성경 주석서

Acts 2:1-13 The descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles on the

day of Pentecost: they speak divers languages, to the

general amazement, but some deride them.

Acts 2:14-36 Peter shows that the inspiration spoken of by Joel was

now fulfilled; that Jesus, whom they had crucified,

was now risen from the dead, and ascended into heaven,

according to David’s predictions, and had shed forth

the promise of the Holy Spirit in full proof of his

being the Messias.

Acts 2:37-40 A great number are converted by Peter’s preaching,

Acts 2:41-47 who, being baptized, converse devoutly and charitably

together, the apostles working many miracles, and God

daily increasing the church.

Pentecost; this feast was fifty days after the feast of unleavened bread, or passover, as Leviticus 23:16, whence it had its name, and was called the feast of weeks, Exodus 34:22, because it was to be observed seven weeks after the feast of unleavened bread, Deu 16:9. It was the feast of the first fruit of wheat harvest, Exodus 34:22; and on this day (to answer the type) the Spirit was poured out in such a plentiful manner, as the first fruits of Christ’s ascending into heaven: besides, the law was given on this day, Exodus 19:1,11, and it was expedient that the gospel (Christ’s law) should be published on the same day: and it being on the first day of the week, it did recommend and honour the Lord’s day, as our Saviour had before by his resurrection on that day.

With one accord; as if they had but one mind, as sent in so many bodies.

In one place; probably that mentioned Acts 1:13.

Verse 1. - Was now come for was fully come, A.V.; all together for with one accord, A.V. and T.R. When the day of Pentecost was now come; literally, when the day of Pentecost - i.e., of the fiftieth day - was in the course of being completed. The fiftieth day (reckoned from the end of the 16th of Nisan, on which Jesus was crucified) was actually come, but was not ended (comp. Luke 9:11). All together; ὁμοῦ for ὁμοθυμαδόν: but ὁμοθυμαδόν - a favorite word in the Acts (Acts 4:24, note) - seems preferable to ὁμοῦ, which occurs only in St. John. In one place (see Acts 1:15, note). The purpose, doubtless, of their coming together was for prayer, as in Acts 1:14; and the third hour (9 a.m., ver. 15), the hour of offering the morning sacrifice, was close at hand (comp. Acts 3:1 and Luke 1:10).

II.

(1) When the day of Pentecost was fully come.—It is natural to assume a purpose in the divine choice of the day on which the disciples were thus to receive the promise of the Father. That choice may have been determined, if one may so speak, either in view of the circumstances of the feast, or of its history and symbolic fitness.

(1) Of all the feasts of the Jewish year, it was that which attracted the largest number of pilgrims from distant lands. The dangers of travel by sea or land in the early spring or late autumn (comp. Acts 27:9) prevented their coming in any large numbers to the Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles. At no other feast would there have been representatives of so many nations. So, it may be noted, it was the Feast of Pentecost that St. Paul went up to keep once and again, during his mission-work in Greece and Asia. (See Notes on Acts 18:21; Acts 20:16.) So far, then, there was no time on which the gift of the Spirit was likely to produce such direct and immediate results.

Acts 2:1-13. The Holy Ghost given at Pentecost. Effect first produced thereby on the dwellers at Jerusalem

1. the day of Pentecost] The second of the three great Jewish feasts, the Passover being the first, and the third, the feast of Tabernacles. Pentecost is the Greek name of the feast, derived from Pentecostos = fiftieth; because it was kept on the fiftieth day after the Passover-Sabbath. In the Law it is called “the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours” (Exodus 23:16), and also, from being seven weeks after the Passover, it is named “the feast of weeks” (Exodus 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:9-10). The offering in this festival was the two first loaves made from the first portion of the wheat-harvest of the year, as a thank-offering.

This day was perhaps chosen for the outpouring of the Spirit upon the Apostles, that there might be a greater multitude present in Jerusalem, and so the tidings of this gift might at once be spread abroad. It is perhaps for this reason that the very word employed is one which indicates that the day was fully come, and so all that were intending to be present at the feast were there. We find in Acts 9:2 that there were Christians at Damascus before we read of any one of the Apostolic band visiting that city. It may well be that among those who saw the gifts now bestowed, and whose hearts were pierced by Peter’s sermon, there were some who went forth to this and other cities, bearing the fame and teaching of the new society along with them. In like manner, we cannot doubt that it was in order that more might hear His words, that our Lord so frequently went to Jerusalem at the feasts. (John 4:45; John 5:1; John 7:10; John 10:22, &c.)

they were all with one accord in one place] The best MSS. have they were all together in one place. Doubtless in the upper room where the Apostles abode, and where the disciples had met for the election of Matthias.

Was fully come (συμπληροῦσθαι)

Used by Luke only. See on Luke 9:51. Lit., as Rev., margin, was being fulfilled. The day, according to the Hebrew mode, is conceived as a measure to be filled up. So long as the day had not yet arrived, the measure was not full. The words denote in process of fulfilment.

Pentecost

Meaning fiftieth; because occurring on the fiftieth day, calculated from the second day of unleavened bread. In the Old Testament it is called the feast of weeks, and the feast of harvest. Its primary object was to thank God for the blessings of harvest. See Deuteronomy 16:10, Deuteronomy 16:11.

With one accord (ὁμοθυμαδὸν)

The best texts substitute ὁμοῦ, together. So Rev.

Was now come (εν τω συνπληρουσθα). Luke's favourite idiom of εν with the articular present infinitive passive and the accusative of general reference, "in the being fulfilled completely (perfective use of συν-) as to the day of Pentecost." Common verb, but only in Luke in N.T. In literal sense of filling a boat in Luke 8:23, about days in Luke 9:51 as here. Whether the disciples expected the coming of the Holy Spirit on this day we do not know. Blass holds that the present tense shows that the day had not yet come. It is a Hebrew idiom (Exodus 7:25) and Luke may mean that the day of Pentecost was not yet over, was still going on, though Hackett takes it for the interval (fifty days) between Passover and Pentecost. Apparently this day of Pentecost fell on the Jewish Sabbath (our Saturday). It was the feast of first fruits. All together in one place (παντες ομου επ το αυτο). All together in the same place. Note ομου here (correct text), not ομοθυμαδον as in Acts 1:14, and so a bit of tautology.

return to '

Acts 2:1. ἐν τῷ συμπληροῦσθαι, lit[114], “when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled” (filled up). R.V. renders “was now come,” and a question arises as to whether the words mean this, or that the day was only being filled up, and not fully come. Blass interprets the expression to mean a short time before the day of Pentecost, not the day itself. Weiss and others suppose that the expression refers to the completing of the interval of time between the Paschal Feast and Pentecost. Vulgate (cf. Syriac) reads “cum complerentur dies Pentecostes,” and so all English versions have “days” except A. and R.V. The verb is only used by St. Luke in the N.T., twice in his Gospel, Luke 8:23, and in the same sense as here, Luke 9:51, and once more in the passage before us. We have the noun συμπλήρωσις in the same sense in LXX 2 Chronicles 36:21, Dan. (Theod.) Acts 9:2, 1Es 1:58; see Friedrich, ubi supra, p. 44. The mode of expression is Hebraistic, as we see also from Exodus 7:25, Jeremiah 36:10 (LXX). St. Luke may be using the expression of a day which had begun, according to Jewish reckoning, at the previous sunset, and which thus in the early morning could not be said to be either fulfilled or past, but which was in the process of being fulfilled (Hilgenfeld, Zeitschrift für wissenschaft. Theol., p. 90, 1895; Knabenbauer, in loco). The parallel passage in Luke 9:51 cannot be quoted to support the view that the reference here is to a period preceding the day of Pentecost, since in that passage we have ἡμέρας, not ἡμέραν as here, and, although the interpretation of the word as referring to the approach of the Feast is possible, yet the circumstances and the view evidently taken by the narrator point decisively to the very day of the Feast (see Schmid, Biblische Theol., p. 283). On the construction ἐν τῷ with the infinitive, see Blass, Grammatik des N. G., pp. 232, 234, and Dalman, Die Worte Jesu, p. 27. It is quite in the style of St. Luke, who frequently employs it; cf. the Hebrew use of בְּ, Friedrich, p. 13, ubi supra, Lekebusch, Apostelgeschichte, p. 75). On Spitta’s forced interpretation of the word, see p. 100.—τῆς Πεντηκοστῆς: no occasion to add ἡμέρα, as the word was used as a proper name (although as an adjective ἡμέρα would of course be understood with it); cf. 2Ma 12:32 (Tob 2:1), μετὰ δὲ τὴν λεγομ. Πεντηκοστήν.—ἅπαντες, i.e., the hundred-and-twenty as well as the Apostles (Chrysostom, Jerome), and the expression may also have included other disciples who were present in Jerusalem at the Feast (so Hilgenfeld, Wendt, Holtzmann). This interpretation appears to be more in accordance with the wide range of the prophecy, Acts 2:16-21.—ὁμοθυμαδὸν, see above on Acts 2:14. ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό may simply = “together,” so that of the two expressions ὁμοῦ, R.V., and this phrase “alterum abundat” (Blass, Weiss); but the reference may be to the room in which they were previously assembled; cf. Acts 1:15.

[114] literal, literally.

Acts 2:1.[109] When the day of Pentecost became full, i.e. when the day of Pentecost had come, on the day of Pentecost. The day is, according to the Hebrew mode (see Gesen. Thes. s.v. מלא), conceived as a measure to be filled up (comp. also Acts 9:23; Luke 2:6; Luke 22:9; Luke 22:51, and many similar passages in the N. T. and in the Apocrypha); so long as the day had not yet arrived, but still belonged to the future, the measure was not yet filled, but empty. But as soon as it appeared, the fulfilment, the making the day full, the ΣΥΜΠΛΉΡΩΣΙς (comp. 3 Esdr. 1:58; Daniel 9:2) therewith occurred; by which, without figure, is meant the realization of the day which had not hitherto become a reality. The expression itself, which concerns the definite individual day, is at variance with the view of Olshausen and Baumgarten, who would have the time from Easter to be regarded as becoming full. Quite without warrant, Hitzig (Ostern und Pfingst, p. 39 f.) would place the occurrence not at Pentecost at all. See, in opposition to this, Schneckenb. p. 198 f.

ἡ πεντηκοστή] is indeed originally to be referred to the ἡμέρα understood; but this supplementary noun had entirely fallen into disuse, and the word had become quite an independent substantive (comp. 2Ma 12:32). πεντηκοστή also occurs in Tob 2:1, quite apart from its numeral signification, and ἐν τῇ πεντηκοστῇ ἑορτῇ is there: on the Pentecost-feast. See Fritzsche in loc. The feast of Pentecost, חַג שָּׁבֻעוֹת, Deuteronomy 16:9-10 (ἁγία ἑπτὰ ἑβδομάδων, Tob. I.c.), was one of the three great festivals, appointed as the feast of the grain-harvest (Exodus 23:16; Numbers 28:26), and subsequently, although we find no mention of this in Philo and Josephus (comp. Bauer in the Stud. u. Krit. 1843, p. 680), regarded also as the celebration of the giving of the law from Sinai, falling (Exodus 19:1) in the third month (Danz in Meuschen, N. T. ex Talm. ill. p. 741; Buxt. Synag. p. 438). It was restricted to one day, and celebrated on the fiftieth day after the first day of the Passover (Leviticus 23:15-16); so that the second paschal day, i.e. the 16th of Nisan, the day of the sheaf offering, is to be reckoned as the first of these fifty days. See Lightfoot and Wetstein in loc.; Ewald, Alterth. p. 476 f.; Keil, Archäol. § 83. Now, as in that year the Passover occurred on the evening of Friday (see on John 18:28), and consequently this Friday, the day of the death of Jesus, was the 14th of Nisan, Saturday the 15th, and Sunday the 16th, the tradition of the ancient church has very correctly placed the first Christian Pentecost on the Sunday.[110] Therefore the custom—which, besides, cannot be shown to have existed at the time of Jesus—of the Karaites, who explained שבת in Leviticus 23:15 not of the first day of the Passover, but of the Sabbath occurring in the paschal week, and thus held Pentecost always on a Sunday (Ideler, II. p. 613; Wieseler, Synop. p. 349), is to be left entirely out of consideration (in opposition to Hitzig); and it is not to be assumed that the disciples might have celebrated with the Karaites both Passover and Pentecost.[111] But still the question arises: Whether Luke himself conceived of that first Christian Pentecost as a Saturday or a Sunday? As he, following with Matthew and Mark the Galilean tradition, makes the Passover occur already on Thursday evening and be partaken of by Jesus Himself, and accordingly makes the Friday of the crucifixion the 15th of Nisan; so he must necessarily—but just as erroneously—have conceived of this first πεντηκοστή as a Saturday (Wieseler, Chronol. d. apost. Zeitalt. p. 19), unless we should assume that he may have had no other conception of the day of Pentecost than that which was in conformity with the Christian custom of the Sunday celebration of Pentecost; which, indeed, does not correspond with his account of the day of Jesus’ death as the 15th Nisan, but shows the correctness of the Johannine tradition.

ἦσαν πάντες ὁμοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό] Concerning the text, see the critical remarks; concerning ἘΠῚ ΤῸ ΑὐΤΌ, see on Acts 1:15. These ΠΆΝΤΕς, all, were not merely the apostles, but all the followers of Jesus then in Jerusalem, partly natives and partly strangers, including the apostles. For, first of all, it may certainly be presumed that on the day of Pentecost, and, moreover, at the hour of prayer (Acts 2:15), not the apostles alone, but with them also the other μαθηταί—among whom there were, without doubt, many foreign pilgrims to the feast—were assembled. Moreover, in Acts 2:14 the apostles are distinguished from the rest. Further, the ΠΆΝΤΕς, designedly added, by no means corresponds to the small number of the apostles (Acts 1:26), especially as in the narrative immediately preceding mention was made of a much greater assembly (Acts 1:15); it is, on the contrary, designed—because otherwise it would have been superfluous—to indicate a still greater completeness of the assembly, and therefore it may not be limited even to the 120 persons alone. Lastly, it is clear also from the prophetic saying of Joel, adduced in Acts 2:16 ff., that the effusion of the Spirit was not on the apostles merely, but on all the new people of God, so that ἅπαντες (Acts 2:1) must be understood of all the followers of Jesus (of course, according to the latitude of the popular manner of expression).

[109] Concerning the Pentecostal occurrence, see van Hengel, de gave der talen, Pinksterstudie, Leid. 1864.

[110] In opposition to the view of Hupfeld, de primitiva et vera festorum ap. Hebr. ratione, Hal. 1852, who will have the fifty days reckoned from the last paschal day; see Ewald, Jahrb. IV. p. 134 f.

[111] 1 See also Vaihinger in Herzog’s Encykl. XI. p. 476 f.