I.

Literary Context

Acts of The Apostles 2:1-13 is part of the narrative written by Luke “The Great Physician” and is

connected to The Book of Acts in that it demonstrates the prophetic fulfillment of God’s promise

to impart all types of people with the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28-32) and the importance of the power

of Holy Spirit to the body of Christ (Gonzalez, p.16). The focal pericope recounts the Holy

Spirit’s descent ion on the day of Pentecost empowering the apostles to be witness and creating a

new faith (Bock, p. 93). The preceding text (1:15-26) is linked to the pericope because it states

that Peter stood up amongst the crowd that number 120 which included the disciples and together

they prayed because they knew that the what David saw was going to be fulfilled. The

subsequent vv 14-19 contain Apostle Peter’s response to the crowd’s accusation of the

drunkenness of the apostles.

II. Movement of the Argument

In order to engage in the exegesis focal pericope (Acts2:1-13), I consulted the following

commentaries and their verses and subdivisions are listed in the table below:

Commentary Author Page Verse Contents of Subdivision

Number Subdivision
The Acts of the Apostles William Barclay Pg20 Acts 2:1-13 The Breath of God
Acts Gospels of the Spirit Gusto Gonzales Pg 33 Acts2:1-13 The Out Pouring of the Holy
Spirit
Baker Exegetical Darrell L. Bock Pg93 Acts2:1-13 The Event: The Coming of
Commentary on the NT the Spirit
Acts
NIB Pgs52- Acts2:1-13 Pentecost The Spirit of
58 Prophecy Falls upon the
community
Exegete Subdivisions Act2:1 Foundation
Acts2:2-4 The Event-Pentecost
Acts2:5-13 Crowd’s reaction

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 The commentators I have consulted for my focal pericope have kept this passage as a whole,

but yet were able to explain in three parts. Acs 2:1 as the foundation, Acts 2:2-4 as the event,

and Acts 2:5-13 as the crowd’s reaction to speaking in tongues. I do agree with the

commentators on the subdivision of this passage. I have selected v1 as the opening scripture

for this passage. To understand the text, I have divided the pericope into three subdivisions. I

do agree with the scholars on how they broke down the passage I was able to understand it

especially after reading Darrell L. Bock.

III. Material Context/Verse-By-Verse Analysis

V1 Foundation

V1 tells us that “they were all together in one place.” (Gonzalez p.34) Gonzalez also

mentions that in v4 this “all” appears again. It is to be understood that in the sense that not

only the twelve are present, but also the women and the other disciples who are mentioned in

Acts1:13-15 The Baker exegetical commentary on the New Testament Acts broke down the

passage for v1 as “gives the setting: (Bock p.93) After reading this commentary I was able to

understand this verse more and got a clear understanding about Pentecost. Reading Bocks

commentary let me see that this is what happened on that particular day. As the people were

gathering for this “Festival of weeks” the people did not know that the spirit was going to

come and bring them together.

V2-4 The Event-Pentecost

Luke is telling the story of what happened at the day of Pentecost in verses 2-4 as Bock

stated “describes the event” (Bock p.93). The event is broken down from vv2-4 step by step

recanting how the spirit fell on the people. In Gonzalez vv2-3 are described as “two

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extraordinary phenomena whose overwhelming power is often hid from us because we

already know that v4 will tell us that all of this was a manifestation of the Holy Spirit”

(Gonzalez p.34). Between the two scholars I agree with both on how the break down the

verse for me to understand what is happening at the day of Pentecost.

V5-13 Crowd’s Reaction

V5 begins with “Now they were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in

Jerusalem. All the people of Jerusalem we in shock that people from all over began speaking

in their native language. Bock put this passage from vv5-13 and states that vv5-13 gives the

perplexed crowd’s reaction and a list of all the nations represented who are now hearing

about God’s almighty work in their own native languages, not Greek or Aramaic.

Pentecost was one of the three Jewish Pilgrimage feast to Jerusalem during the year, which

explains why people from so many nationalities are present in vv9-11. Before reading all the

commentaries I did not understand why all those cities were named, until furthering my

readings and found out why.

IV. Theological Key

For my Theological key I chose vv5-11. In these verses I see that people from all over came to

Jerusalem for this festival of weeks, the harvest of grain not in expectation of anything but to

fellowship with fellow Jews from all over. But they all came together in one place just like on

Sundays, or church events where you have people from all walks of life coming together

because they were possibly invited or they walked in and decided to stay and hear what was

going on through song, dance, a play, or message. I see as though the people who traveled to

Jerusalem came together as a community and were blessed by God’s Spirit that fell on them

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The Day of Pentecost. Just as in a service the Pastor or Minister may do the call to salvation I

do believe that people who are not saved do feel God’s Spirit throughout that particular

service. Even though they may not be able to speak in tongues off the top it is the beginning

step to accept God’s Spirit into their lives.

V. Hermeneutical Application

The relevance to my Theological key is it does not matter where you come from, gathering in

a church service, a play, worship service, or a concert. People from all over come out not in

expectation especially those who have never been saved. Then you have ones who know

about God and are unsure, and then you have spectators with their own thing in their mind

saying well if this God everyone is talking about is just that good and can move I want to see

this. I believe that people who never have accepted the call to salvation do feel God’s Spirit

because they have heard of him. Coming together at gatherings you have trained Pastors,

Ministers, Deacons, and leaders in the church who are able to attest to God’s Spirit and how

God has moved in their life. Just as in Acts1 he has given instruction to the 12 disciples on

preparation for when he returns. The disciples have spent time praying. I believe that the

trained are here to help the unsaved, nonbelievers, and spectators.

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 Bibliography

1. Barclay, William. The Acts Of The Apostles. The Westminster Press Philadelphia, 1976

2. Blount, Brian K. Felder, Cain Hope., Martin, Clarice J., & Powery, Emerson B., True to

our Native Land An African American New Testament Commentary. Fortress Press

Minneapolis, 2007

3. Coogan, Michael D., The New Oxford Annotated Bible NRSV. Oxford University Press

2010.

4. Gonzalez, Justo L., ACTS The Gospel Of The Spirit. Maryknoll, NewYork 2001

5. Harris, Stephen L., The New Testament. McGraw-Hill. New York 2009