Acts 2:13 মন্তব্য

Between the promise of the Messiah (even the latest of those promises) and his coming many ages intervened; but between the promise of the Spirit and his coming there were but a few days; and during those days the apostles, though they had received orders to preach the gospel to every creature, and to begin at Jerusalem, yet lay perfectly wind-bound, incognito - concealed, and not offering to preach. But in this chapter the north wind and the south wind awake, and then they awake, and we have them in the pulpit presently. Here is, I. The descent of the Spirit upon the apostles, and those that were with them, on the day of pentecost (Act 2:1-4). II. The various speculations which this occasioned among the people that were now met in Jerusalem from all parts (Act 2:5-13) III. The sermon which Peter preached to them hereupon, wherein he shows that this pouring out of the Spirit was the accomplishment of an Old Testament promise (Act 2:14-21), that it was a confirmation of Christ's being the Messiah, which was already proved by his resurrection (Act 2:22-32), and that is was a fruit and evidence of his ascension into heaven (Act 2:33-36). IV. The good effect of this sermon in the conversion of many to the faith of Christ, and their addition to the church (Act 2:37-41). V. The eminent piety and charity of those primitive Christians, and the manifest tokens of God's presence with them, and power in them (Act 2:42-47).

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,.... Or "was come", was begun and entered upon; for it was not over, or ended, it being but the third hour of the day, or nine of the clock in the morning, when Peter began his sermon; see Act 2:15. The Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions read, "when the days of Pentecost were fulfilled"; not that there were more days than one, kept at this festival; for though the feasts of passover and tabernacles were observed each of them seven days, according to the law, and eight days according to the Scribes, yet the feast of Pentecost was kept but one day; and hence it is often said by the Jews, that Atzereth, which is one of the names they call this feast by, is but one day (l); in the captivity they kept two days (m), as they did for the beginning of the year, because of the uncertainty of calculations; but the sense is, when the whole fifty days from the passover to this time were fully come, or fulfilled, when the fiftieth day from thence, which was properly the day of Pentecost, was come: on the second day of the passover, on the sixteenth of Nisan, the sheaf of the first fruits was offered up; after which, and not before, it was lawful to reap the corn, Lev 23:10 from this time the Jews reckoned their feast of weeks, or seven weeks, or fifty days; see Exo 34:22 which measured out the time of their harvest. Now the last of these fifty days was the day of Pentecost, on which day was offered the two wave loaves, as a thanksgiving that their harvest was ended. Josephus calls (n) this feast by the same name that Luke here does; and says (o), the Jews so call it, from the number of the days, that is fifty; and so R. Sol Jarchi (p) calls this day, , "the fiftieth day": on this day, the Jews say (q), the law was given; and observe (r), that "from the day that Israel went out of Egypt, unto the day that the law was given, were fifty days. And on this day, and which was the first day of the week, the Spirit was poured forth upon the disciples; the Gospel began to be preached to all nations, and a harvest of souls was gathered in: they were all with one accord in one place; in two ancient copies of Beza's, and in some others it is read, "all the apostles"; Matthias, and the eleven, with whom he was numbered, who are last spoken of, in Act 1:26. Though this need not be restrained to the twelve apostles, but may be understood of the hundred and twenty, on whom, as well as on the apostles, the Holy Ghost might be poured forth, that so they might speak with tongues; since among these were many ministers of the Gospel, as the seventy disciples, and it may be more; and that his extraordinary gifts should be bestowed on others, is but what was afterwards done; see Act 8:17 and though there were so many of them together, they were very unanimous and peaceable; there were no jars nor contentions among them; they were of the same mind and judgment in faith and practice, and of one heart and soul, and had a cordial affection for one another; and were all in one place, which seems to be the temple; see Act 2:46. And indeed, no other place or house could hold so many as came to hear them, of which number three thousand were converted, (l) T. Bab. Menachot, fol. 65. 1. Gloss. in. T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 17. 2. Bereshit Rabba, sect. 100. fol. 88. 2. (m) T. Bab. Erachin, fol. 10. 1. (n) Antiqu. l. 3. c. 10. sect. 6. (o) De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 3. sect. 1. (p) In Lev. xxiii. 15. (q) T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 68. 2. (r) Zohar in Exod. fol. 34. 4. Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 9. 4.

Others mocking, said,.... These were the native inhabitants of Jerusalem, the common people; and it may be also the Scribes and Pharisees, who did not understand the languages in which the apostles spake, and therefore derided them both by words and gestures: these men are full of new wine; the Syriac, version adds, "and are drunk"; a very foolish and impertinent cavil this; there was, at this time of the year, no new wine, just pressed, or in the fat; and if there had been any, and they were full of it, it could never have furnished them with a faculty of speaking with many tongues; men generally lose their tongues by intemperance. They were indeed filled with wine, but not with wine, the juice of the grape, either new or old; but with spiritual wine, with the gifts of the Spirit of God, by which they spake with divers tongues. They might hope this insinuation, that they were drunk with wine, would take and be received, since it was a feasting time, the feast of Pentecost; though, as Peter afterwards observes; it was too early in the day to imagine this to be their case.

Well then might they be in doubt: for never had the like occurred. Observe the ingenuousness of these men. They were amazed and were in doubt, saying, "What meaneth this?" But "others mocking said, 'These men are full of new wine'" and therefore mocked. O the effrontery! And what wonder is it? Since even of the Lord Himself, when casting out devils, they said that He had a devil! For so it is; wherever impudent assurance exists, it has but one object in view, to speak at all hazards, it cares not what; not that the man should say something real and relevant to the matter of discourse, but that he should speak no matter what. "They are full of new wine." Quite a thing of course, that men in the midst of such dangers, and dreading the worst, and in such despondency, have the courage to utter such things! And observe: since this was unlikely; because they would not have been drinking much at that early hour, they ascribe the whole matter to the quality of the wine, and say, "They are full" of it.

"And, they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine." O the excessive folly! O the excessive malignity! Why it was not even the season for that; for it was Pentecost. For this was what made it worse: that when those were confessing-men that were Jews, that were Romans, that were proselytes, yea perhaps that had crucified Him-yet these, after so great signs, say, "They are full of new wine!"

For in truth the wine was new, the grace of the New Testament. But this new wine was from a spiritual vine, which already had often borne fruit in the prophets and sprouted forth in the New Testament. For just as in the order of nature the vine, remaining ever the same, brings forth new fruit according to the seasons, so too the same Spirit, remaining what he is, having wrought in the prophets, now manifested something new and marvelous. His grace had indeed been granted to the fathers in times past, but now it came in superabundance; in their case they received a share of the Holy Spirit, now they were baptized in all fullness.

Also, the error that they are moved by new wine is, by allegorical reasoning, the truth—the intoxicating teaching of heaven has filled them from a fresh spring. New vessels have taken on new liquid and are not spoiled by the bitter [liquid] that filled the old vats, [the new vessels] drinking in from the vine which, with Christ as the cultivator, gave a banquet in words [and] from which those waters that he transformed are red, and he made the poor flavor of the [old] law boil in the books of the church.

There were also some of those who understood, perhaps the baser sort, mocking the rites as if they were the products of drunkenness; for if they had not understood, they would not have attributed the matter to drunkenness. But if they understood what was being said, you will ask, how did they dare to mock? Yet malice, arising from excessive wickedness, is nothing other than sheer perversion, so that, finding nothing else, it rips the present affair into whatever it can. As when Christ performed miracles, they had no doubt about the power at work, yet the thing was madly ascribed to Beelzebul. And nations are remembered as enemies of the Jews, Cretans, Arabs, and others, who, speaking in their tongues, afforded a sign that they would hold by faith; and everywhere wickedness accompanies virtue. The devout ones marveled, but the others mocked. See, then, the folly of those who mock. They say they are full with sweet wine. And yet it was not the season for that. For it was Pentecost, when there is no sweetness. For the sweetness chiefly is the sweet-flowing wine from the very press. But it was also the third hour, at which one is unlikely to become drunk, and especially when people are in danger and fear. Therefore they label the whole according to its kind, saying, "they were full of sweet wine." For the blunt speech seeks only one thing, to say anything at all, not how to say something with sense. The more astonishing thing was that, though those who marveled and confessed were Jews, Romans, proselytes, and almost all the nations proclaimed that they were speaking in their own languages, yet some were found mocking. In another way. To claim that the apostles were filled with sweet wine is to slander them with regard to their character. For "sweet wine" is the sweet kind of wine, which is also more inclined to make one drunk, and by the slipperiness of its sweetness causes a more copious filling of the cavities of the brain with the vaporous exhalation. Did those who laughed at what was said understand it, or not? For if they did not understand, their mockery would have no point, for why should someone be grievously upset over a meaningless, senseless babble offered at random? But it is clear that they did understand, and that those who were cast into wonder held this matter in contempt. They themselves wickedly persistently snooped about it, as is the habit of wrongdoers. In another way. They understood, but they were not pleased with what was said. For the speaker was attributing great works to God. For it is the custom of many, when they do not like what is said, to regard the speaker as demon-possessed or deranged. Therefore, also in the case of Christ: they understood the miracles and that he ought to be praised, but they slandered him as it being done by Beelzebul. (see Mark 3:22-30)

But others mocking said: Because they are full of new wine. Though mocking, they testify mystically to the truth. For they are not filled with old wine, which failed at the wedding of the Church, but with the new wine of spiritual grace. For now the new wine had come into new wineskins, as the apostles, not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the Spirit of God, resounded the great deeds (Rom. VII).

But pay attention to the madness of the others: "they are full," they say, "of sweet wine," even though the time was not such as would allow one to suppose anything of the sort, because it was the feast of Pentecost and the third hour; but malice stops at nothing. And most importantly: when some, who were partly Jews, partly Romans, partly foreigners, and perhaps partly even from among those who had crucified Him — in short, from nearly all nations — hearing the preaching of the apostles, marveled and affirmed that the apostles were speaking in their languages, there were found a few who nevertheless reviled the apostles. Did those who reviled understand when the apostles spoke in different languages, or not? If they did not understand, then how does it follow that the apostles were speaking in all languages? But if they did understand, then how did they dare accuse them of drunkenness, having before them witnesses who would convict them — those very men who heard and understood that the apostles were speaking in different languages and that they were not drunk? Let someone else resolve this; but I maintain the opposite: if they had not understood, they would in no way have reduced the miracle to drunkenness (they would not have called the miracle drunkenness), for why would one even bother to demean something that causes no one any annoyance? Therefore Luke also calls them revilers, as if blasphemers and slanderers. So then, they slandered while understanding what was being said, but they slandered because they were displeased with what was being said, since the apostles were glorifying the great deeds of God. In what way, then, understanding what was being said, did they attribute it to drunkenness? On account of great madness and excessive cruelty. For it is the custom of many, if they are displeased with what is being said, to consider the speaker either demon-possessed, or insane, or to accuse him of drunkenness and of not understanding what he is saying, even though the one who speaks speaks soundly, while the reviler, in accusing him, listens to and understands him. But these men, accusing the apostles of drunkenness, displayed even greater audacity, because although they themselves listened to them in their own language, they supposed that other people, people of the most diverse dialects, did not understand them. They themselves understood what was being said, but about the rest — on whose account they slandered the apostles as drunk — they thought that those people did not understand the miracle. Just as at the time when the Lord was casting out demons, they understood and saw these miraculous acts, yet instead of the proper glorification they slandered the Lord, claiming that He performed them by the power of Beelzebul; and likewise, seeing every kind of disease and suffering being healed, they made these miraculous acts an occasion for envy, denunciations, and murder — so also now, being unable to deny the miraculous and supernatural character of the languages, they nevertheless dared to reduce the miracle to drunkenness. But pay attention also to the cunning device. Since it was incredible that anyone would be drunk at such an hour, and especially people who had experienced many dangers and terrors, they attribute everything to the quality of the wine, calling it "sweet." Here insolence strives only to say something, not to say something more substantial. Therefore what they express is obscure, full of foolishness and madness. Notice how malice is exposed both by the time of year and the hour of day. Where would gleukos come from in the days of Pentecost? Gleukos is what new wine is called. Furthermore, drunkenness gives the power to speak in different languages — drunkenness, which deprives one even of one's native tongue! See what God arranges. The Jews would have refused to enter and listen if they had not suspected that this was slander. The Lord permitted the slander in order to gather many listeners.

The day of pentecost being arrived, and the disciples assembled, the Holy Spirit descended as a mighty rushing wind, and in the likeness of fiery tongues sat upon them; in consequence of which, they were all enabled to speak different languages, which they had never learned, Act 2:1-4. An account of persons from various countries who there present, and were astonished to hear the apostles declare the wonderful works of God in their respective languages, Act 2:5-12. Some cavil, Act 2:13, and are confounded by Peter, who asserts that this work is of God; and that thereby a most important prophecy was fulfilled, Act 2:14-21. He takes occasion from this to preach Jesus to them, as the true Lord and only Messiah, Act 2:22-36. The people are alarmed and convinced, and inquire what they shall do, Act 2:37. He exhorts them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus, that they may receive remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Act 2:38-40. They gladly receive his word, about three thousand are baptized and added to the Church in one day; they continue steadfast in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, Act 2:41, Act 2:42. The apostles work many miracles; and the disciples have all things in common, and live in a state of great happiness and Christian fellowship, Act 2:43-47.

These men are full of new wine - Rather sweet wine, for γλευκους, cannot mean the mustum, or new wine, as there could be none in Judea so early as pentecost. The Γλευκος, gleucus, seems to have been a peculiar kind of wine, and is thus described by Hesychius and Suidas: Γλευκος, το αποσταγμα της σταφυλης, πριν πατηθῃ. Gleucus is that which distils from the grape before it is pressed. This must be at once both the strongest and sweetest wine. Calmet observes that the ancients had the secret of preserving wine sweet through the whole year, and were fond of taking morning draughts of it: to this Horace appears to refer, Sat. l. ii. s. iv. ver. 24. Aufidius forti miscebat mella Falerno. Mendose: quoniam vacuis committere venis Nil nisi lene decet: leni praecordia mulso Prolueris melius. Aufidius first, most injudicious, quaffed Strong wine and honey for his morning draught. With lenient bev'rage fill your empty veins, For lenient must will better cleanse the reins. Francis.

DESCENT OF THE SPIRIT--THE DISCIPLES SPEAK WITH TONGUES--AMAZEMENT OF THE MULTITUDE. (Act 2:1-13) when the day of Pentecost was fully come--The fiftieth from the morrow after the first Passover sabbath (Lev 23:15-16). with one accord--the solemnity of the day, perhaps, unconsciously raising their expectations.