Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 2:1-13, Pentecost and the nations
On the day of Pentecost wind and fire come on the gathered believers, and Jewish pilgrims from every nation hear them speaking in their own languages.
Acts 2:1-13, in every translation this tool compares.
At the harvest festival of Pentecost the gathered believers experience something like rushing wind and fire, and they begin speaking in languages they never learned. Jewish worshipers from across the known world, in the city for the feast, are stunned to hear these Galileans praising God in their own home tongues. Some are puzzled and ask for an explanation, while others laugh it off as drunkenness. For Luke's readers the scene answers the scattering of the nations: God is gathering people of every language again.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/spirit-of-prophecy\/","n":"The Spirit of prophecy","s":"Jews of Jesus' day linked God's Spirit above all with prophecy. Many believed the prophets had fallen silent long ago, and they looked for the day God would pour out his Spirit again.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/diaspora-jews\/","n":"Jews of the dispersion","s":"Most Jews of the first century lived outside the land, in cities from Parthia to Rome. They kept the law and their own synagogues, spoke Greek or Aramaic, and came up to Jerusalem for the feasts when they could.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/babel-and-the-nations\/","n":"Babel and the seventy nations","s":"Genesis 10 lists the nations of the world, seventy in the Hebrew text and seventy-two in the Greek. Jewish tradition counted the nations that way, and Deuteronomy 32 tells how God divided them and kept Israel as his own. Luke's list of nations at Pentecost recalls them.","r":""}
The most sensible setting for a crowd of thousands is the temple courts (Keener; the ESV Study Bible). Wind could recall the Spirit raising the dead in Ezekiel 37, and fire both God's glory on the tabernacle and his coming judgment (Keener and his notes); Heiser reads wind and fire as the imagery of a divine council commissioning. Keener finds the supposed Greek parallels to tongues weak and says Luke presents real languages with an Old Testament prophetic background; the CSB Study Bible lists three readings and prefers languages the hearers recognized, and Wright notes that everyone's second language was Greek, yet that day nobody needed it. Heiser points out that the words for the divided tongues and for the crowd's confusion are the words the Greek Old Testament uses at Deuteronomy 32:8 and Genesis 11:7, and Keener suggests Luke has updated the names of Genesis 10. Whether those staying in Jerusalem were pilgrims or settled residents is debated (the cultural backgrounds notes); the ESV Study Bible says both. Philo wrote of divine intoxication, and Greeks believed in frenzied inspiration, so the mockers' charge had a ready model (Keener and his notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 2:1, 2:2, 2:3, 2:4, 2:5-13, 2:9-11 and 2:12-13
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 2:2-3, 2:5 and 2:13
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Acts 2:5
- CSB Study Bible, note on Acts 2:4
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part One, comment on Acts 2:5-13
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 34, Infiltration
