QUESTIONS and ANSWERS – Viewpoint

Explain what happened in Acts 2:5-12.

“Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked, “Are not all these men who are speaking, Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’”

This was an astounding miracle facilitated by the Holy Spirit. The context does not state what languages were being spoken by the Apostles at this event. However, it does tell us that all of those gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Pentecost heard those words being spoken in their own language. Whatever language was being spoken, be it Aramaic, Hebrew or something else; the point is that the Holy Spirit caused those words to be translated into many languages instantly, and all the people understood what was being said though it was being proclaimed in one language no doubt foreign to many of them. When Peter addressed the crowd in subsequent verses (14-41), the same thing must have occurred.

This was not the simple phenomenon of someone given the gift of tongues and able to utter words in an unknown language not known to him. Those cases needed someone else to act as an interpreter, or else the words were of no value to the hearers. In the case cited above, the interpreter was the Holy Spirit who instantly translated what was being spoken into multiple languages.

This being the only record of such a wonderful phenomenon that we have in the Scriptures, brings to our minds the unknown power of God’s Holy Spirit that is able to work unheard miracles in the lives of God’s people. No human could have accomplished this, but with God, nothing is impossible. As great as this accomplishment may seem to us, it is probably quite low on the scale of what God can do. Let us never underestimate the great power that was able to raise up Jesus from the dead even after three days in the grave, mentioned by Paul mentions in Philippians 3:10.

E. Weeks