The Lord
said to me…”I will test my people with a Plumbline, Amos 7:8 (TLB)
The
Plumbline is a blog to encourage the Body of Christ.
Acts # 4 The Crowd Amazed
And Confused 2:5–13
Acts 2:5-13 (NKJV) 5 And there were
dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And
when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused,
because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 7 Then they were all
amazed and marveled, saying to one another, "Look, are not all these who
speak Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in
which we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in
Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews
and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs--we hear them speaking in our own tongues
the wonderful works of God." 12 So they were all amazed and perplexed,
saying to one another, "Whatever could this mean?" 13 Others mocking
said, "They are full of new wine."
Jerusalem was a cosmopolitan center in that many of
the Jews from the Dispersion returned and settled there (cf. 6:9). “Staying”
(Gk. usually means something more than a temporary stay or visit. In any case,
because it was the Feast of Pentecost—one of the three feasts for which the Law
required attendance in Jerusalem (Deut. 16:16)—we can be sure that perhaps as
many as one million Jews from all over the known world were in Jerusalem. These
were devout, “God-fearing” people, sincere in their worship of the Lord.
Probably more of them would be in Jerusalem at this time than at Passover,
since travel on the Mediterranean Sea was safer at this season.
As the sound of the 120 speaking in tongues rose and became heard, a
crowd came together from all directions. All were bewildered because each one
kept hearing them speak “in his own language.” “Own” is emphatic: his very own
language that he used as a child. The tongues here were distinct languages.
They were not speaking merely in a variety of Galilean or Aramaic dialects but
in a variety of entirely different languages.
The result among the hearers was total amazement. They were astonished.
They were filled with awestruck wonder, for they recognized that the 120
(probably by their clothing) were Galileans. And they simply could not
understand how they could hear the language of their home countries being
spoken by Galileans.
Some writers take verse 8 to mean that the 120 were all really speaking
the same language and by a miracle of hearing the multitude were made to hear
it in their mother tongues. But verses 4, 6, and 7 are too specific for that.
They “began to speak.” Each man heard them “speak” in his own dialect without
any Galilean accent. There would have been no surprise if the 120 spoke in
Aramaic or Greek.
They spoke real languages that were understood by a variety of people
from a variety of places. This gave witness to the universality of the gift of
the Spirit and to the unity of the Church.39
The places named where these godly Jews were born were in all directions.
Judea is mentioned because Jews there still took pride in speaking Hebrew and
would have been amazed at the lack of a Galilean accent.
All these people kept hearing in their own languages “the wonders [the
mighty, magnificent, sublime deeds] of God.” These may have been in the form of
exclamations of praise to God for these wonders. No discourse or preaching is
implied, though preaching would surely have brought the salvation of some (1
Cor. 1:21). There is no record here or elsewhere, however, of the gift of
tongues being used as a means of preaching or teaching the gospel.
Instead, the hearers were “amazed” (astounded) and “perplexed”
(confused, at a loss, completely unable to understand what this was all about).
“What does this mean?” expresses their total confusion as well as their extreme
amazement. They understood the meaning of the words, but not the purpose. That
is why they were confused by what they heard.
Others in the crowd took it all as the ravings of people who were drunk.
Because they did not understand the purpose, they jumped to the conclusion that
it had no purpose. Therefore they
proceeded to make fun of them in a mocking, scornful way, saying
that the 120 had “had too much wine.”
The Greek indicates there were mocking gestures as well as words. Some
drinkers become noisy and this may be what the mockers were thinking of. We
must not suppose there was any sign of the kind of frenzy that marked heathen
drunken debauchery. The detractors were wrong. The disciples’ chief emotion was
still joy. They had been thanking and praising God in their own language (Luke
24:53); now the Holy Spirit had given them new languages to praise God in. We
can be sure the hearts of the 120 were still going out to God in praise for His
wonderful works, even though they did not understand what they were speaking.[1]
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