They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.
ExplanationCommentary
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.