Acts 2:1–21

Verse 1. Altogether in one [1] place. The Greek signifies, were all of one mind. Witham.

Verse 2. A sound, and so forth Perhaps this was a kind of thunder, accompanied with a great wind, which filled with terror and awe the whole company, and disposed them to receive the gift of heaven with humility and fervour. This noise appears to have been heard over a great part of the city, and to have gathered together a great crowd, who came to learn the cause. This noise and wind were symbols of the divinity. It was thus also that formerly on Mount Sinai, thunder and lightning, the dark cloud, the smoking mountain, and so forth marked the majesty of God. Calmet.—Jesus Christ, our Pasch, to answer perfectly the figure, was offered on the day of the great Jewish passover; so fifty days after, for accomplishing the like figure of the law given on Mount Sinai, He sent down the Holy Ghost on the day of their Pentecost, which meaneth fifty. But our feasts, as S. Augustin remarks, besides the remembrance of benefits past, contain great mysteries also of the life to come. Ep. cxix. chapter 16.

Verse 3. Tongues … of fire. The Hebrews use the name tongue, for almost any thing pointed. Thus they say, a tongue of the earth, for a promontory. Josue 15:5. A fiery tongue for a flame in shape of a tongue. Isa. 5:24. The expression, therefore, in this place, may mean noting more than sparks, or rather flames, which appeared above all who were in the house.—Sed et Latinis quod extremum et acutum est lingua dicitur, quare scopulos summos & invios linguas dixit Cæsar. P.—By the fiery tongues is signified the efficacy of the apostles’ preaching, and the gift of tongues bestowed upon them. Menochius.

Verse 4. Began to speak divers tongues. Perhaps the apostles spoke only their own tongue, and the miracle consisted in each one’s understanding it as if they spoke it in his language. Saint Gregory Nazianzen. orat. xliv.—But S. Augustin and most others, understand the text literally; though the apostles had not this gift on all occasions, nor on all subjects, and therefore sometimes stood in need of interpreters. Vide Saint Augustine in Psalm xvii. Expos. 2. and Serm. 188.—The same Father observes, that the conversion of all nations to the Church, and their being united in one faith, all having one language or confession, is a perpetuation of the same miracle in the Church.

Verse 14. But Peter standing up, and so forth A wonderful change which the Holy Ghost, at his coming, in a moment wrought in the apostles, as we see in the person of Saint Peter, who before, when questioned by a silly girl, denied his master, now he values not all the Sanhedrim of the Scribes, Pharisees, and magistrates; he boldly and publicly charges them with the murder of Jesus, their Lord, and their Christ. verse 36. Witham.—As the prince of the apostolic college, and head of the Church, under Jesus Christ, hence Peter speaks in the name of the other apostles also, gives an account of the miracle, and promulgates the evangelical law. Menochius.—Newly replenished with all knowledge and fortitude, and full of the holy Spirit, he here maketh his first sermon. B.

Verse 15. About nine in the morning. On festival days, the Jews did not eat till the morning devotions were finished, about mid-day. V.

about 9:00 a.m.

Verse 17. In the last days, or the latter days, meaning the time of the Messias, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, that is, all persons. See Joel 2:28. Witham.

Verse 19. I will shew wonders, and so forth These prodigies are commonly expounded of those that shall forerun the last day; or of the prognostics of the destruction of Jerusalem, which was a figure of the destruction of the world. Witham.—Blood, fire, and so forth These prodigies were accomplished at our Saviour’s death, or before the destruction of Jerusalem. We must not expect in these prophecies, where the descriptions are so grand, pathetic, and hyperbolical, to find that the accomplishment of them is literal, and precisely according to terms. The sun shall suffer an eclipse, the moon turn red, like blood, and so forth Calmet.