did not doubt what they heard. They could not explain it. Their question turns on one word — "Galileans" . It shows what they expected of such men, and what God had just done through them.
Luke stacks three reactions on top of each other, and each has its own cause:
Confounded, amazed, and in doubt (or, perplexed) — this is how Luke describes the crowd. Confounded, when they heard each man his own language. Amazed, as they remembered that those who addressed them were Galileans. Perplexed, since they could not understand what it meant.
The word was not a compliment. Galilee had a reputation, and its people gave themselves away when they spoke:
It is likely that the Galileans pronounced words differently, or that the language spoken in Galilee was not as refined as the language spoken at Jerusalem. That is what gave Peter away when he spoke. But the voice of that same Peter, under the power of God, was mighty on the day of Pentecost. Even so, the hearers said, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?" They were surprised to hear such men speak in foreign tongues. They were all the more surprised because no prophet was ever expected from there, nor any good thing from Nazareth.
That the speakers were country people is not an embarrassment in the story. It is the point:
God will have a wonderful witness going out from His House. But He will have that witness carried out by His own witnesses. And His witnesses are for the most part the poor and feeble of this world. So in Acts 2 we read, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?" Galileans, of course, were the simple country folk — the peasantry. And Peter, "an unlearned and ignorant man," was their leader.
Some have argued that the tongues at Pentecost were unintelligible sounds. The crowd's own words rule that out — foreigners recognised their own speech:
But there is an awkward difficulty in the way of calling them imaginary tongues. All the different nations whose languages these were understood them. "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?" And then Peter speaks to the Jews in theirs. Now this fact is the substantial point of the whole affair. It was what struck the multitude. It converted three thousand people. The Church begins its existence, and it was formed because this multitude understood what was said.
Others have suggested the miracle happened in the ears of the listeners, not in the mouths of the speakers. One early answer rejects that:
Gregory of Nazianzus rejects that idea. It places the marvel with the hearers rather than the speakers, and that goes against the clear statement of Scripture. So do all these empty theories.
Commentators link this scene to the scattering of languages at the tower of Babel. One traces the reversal to Christ's own lowliness:
There had been a Man on earth who never thought of Himself, but only of God and His glory. He "humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." As a result, God has put Him in the place that man in Genesis 11 could not reach. And the Holy Spirit comes down and reverses the judgment of Genesis 11 for a time. The difference of language did not disappear. But the divine grace and power that will one day make the whole world speak one language lifted the disciples above the effects of Babel's judgment. They had never learned those languages, yet they could speak in as many languages as their hearers had.
Three thousand people joined the believers that day. One writer names the cause, and it was not the wonder of verse 7:
This happened because the word spoken and received was the incorruptible seed. It did not happen because the preacher spoke it in a language new to him, one he had never learned in the ordinary way. The living and energetic word of God awakened sleeping consciences. The speeches in other tongues only awakened surprise and wonder in the hearers. That wonder converted no one, and it left the great mass in Jerusalem more hardened than ever.
- Amazed at whom. The languages confounded the crowd. The speakers amazed them. The meaning left them perplexed. Their amazement came from remembering these men were Galileans.
- Galileans. Their accent once gave Peter away. People expected no prophet and nothing good from their region. Yet that same voice was now mighty.
- Chosen weakness. God's witnesses are for the most part the poor and feeble of this world; "unlearned and ignorant" Peter led them.
- Real speech. Foreigners heard the language they were born in. The marvel was in the speakers, not in the ears. For a moment, grace lifted the disciples above Babel's judgment.
- Wonder is not faith. The tongues produced surprise. The incorruptible word produced the three thousand. Those who only marvelled went away harder than before.
and how do *we* hear [them] each in our own dialect in which we have been born,
The crowd in Jerusalem had come from many countries, and each person heard the message in the speech he grew up with. Their question raises two things at once: what this miracle was, and why God chose to work it this way.
Two different Greek words for speech run through this chapter, and each fits a different point.
The two words dialektos and glossai are by no means synonymous. When the Spirit wished to express the language of each individual, the first was the right word. When the point was the sum total of many different languages, the second was the fitting expression.
That distinction shows in what the crowd actually heard.
It was not only that each heard in his own tongue, but in his own dialect.
So where did the miracle happen — in the speakers, or in the hearers?
Interpreters have given strange and conflicting explanations of this. There is no need to notice them. Though it was a miracle, the fact is simple. It is plain that this crowd of people of many languages heard these men, who were obviously Galileans, speaking in these tongues. The miracle, as someone long ago remarked, was with those who spoke, not with those who heard; and therefore the speakers used real languages.
That fact carried the whole day.
But treating them as imaginary tongues runs into an awkward difficulty. All the different nations whose languages these were understood them. Now this fact is the substantial point of the whole affair. It was what struck the crowd. Three thousand people were converted by it. The Church begins its existence; it took form because this crowd understood what was said.
Galilean speech was easy to recognise, and people looked down on it. It had once given Peter away.
The Galileans probably had a different way of pronouncing words. Or the language spoken in Galilee was not as refined as the language spoken in Jerusalem. That is why people detected Peter by his speech. Matt. 26:69, 73; Mark 14:70. But the voice of that same Peter was mighty on the day of Pentecost, under the power of God. The hearers still said, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?" Acts 2:7.
God divided human language at Babel and scattered a proud project. Pentecost does not undo that scattering. Grace works through it.
The judgment of God had inflicted these various languages on them. It had shattered their ambitious plan to join together and set up a unity of their own through the tower of Babel. But the grace of God went out exactly where His judgment had placed them. If a crushing blow had laid their pride in ever so many separate ditches, then the grace of God went out to those ditches. It blessed them where they lay, and raised them out of their fallen state.
God gave the law one way and announced the good news another.
The Holy Spirit enabled the messengers of grace to deliver their message in the very tongue in which each was born. What precious proof that God wanted to reach man's heart with the sweet story of grace! The law from the fiery mountain was not published like that. When God was telling what man ought to be, He spoke in one tongue; but when He was telling what He Himself was, He spoke in many.
The choice of each person's birth-language was tender, not just practical.
The God of all grace would have each one hear of full salvation. And hear of it in those very words in which his infant ears had listened to the earliest whispers of a mother's love — in "his own native language." It did not matter whether the language was soft or harsh, refined or rough. The Holy Spirit would use it to carry the precious message of salvation right home to the poor heart.
The many languages of the world were also a practical problem for the men sent out with the message.
In the time of the apostles, so many different languages in the earth were a serious obstacle. They made it hard to carry out their commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel quickly and easily. But at the very start these servants of the Lord saw that this difficulty was nothing when met by the energy of the Spirit of God. In a moment He was able to give the disciples power to speak to men in their own dialect about "the mighty works of God."
- Dialect, not just language. The wording marks the dialect each hearer knew from birth, not just a national tongue.
- Miracle in the speakers. The wonder was on the lips of the disciples, so what they spoke were genuine languages.
- Unlikely speakers. God showed His power through the very men the crowd looked down on.
- Grace to the ditches. Where judgment at Babel had scattered people into many tongues, grace went out and found them there.
- Straight to the heart. God gave the law in one language, but told what He Himself is in many — reaching each heart in the language it was born into.
Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and those who inhabit Mesopotamia, and Judaea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
The crowd at Pentecost names itself by homeland, and the list starts in the far east — Parthia, Media, Elam — then moves west. Behind those names lie centuries of Jewish scattering, and the list raises one question: why did God answer it with many languages?
The names are not a random cluster. The order runs across the map, and that careful spread is itself the proof that many separate languages were in use, not just a few.
These strangers came from many lands, and each one heard the disciples speaking in his own language. That is what confounded them. Aramaic, or Greek and Latin, may have spread widely across the then known world. Even so, this list is careful and varied. It runs from the north-east to the west and south, which seems to be why Judea comes between Mesopotamia and Cappadocia. So it is pointless to tell anyone who believes such a list that the inspired writer means no more than a few distinct languages.
Two of the names in this verse are easy to misread today. "Asia" here is not the continent, and not even the whole of Asia Minor.
In the New Testament this word does not mean the part of the earth now called Asia. It does not cover the whole of Asia Minor either. It means only the western part of Asia Minor. Attalus III Philometor, king of Pergamos, left that region to Rome in 133 B.C. The province, with Ephesus as its capital, included Caria, Lydia, and Mysia. In Acts 2:9-10 "Asia" does not include Cappadocia, Pontus, Phrygia, or Pamphylia. All of those belong to Asia Minor.
Cappadocia is worth marking. The same district reappears later in Scripture as an address for a letter.
Cappadocia: a district in the east of Asia Minor. Visitors from there were at Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost. Peter includes this district when he addresses his first letter to the scattered Jews. Acts 2:9; 1 Peter 1:1. The district extended as far east as the Euphrates.
Shalmaneser carried Israelites off to the cities of Media after Samaria fell. Men from that region stand in this crowd.
The Medes are first mentioned when Shalmaneser took Samaria and carried away the Israelites. He placed some of them "in the cities of the Medes." 2 Kings 17:6; 18:11... There were some bearing the name of Medes present at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
That detail answers the claim that the ten tribes vanished from history.
On the great day of Pentecost we find "devout men" in the audience who came from the very regions to which the ten tribes were deported.
Each group heard its own homeland's language, so this was no burst of excited noise. The hearers themselves are the evidence.
But one awkward fact stands in the way of calling these imaginary languages. All the different nations whose languages they were understood them... Now this fact is the substantial point of the whole affair. It was what struck the crowd. Three thousand people were converted by it. The Church begins its existence, formed because this crowd understood what was said.
Once God scattered people by confusing their speech. Here the same variety of speech becomes the road back to them.
In Acts 2 we see the blessed One coming down in infinite grace. He meets man in the very circumstances where his sin had placed him. The Holy Spirit enabled the messengers of grace to give their message in each hearer's own native language. This is precious proof that God wanted to reach man's heart with the sweet story of grace! The law from the fiery mountain was not announced like this. When God was telling what man ought to be, He spoke in one language. When He was telling what He Himself was, He spoke in many.
Elam has its own promise in the prophets. Commentators differ over whether Pentecost fulfilled it, and one writer refuses the link outright.
"But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, says Jehovah." Here mercy triumphs at last over judgment... God will show His goodness towards Elam when the kingdom comes. Calvin and others refer its fulfilment to Acts 2:9. That only shows how little such men enter into either the old or the new.
- Scattered — the names run from Parthia in the north-east westward across the map. They belong to one people long dispersed among the nations.
- Named — the list is precise, not decorative. "Asia" means one Roman province in western Asia Minor. Cappadocia reappears as an address of Peter's first letter.
- Present — men from the very regions of the northern deportation stand in this crowd, so those tribes were never lost to history.
- Understood — the hearers, not the speakers, prove the miracle. Real nations recognised real languages, and three thousand were converted.
- Reversed — God once divided speech to scatter people. Now He uses many languages to gather them. The law came in one language; the news of what God is came in many.
both Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya which adjoin Cyrene, and the Romans sojourning [here], both Jews and proselytes,
The list of nations sweeps west across Asia Minor into Africa, then on to the capital of the empire. It ends by naming the hearers: born Jews and converts from other nations. Why name so many places at all?
The verse reaches Africa with the Libyan country around Cyrene. Cyrene had already appeared in the Gospel story.
A Greek city, the capital of the classic Cyrenaica, in the north of Africa, and the people of the same place. Some from there were present on the day of Pentecost, and they had a synagogue in Jerusalem. Simon, who carried the cross of the Lord, was a Cyrenian.
The order of the list is itself an argument.
What confounded these strangers from so many lands was that each one heard the disciples speaking in his own language. Aramaic, Greek and Latin may have spread widely over the world of that day. Even so, this list is careful and varied. It runs from the north-east to the west and south. (That seems to be why Judea comes between Mesopotamia and Cappadocia.) It is pointless to tell anyone who believes such a list that the inspired writer means only a few distinct tongues.
Notice the direction of the miracle. The speakers were Jews; the languages were those of the nations among whom Israel had been scattered.
God caused those who received the Holy Spirit to speak in the different tongues spread over the Gentile world. He did not cause all the converts to speak the Jewish language. Instead, He caused the Jews, gathered from their dispersion among all nations, to speak the tongues of the Gentiles. It was a magnificent witness of the grace that was going out to the Gentiles to meet them where they were. The judgment of God had inflicted these various tongues upon them. It had completely broken up their ambitious project at the tower of Babel — joining together to build a unity of their own. But the grace of God went out exactly where His judgment had placed them.
Every person there heard the message in the speech he first learned.
In Genesis 11 divided tongues were sent in judgment. In Acts 2 divided tongues were sent in grace. The blessed God of all grace would cause each one to hear of full salvation. Each would hear it in the very words in which his infant ears had listened to the earliest whispers of a mother's love — in his own native language. It did not matter whether the language was soft or harsh, refined or rough. The Holy Spirit would use it to carry the precious message of salvation right home to the poor heart. Divided tongues had once been given to scatter in judgment. Now they were given again to gather in grace — not around an earthly tower, but around a heavenly Christ.
The verse ends with two groups. The second, proselytes, had joined Israel's faith.
The name given to anyone from among the nations who embraced Judaism. The name may be said to be a Greek word, formed from a verb meaning "to come to." The Greek Old Testament uses it where the Hebrew has "the stranger" who lives among you. If all the males in the family were circumcised, such people could eat the Passover and offer a burnt offering or sacrifice.
So the audience that day was still gathered inside Israel's circle. But who was already in view?
Still, those who heard and believed the gospel that day were Jews and proselytes only. The Lord had stretched out His hands in vain to a disobedient and contrary people. Those hands were already pointing to all the nations, who also would hear.
The last group named is the visitors from Rome, called "strangers" in the older wording below.
There were "strangers" from Rome at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. No doubt they heard the gospel there. Some may have been converted and carried the gospel back with them.
That leaves a striking gap in the record of how the church in the capital began.
God in His wisdom ordered that no apostle should plant the gospel in the imperial city. Rome cannot truly boast of a church that began with an apostle, as Jerusalem, Philippi, Corinth, Ephesus and many smaller places can. We know that on the day of Pentecost, when God first gave the Holy Spirit, there were Roman Jews staying in Jerusalem who heard the gospel there.
- Scattered. Babel broke humanity into languages as a judgment; the nations listed here are the map that judgment left behind.
- Reached. Grace went out exactly where that judgment had placed them. Jews spoke the tongues of the Gentile world, not the other way round.
- Personal. Each hearer got the message in the language of his childhood. Polished or rough, the Spirit used every language.
- Bounded, for now. The believers that day were still Jews and proselytes only, yet the sign already pointed to all the nations who would hear.
- Carried home. Visitors from Rome heard, and the gospel travelled back with ordinary people. No apostle founded the church in the imperial city.
Cretans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in our own tongues the great things of God?
The crowd in Jerusalem came from every part of the known world, and each person heard his own native language. Two questions press on this verse: what were the disciples saying, and why did God choose this sign?
The crowd was made up of Jews and proselytes — Gentiles who had joined the Jewish faith. They name the theme themselves, and one writer draws out what that theme was.
The mercy of God was now about to reach great numbers of people, in the very languages that men of old had been condemned to, in His just displeasure. People were present from every quarter. Most of them were Jews, or Jewish proselytes. What do you think the Lord's servants spoke about? About Jesus, and not about themselves. That day "the wonderful works of God" was their glorious theme. In many languages they opened up the truth of His love, the wonderful death of His Son, and the way God was glorified by that death.
The law came in one language. Here the message goes out in many, and the reason lies in what God was announcing.
The Holy Spirit enabled the messengers of grace to deliver their message in the very tongue in which each was born. This is precious proof that God wanted to reach man's heart with the sweet story of grace! The law from the fiery mountain was not given this way. When God was telling what man ought to be, He spoke in one tongue; but when He was telling what He Himself was, He spoke in many. Man's pride and folly had built a barrier. Grace broke through it, so that every man could hear and understand the good news of salvation — the wonderful works of God.
Some say the disciples spoke only a few widely known languages. The careful roll-call of countries in verses 9 to 11 rules that out.
These strangers came from many lands. What confused them was that each one heard the disciples speaking in his own language. Aramaic, Greek and Latin may have spread widely over the known world. Even so, the list here is careful and varied, running from the north-east to the west and south. It is pointless to tell anyone who believes that list that the inspired writer means no more than a few distinct languages. The residents and visitors in Jerusalem did not judge so. They were devout men, so their judgment carried weight, and they were the last people to accept anything new in religion. To them the evidence was irresistible.
Writers here quote the older wording "the wonderful works of God"; the ESV reads "the mighty works of God."
The disciples knew what they were saying. The crowd knew what they were hearing. One writer makes that double clarity the test of the real gift.
They were bearing witness to Christ and His death and resurrection. Of course they knew exactly what they were saying. But by a miracle they could say it in a language they did not normally know. Their hearers too understood what they were saying. Expect these two things wherever the true gift of tongues is in use. In effect this would reverse, in a wonderful way, what God did at the tower of Babel, when He confused men's languages (Genesis 11:5-9). In the church there would now be understanding and fellowship between nations that had long been far apart.
Not every later use of tongues matched this day. Commentators set what happened here apart from the gift at Corinth.
The gift of speaking in a tongue (in 1 Corinthians) was an entirely different thing. Those who heard it did not, like those in Acts 2:11, hear in their own language. They could not understand what was said unless it was interpreted.
The verse names Cretans and Arabians last. Crete comes up again years later, when Paul left Titus on the island.
Neither Paul nor Titus is said to have planted the gospel in Crete. From Acts 2:11 it seems very likely that the good news reached the island almost from the great day of Pentecost. It was a question therefore for Titus to follow up that setting of things in order which the apostle began.
- Judgment. At Babel God confused men's languages and scattered them. The many languages heard in Jerusalem were the result.
- Grace. God met men where judgment had left them. He spoke one language when telling man his duty, and many when telling what He Himself is.
- Theme. The content was not the speakers but the Saviour: God's love, the death of His Son, and God glorified in that death.
- Test. Real languages, spoken with understanding and heard with understanding: that is the mark of the true gift.
- Result. Cretans and Arabians went home with the news. The gospel reached Crete almost from the day it began.