Outline

1. Setting
   1. Day of Pentecost
   2. All in one place
2. Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
   1. Tongues of fire
   2. Speaking with “other tongues”
3. Peter’s sermon
   1. A crowd gathers
      1. Many wonder what is happening, especially as the apostles are Galileans
      2. Some presume the apostles are drunk
   2. Peter responds
      1. Explanation of events
      2. Gospel proclaimed
   3. The crowd responds
   4. Peter’s final words
4. Description of the growing church

Commentary

Pentecost (pen´ti-kost; from GK., “fiftieth”), a religious observance that has roots in the Hebrew Bible and continues to be observed in Christianity. The term originated as the Greek name for what is otherwise known as Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks (cf. Exod. 23:14–17; 34:18–24; Deut. 16:16; 2 Chron. 8:13). The term “Pentecost” is used to refer to that festival twice in the Septuagint (Tob. 2:1; 2 Macc. 12:32) and three times in the New Testament (Acts 2:1; 20:16; 1 Cor. 16:8). (HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised & Updated))

There are some 15 different nations or areas listed here: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene. Then the text singles out Rome and ends with Cretans and Arabs. While some of these (Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia) are Roman provinces, you should not assume that “our own language” in each of these cases was either Latin or Greek. Luke’s point here appears to be that there were a great number of languages spoken by the apostles (and perhaps those with them). This was amazing to the people given the Galilean origin of the apostles (v. 7) because, as Longenecker points out, “Galileans had difficulty pronouncing gutturals and had the habit of swallowing syllables when speaking; so they were looked down upon by the people of Jerusalem as being provincial (cf. Mark 14:70)” (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 9272).

Peter’s emphasis on the prophecies found in the Old Testament should continue to underscore to us the importance of what came before.

Peter’s sermon seems fairly harsh toward the listeners. He does not state that certain individuals or the leaders of the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. But, rather he states “you have by lawless hands” (v. 23) and “this Jesus, whom you crucified” (v. 36). And while it is true that human hands put Jesus to death, we should be even more quick to understand the importance of the resurrection (vvs. 24 and 31-32).

The article “the” appears in the Greek before the word “fellowship” in verse 42 (τῇ κοινωνίᾳ). This would seem to indicate that there was something particular about that assembly.