성경 주석서

Acts 2:3. There appeared unto them cloven tongues— Besides the great and indispensable use of the gift of tongues to the first preachers of the gospel, the elegance and propriety in the choice of this miracle to attest the real descent of the Spirit who was to teach us all things, can never be enough admired; for words being the human vehicle of knowledge, this appearance was the fittest precursor of the Spirit of truth. When the cloven tongues appeared upon each of the disciples, they were assembled together in a private room sequestered and apart; and it was not till the thing was noised abroad, and the multitude came together, to inquire into the truth of it, that the apostles spoke with tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now between this visible descent of the Holy Spirit, and their speaking to the multitude, a considerable time intervened; sufficient to convince the apostles, from the steady durationof the appearance, that it was not natural, but miraculous; and this the original will express, properly rendered by the phrase of SITTING upon each of them; words so inconsistent with a momentary appearance, that it would be trifling with common sense to deduce such an interpretation from oblique circumstances, and collateral reasoning. It may not therefore be improper to consider the evangelical account of this visible descent with a little more exactness. In this place we see the fiery tongues are said to sit upon each of them; and other places of scripture, which mention the like descent of the Holy Spirit in a visible form, describe it in such terms as denote a very different appearance from a sudden flash of lightning. St. Matthew tells us, that the Spirit of God descended like a dove; as birds, when about to settle upon any thing, first hoverupon it with quivering wings: it then lighted upon Jesus. So the same Spirit is said to descend under the appearance of cloven tongues, like as of fire. In this descent, the motion, figure, and colour, are described; and the term of cloven tongues, which the sacred historian employs to describe the motion, proves it to be of some continuance. Let us observe, that the thing seen, like as of fire, on the heads of the apostles, was no more an elementary fire, than the thing seen like a dove on the head of Jesus, was a real dove; for, as only a dove-like motion is intimated in the latter expression, so only a flame-like motion is intimated in the former. And what this was, the historian tells us in effect;—the appearance of cloven tongues. The sudden flash of lightning exhibits to the eye of the beholder only a line of light, angularly broken into several directions, very different from the form of tongues, whether whole or divided. Whenever a flame assumes this appearance, it is become stationary, as this was, which the historian says sat upon each of them; and then, its natural motion being upwards, it represents, when divided length-wise, a pyramidical tongue-like figure cloven; a demonstration that the appearance in question was not momentary, but of some continuance. What in our English Bible is rendered fire, Isa 5:24 is, in the original, a tongue of fire. Our old English version has preserved the allusion, and rendered the words like as the fire lighteth up the straw. Tongues of fire properly signify the points of flames, which move nimbly, and lick like tongues. The ancient Romans alluded to this when they spoke of lambent flames. Virgil's fiction, concerning the omen which happened to Iulus, is very pertinent to the present purpose:

Ecce levis summo de vertice visus Iuli Fundere lumen apex, tactuque innoxia molli Lambere flamma comas, et circum tempora pasci. AEn. 2: line 682, &c. Strange to relate, from young Iulus' head A lambent flame arose, which gently spread Around his brows, and on his temples fed. DRYDEN.

This fire, or divine glory, resting upon the head of each of the persons there assembled, was a lively emblem of one of the most remarkable gifts then conferred. That the tongues were separated, might denote the multiplicity and variety of languages which they should be able to speak; though as all these proceeded from one and the same Spirit, they should all agree in their doctrines: and possibly to denote this unity of the Spirit, the singular it, namely, this fiery appearance, is used after the plural tongues. As the glory rested for some time upon them, it might shadow out the permanency of the gifts then bestowed; in which, as well as in many other particulars, they excelled the Old Testament prophets. Thus was John the Baptist's prediction fulfilled, that Christ should baptize with the Holy Ghost andwith fire, Matthew 3:11. And as the division of tongues at Babel once introduced confusion, so now there was a remedy provided by the gift of tongues at Sion, to bring the Gentiles out of darkness unto light, and to destroy the veil which had been spread over all nations, Isaiah 25:7.

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And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

Cloven tongues — Teaching them both ορθοτομειν , to divide the word aright, and also ορθοποδειν , as some will have it; their tongues being cloven, as their feet were into toes, teaching them too to foot it aright. Diodorus Siculus tells us of a certain island beyond Arabia, the inhabitants whereof have cloven tongues, so that therewith they can alter their speech at their pleasure, imitate the tunes of various birds, and (which is more strange) they can perfectly speak to two persons and to two purposes at once; to one with one part of their tongue and to another with the other part; Sed fides sit penes Authorem, believe it who will.

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4. 그들이 다른 방언으로 말하기를 시작하니 등--뒤따르는 내용에서 분명하듯 실제 살아 있는 언어들이었다. 그들이 말한 내용은 아마 모두에게 같은 ‘하나님의 큰 일’이었고, 구약의 복음적 찬송들의 영감 받은 말씀이었을 수도 있다. 그러나 말하는 이들 자신은 자신들이 발한 것을 거의 이해하지 못했음이 거의 확실하다(고전 14:1-25 주석 참조).

그들이 다 성령으로 충만하여 - 성령의 거룩한 영향과 능력 아래 완전히 있었다는 뜻이다. Luke 1:41, Luke 1:67 주석을 보라. 어떤 것으로 충만하다는 말은 모든 기능이 그것으로 가득 차고, 그것에 참여하며, 그 영향 아래 있음을 나타내는 표현이다. Acts 3:10, "놀람과 경이로 가득 차니"; Acts 5:17, "시기가 가득하여"; Acts 13:45, "시기가 가득하여"; Acts 2:4, "기쁨과 성령이 충만하여."

다른 방언으로 말하기를 시작하니 - 그들의 모국어와 다른 언어들로 말하기 시작했다는 뜻이다. 그들이 말한 언어들은 Acts 2:9-11에 명시되어 있다.

성령이 말하게 하심을 따라 - 성령께서 그들에게 말할 능력을 주신 대로라는 뜻이다. 이 표현은 그들이 이전에 배우지 않았던 언어들을 말하는 능력을 이제 부여받았다는 것을 분명히 함축한다. 그들의 모국어는 갈릴리 말, 곧 유대에서 사용되던 공통어인 시리아-갈대아어의 다소 거친 방언이었다. 그들 중 일부가 헬라어와 라틴어를 부분적으로 알고 있었을 가능성은 있다. 두 언어 모두 유대인들 사이에서 어느 정도 사용되었기 때문이다. 그러나 뒤에 명시되는 여러 민족의 언어들을 그들이 알고 있었다는 증거는 조금도 없다. 이 놀라운 현상을 기적이라고 가정하지 않고 설명하려는 여러 시도가 있었다. 그러나 이 구절의 자연스럽고 명백한 의미는, 그들이 성령의 초자연적 능력으로 외국어들, 곧 이전에는 그들에게 알려지지 않았던 언어들을 말할 능력을 부여받았다는 것이다. 각 사람이 Acts 2:9-11에 명시된 모든 언어를 말할 능력을 가졌던 것으로 보이지는 않는다. 오히려 그 능력이 그들 가운데 있었고, 그들이 함께 이 언어들을 말할 수 있었으며, 아마 어떤 사람은 한 언어를, 다른 사람은 다른 언어를 말했을 것이다. 다음의 관찰들은 이 놀라운 사건에 어느 정도 빛을 던질 수 있다.

(1) 여기 기록된 일이 메시아의 시대에 일어날 것이라고 구약성경에서 예언되었다. Isaiah 28:11, "다른 방언으로 이 백성에게 말씀하시리라." 1 Corinthians 14:21과 비교하라. 거기서 이 구절은 복음 아래서 외국어를 말하는 능력에 명백히 적용된다.

(2) 주 예수께서 그들이 이 능력을 가지리라고 약속하셨다 Mark 16:17. "믿는 자들에게는 이런 표적이 따르리니 ... 새 방언을 말하며."

(3) 이 일을 행하는 능력은 교회 안에 널리, 그리고 오랫동안 존재했다. 1 Corinthians 12:10-11, "어떤 사람에게는 각종 방언 말함을, 어떤 사람에게는 방언들 통역함을 주시나니 이 모든 일은 같은 한 성령이 행하사"; Acts 2:28, "하나님이 교회 중에 ... 각종 방언을 세우셨느니라." Acts 2:30, Acts 14:2, Acts 14:4-6, Acts 14:9, Acts 14:13-14; Acts 14:18-19, Acts 14:22-23, Acts 14:27, Acts 14:39도 비교하라. 여기서 그 능력이 교회 안에서 잘 알려져 있었고 사도들에게만 제한되지 않았다는 것이 나타난다. 이것은 또한 사도행전의 이 경우에도 이 능력이 사도들뿐 아니라 교회의 다른 지체들에게도 주어졌음을 보여 줄 수 있다.

(4) 그들이 그들의 큰 사역에서 이 능력을 부여받는 것은 매우 중요했다. 그들은 모든 민족에게 전파하러 나아가고 있었다. 헬라어와 로마어가 널리 사용되었지만, 그 사용이 보편적이지는 않았고, 사도들이 그 언어들에 능숙했는지도 알려져 있지 않다. 모든 민족에게 전파하려면 그들의 언어를 이해할 수 있어야 하는 것이 필수적이었다. 또한 복음이 땅 위에 신속히 전파되려면, 그들이 그 언어들을 배우도록 강요받는 느린 과정을 거치지 않고 이 일을 할 능력을 부여받는 것이 필요했다. 오늘날 복음 전파의 주요 장애 중 하나가 땅의 여러 민족의 언어를 말할 수 없음에서 생긴다는 점, 그리고 현대 선교사들 가운데서 한 민족에게 전파할 준비가 되기 전에 그 민족의 언어를 습득하는 데 필연적으로 오랜 시간이 소비된다는 점을 주목하면, 이것을 설명하는 데 도움이 될 것이다.

(5) 한 목적은 기적들을 통해 복음을 확립하는 데 있었다. 그러나 그들의 생각을 곧바로 땅의 모든 언어로 전달하는 능력보다 더 인상적인 기적은 없었을 것이다. 외국어를 배우는 일이 얼마나 느리고 수고로운 과정인지를 기억한다면, 이 일은 이방인들에게 행해질 수 있는 가장 두드러진 기적들 중 하나로 여겨졌을 것이다 1 Corinthians 14:22, 1 Corinthians 14:24-25.

(6) 이 기적의 실재성과 확실성은 복음의 초기 승리들에 의해 강하게 증명된다. 복음이 일찍 온 세상에 퍼졌고, 그것도 예수 그리스도의 사도들에 의해 퍼졌다는 것은 모든 역사의 분명한 증언이다. 그들은 아라비아, 그리스, 시리아, 아시아, 페르시아, 아프리카, 로마에서 복음을 전했다. 그런데 그 모든 곳에서 사용되던 언어들을 말하는 기적적 능력 없이 어떻게 이것이 이루어질 수 있었겠는가? 오늘날에는 외국어로 말하려면 여러 해의 수고가 필요하다. 그러므로 기록된 복음의 성공은 생각할 수 있는 가장 두드러진 방식으로 그 기적의 사실을 증언하는 것들 중 하나이다.

(7) 언어의 혼잡은 죄의 가장 분명한 결과들 중 하나였고, 끝없는 곤란과 어려움의 근원이었다 Genesis 11. 사람들을 회복하는 계획의 한 결과가 모든 악 위에 있는 하나님의 능력을 보여 주고, 그렇게 하여 복음이 사람들의 모든 죄악과 재난을 감당할 수 있다는 두드러진 증거를 제공하는 것이라고 해서 이상하게 여길 필요는 없다. 그리고 우리는 덧붙일 수 있다.

(8) 여기서 우리는 오늘날 다른 땅으로 선교사가 될 사람들을 훈련할 필요성을 본다. 기적의 은사는 거두어졌다. 사도들은 그 기적으로 단순히 다른 언어들을 말할 능력을 받았다. 복음이 전파되려면 그 능력은 여전히 있어야 한다. 그러나 이제 그것은 기적으로가 아니라 느리고 세심한 연구와 수고로 얻어야 한다. 사람들이 그것을 가지려면 배워야 한다. 그리고 교회가 Matthew 28:19에 의해 모든 민족에게 복음을 보내야 할 의무를 지고 있는 것처럼, 보내질 교사들이 그들의 일에 자격을 갖추도록 마련할 의무도 지고 있다. 그러므로 거룩한 사역을 위해 사람들을 훈련하는 것이 중요한 이유 중 하나가 여기에 있다.

다른 언어들로 말하기를 - 바벨을 세울 때 백성의 언어가 혼잡하게 되었고, 그 결과 그들은 온 땅 위에 흩어졌다. 그리스도교 교회의 이 기초가 놓일 때에는 여러 언어의 은사가 사도들에게 주어졌다. 이는 흩어진 민족들이 모여 모든 영혼의 한 목자요 감독자(επισκοπος) 아래 연합되게 하려는 것이었다.

성령이 말하게 하심을 따라 - αποφθεγγεσθαι라는 말은 즉각적인 영감에서 나온 발화를 뜻하는 듯하며, 신탁적 전달까지 포함한다.

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,.... With the gifts of the Holy Spirit; they had received the Spirit before, as a Spirit of grace, and were endowed with great gifts; but now they had great plenty of them, a large abundance; they were like vessels filled to the brim; they were as it were covered with them; there was an overflow of them upon them; and now it was, that they were baptized with him; See Gill on Acts 1:5. Not only the twelve apostles, but the seventy disciples; and it may be all the hundred and twenty, that were together, even women as well as men: Acts 2:17.

And began to speak with other tongues; besides, and different from that in which they were born and brought up, and usually spake; they spake divers languages, one spoke one language, and another, another; and the same person spoke with various tongues, sometimes one language, and sometimes another. These are the new tongues, Christ told them they should speak with, Mark 16:17 such as they had never heard, learned, nor known before:

as the Spirit gave them utterance; they did not utter anything of themselves, and what came into their minds, things of little or no importance; nor in a confused and disorderly manner; but they were wise and weighty sentences they delivered, as the word signifies; even the wonderful works of God, Acts 2:11 the great doctrines of the Gospel; and though in different languages, yet in a very orderly and distinct manner, so as to be heard and understood by the people. The Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions read, "as the Holy Spirit", &c.

Filled with the Holy Ghost; those gifts and graces which proceeded from him; the apostles having them all in a more excellent manner than formerly, and the gift of tongues superadded.

With other tongues, than what were vernacular or natural to them.

As the Spirit gave them utterance; apofyeggesyai, signifies more than barely to speak, implying they speak each language in its perfection, after an excellent, eloquent, and powerful manner, as from the Holy Ghost, whose works are perfect; non vox hominem sonat.

Verse 4. - Spirit for Ghost, A.V. Other tongues (1 Corinthians 14:21; Isaiah 28:11); the same as the "new tongues" of Mark 16:17. St. Paul speaks of them as "the tongues of men and of angels" (1 Corinthians 13:1), and as "kinds of tongues" (1 Corinthians 12:10). His habitual phrase is "speaking in [or with] a tongue [or tongues]" (1 Corinthians 14:2, 4-6, etc.), and the verb is always λαλεῖν, as here. What these tongues were on this occasion we are explicitly informed in vers. 6, 8, and 11. They were the tongues of the various nationalities present at the feast - Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Phrygians, Arabians, etc. This is so clearly and so distinctly stated that it is astonishing that any one should deny it who accepts St. Luke's account as historical. The only room for doubt is whether the speakers spoke in these divers languages, or the hearers heard in them though the speakers spoke in only one tongue. But not to mention that this is far more difficult to imagine, and transfers the miracle from those who had the Holy Spirit to those who had it not, it is against the plain language of the text, which tells us that "they began to speak with other tongues," and that "every man heard them speaking in his own language." "Speaking," said they, "in our own tongues the mighty works of God." There may, indeed, have been something ecstatic besides in these utterances, but there is no reference to such made either by St. Luke or by the audience whose words he reports. The narrative before us does not hint at any after use of the gift of tongues for missionary purposes. In Acts 10:46; Acts 11:15-17; Acts 19:6, as well as in the passages above referred to in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the speaking with tongues is always spoken of - often in connection with prophecy - simply as a gift and a manifestation (1 Corinthians 12:7) of the power of the Holy Spirit. In this case and in Acts 10:46 the subject-matter of the utterance is the greatness of God's works; τὰ μεγαλεῖα τοῦ Θεοῦ μεγαλυνόντων τὸν Θεὸν. In 1 Corinthians 14:2 it is" mysteries;" in ver. 15, "prayers and psalms;" in ver. 16 it is "blessing" and "thanksgiving" (εὐλογία and εὐχαριστία). But nowhere, either in Holy Scripture or in the Fathers of the three first centuries, is the gift of tongues spoken of in connection with preaching to foreign nations (see Alford's just remarks). Farrar ('Life of St. Paul,' vol. 1. pp. 98-101) takes the same view, but is much less distinct in his conception of what is meant here by speaking with tongues. He adheres to the view of Schneckenburger, that "the tongue was, from its own force and significance, intelligible equally to all who heard it;" he agrees with the dictum of Neander that "any foreign languages which were spoken on this occasion were only something accidental, and not the essential element of the language of the Spirit." He says, "The voice they uttered was awful in its range, in its tones, in its modulations, in its startling, penetrating, almost appalling power; the words they spoke were exalted, intense, passionate, full of mystic significance; the language they used was not their ordinary and familiar tongue, but was Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin, or Aramaic, or Persian, or Arabic, as some overpowering and unconscious impulse of the moment might direct... and among these strange sounds... there were some which none could interpret, which rang on the air like the voice of barbarous languages, and which ... conveyed no definite significance beyond the fact that they were reverberations of one and the same ecstasy." The writer seems to suggest that when any real language was spoken it was one more or less known previously by the speaker, and that in other cases it was no language at all, only thrilling emotional sounds. Renan's view of the day of Pentecost is a carious specimen of rationalistic interpretation. "One day when the brethren were come together there was a tempest. A violent wind burst open the windows, and the sky was one sheet of fire. In that climate tempests are often accompanied by an extraordinary amount of electric light. The atmosphere is on all sides furrowed with jets of flame. On this occasion, whether the electric fluid actually passed through the room, or whether the faces of all present were suddenly lit up by an extremely bright flash of lightning, all were convinced that the Holy Spirit had entered their assembly, and had sat upon the head of each in the shape of a tongue of fire... In these moments of ecstasy, the disciple possessed by the Spirit uttered sounds 'inarticulate and incoherent, which the hearers fancied were the words of a strange language, and in their simplicity tried to interpret They listened eagerly to the medley of sounds, and explained them by their own extemporaneous thoughts. Each of them had recourse to his own native patois to supply some meaning to the unintelligible accents, and generally succeeded in affixing to them the thoughts that were uppermost in his own mind" ('Les Apotres,' pp. 66-68). Elsewhere (pp. 64, 65) he suggests that the whole conception of speaking with tongues arose from the anticipation on the part of the apostles that great difficulty would arise in propagating the gospel from the impossibility of learning to speak the necessary languages. The solution with some was that, under the ecstasy caused by the Holy Spirit, the hearers would be able to translate what they heard into their own tongue; others rather thought that by the same power the apostles would be able to speak any dialect they pleased at the moment. Hence the conception of the day of Pentecost as described by St. Luke! Meyer, again, fully admits, as "beyond all doubt," that St. Luke intended to narrate that the persons possessed by the Spirit spoke in foreign languages previously unknown by them; but adds that "the sudden communication of a facility of speaking foreign languages is neither logically possible nor psychologically and morally conceivable" (a pretty bold assertion); and therefore he sets down St. Luke's account of what occurred as "a later legendary formation," based upon the existing γλωσσολαλία. Zeller, traveling a little further on the same road, comes to the conclusion that "the narrative before us is not based on any definite fact" (p. 205). Leaving, however, these fanciful varieties of incredulous criticism, and interpreting the statements of this chapter by the later spiritual gifts as seen in the Church of Corinth, we conclude that the" tongues" were sometimes "tongues of men," foreign languages unknown to the speakers, and of course unintelligible to the hearers unless any were present, as was the case on the day of Pentecost, who knew the language; and sometimes languages not of earth but of heaven, "tongues of angels." But there is no evidence whatever of their being mere gibberish as distinct from language, or being language coined at the moment by the Holy Ghost. All that St. Paul says to the Corinthians is fully applicable to any language spoken when there were none present who understood it. The significance of the miracle seems to be that it points to the time when all shall be one in Christ, and shall all speak and understand the same speech; and not only all men, but men and angels, "the whole family in heaven and earth," "things in the heavens and things upon the earth" all gathered together in one in Christ. It may also not improbably have been used occasionally, as it was on the day of Pentecost, to convey doctrine, knowledge, or exhortation, to foreign people; but there is no distinct evidence that this was the case.