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Acts

Actschapter 2

47 verses · BSBActs book hub →

Speaks with:Acts 2×8Acts 4×5Psalms 16×5Acts 1×4Acts 5×4Joel 2×4

Summary

Chapter summary

Pentecost. Tongues of fire; speaking in the languages of the nations. Peter's sermon: Joel's prophecy, David's Psalms (16, 110), 'let all the house of Israel know assuredly.' Three thousand added. The early fellowship. Apostles' doctrine, breaking of bread, prayers, all things common.

Context

History · Luke — Acts overview

  • A. 1–13 Wind, Fire, and Tongues on the Day of Pentecost
  • B. 14–21 Peter Stands Up: This Is That Spoken by Joel
  • C. 22–36 Peter Preaches Jesus Crucified and Raised
  • D. 37–41 Pricked in the Heart: Three Thousand Baptized
  • E. 42–47 Breaking Bread House to House: The First Church's Life

The outline

  1. A.Wind, Fire, and Tongues on the Day of Pentecostvv. 1 to 13

    Read vv. 1 to 13 →

  2. B.Peter Stands Up: This Is That Spoken by Joelvv. 14 to 21

    Read vv. 14 to 21 →

  3. C.Peter Preaches Jesus Crucified and Raisedvv. 22 to 36

    Read vv. 22 to 36 →

  4. D.Pricked in the Heart: Three Thousand Baptizedvv. 37 to 41

    Read vv. 37 to 41 →

  5. E.Breaking Bread House to House: The First Church's Lifevv. 42 to 47

    Read vv. 42 to 47 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

The Spirit poured out on all flesh

Pattern

Joel promised that the Lord would pour out his spirit upon all flesh, and that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. At Pentecost Peter stands up and says plainly, this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. Paul carries the same whosoever to the nations in Romans.

Pentecost is not an accident explained afterward; Peter names its text. The promise runs on the widest word Scripture has, whosoever, and it names sons and daughters, servants and handmaids, prophesying alike. The church's endowment of the Spirit begins here as a promise kept.

  1. Joel 2:28-29

    I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh

    Sons and daughters, old men and young men, servants and handmaids: the promise reaches every rank.

  2. Joel 2:32

    Whosoever shall call shall be delivered

  3. Acts 2:16-17 you are here

    Peter at Pentecost: this is that

    Peter stands and names the prophet: this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.

  4. Acts 2:21 you are here

    Whosoever, preached in Jerusalem

  5. Romans 10:13

    Whosoever, written to the nations

Sit thou at my right hand

Pattern

Psalm 110 is the Old Testament chapter the New Testament reaches for most. Its first verse seats David's Lord at the right hand of God, and its oath makes him a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord, Peter, and Hebrews each build an argument on its exact words.

One psalm supplies the question that silenced the Pharisees, the spine of the first Pentecost sermon, and the priesthood argument of Hebrews. The verse David wrote only resolves if the son of David is also David's Lord.

  1. Psalms 110:1

    The Lord said unto my Lord

  2. Psalms 110:4

    A priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek

  3. Matthew 22:44

    The question no man could answer

    If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?

  4. Acts 2:34-35 you are here

    Peter's Pentecost argument

    For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself.

  5. Hebrews 1:13

    To which of the angels said he at any time

  6. Hebrews 5:6

    The Melchizedek priesthood taken up

The world behind this chapter

Acts 2
When
Pentecost, fifty days after Passover · c. AD 30–33, late spring
Where
Jerusalem at the Feast of Weeks, packed with pilgrims from across the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia.
Who first heard it
Theophilus and Gentile readers, being shown that the gospel spoke every language from its first day.

The history

Pentecost was one of three feasts that required Jewish men to come to Jerusalem. It celebrated the wheat harvest, and later tradition also tied it to the giving of the Law at Sinai. The city's population swelled several times over, and travelers slept in courtyards and on rooftops.

The list of homelands Luke gives is a map of the Jewish dispersion: Parthians and Medes from beyond the Roman frontier, Egyptians and Libyans from Africa, visitors from Rome itself. These were Jews and converts who had settled abroad generations earlier and spoke the local tongues at home.

Baptizing three thousand people in one day sounds impossible until you know that Jerusalem was full of stepped stone pools called mikvaot, built for ritual washing before entering the temple. Dozens have been excavated on the southern slope. The water was already there.

The charge that the disciples were drunk is met with a time check: nine in the morning. In a world without clocks, the day was counted in hours from sunrise, and no respectable person was drinking that early.

What it meant to them

To the first readers, the reversal was unmistakable. At Babel language divided the human race; here one message is heard by every language group at once. The Spirit poured out on ordinary men and women, sons and daughters alike, was the sign the prophet Joel had promised for the last days.

It also showed the shape of the church's first community: shared meals, shared possessions, daily attendance at the temple. They were not yet leaving Judaism — they were a movement inside it, growing fast.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Acts 2. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 5 · A reversal

Babel scatters one language into many; Pentecost gathers many languages into one hearing: 'every man heard them speak in his own language.'

Genesis 11:4→

“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”

Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (public domain)Puritan

v. 23 · An echo of this verse

'Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good'. Joseph's sentence is Peter's Pentecost logic: 'delivered by the determinate counsel... ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified.'

Genesis 50:20→

As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.

Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (public domain)Puritan

v. 25 · Quoted here

'Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell': Peter at Pentecost, resurrection proof.

Psalms 16:8→

I have set the LORD always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

public-domain commentaries in agreement

v. 27 · A picture of Christ · Spoken beforehand, fulfilled here

God would not abandon His Holy One to Sheol

Psalms 16:10→

For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.

MannaFest topical index

v. 30 · A picture of Christ

Peter reads the Davidic seed-promise fulfilled in the resurrected Christ enthroned (explicit-nt)

2 Samuel 7:12→

And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.

Acts 2:29-36

v. 30 · Quoted here

'of the fruit of his loins... he would raise up Christ': Peter, the Davidic oath.

Psalms 132:11→

The LORD swore an oath to David, a promise He will not revoke: “One of your descendants I will place on your throne.

public-domain commentaries in agreement

v. 34 · Quoted here

'Sit thou on my right hand': Peter at Pentecost, ascension proof.

Psalms 110:1→

The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

public-domain commentaries in agreement

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 110; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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