[The posts which follow make extensive use of The Acts of the Apostles, by Madame Cecilia, Religious of St Andrew's Convent, Streatham with an Imprimi potest dated 16 October 1907 (Westminster); Burns, Oates & Washbourne Ltd. (London). With grateful prayers for the author and her team:
REQUIEM æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.ETERNAL rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.]
Acts II : 14 - 21
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| St Peter preaching. Masolina da Panicale, 1426-7. Brancacci Chapel, Florence. |
[15] For these are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day:
[16] But this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel:
[17] And it shall come to pass, in the last days, (saith the Lord,) I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
[18] And upon my servants indeed, and upon my handmaids will I pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy.
[19] And I will shew wonders in the heaven above, and signs on the earth beneath: blood and fire, and vapour of smoke.
[20] The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and manifest day of the Lord come.
[21] And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.
[14] Stans autem Petrus cum undecim, levavit vocem suam, et locutus est eis : Viri Judaei, et qui habitatis Jerusalem universi, hoc vobis notum sit, et auribus percipite verba mea. [15] Non enim, sicut vos aestimatis, hi ebrii sunt, cum sit hora diei tertia :
[16] sed hoc est quod dictum est per prophetam Joel : [17] Et erit in novissimis diebus, dicit Dominus, effundam de Spiritu meo super omnem carnem : et prophetabunt filii vestri, et filiae vestrae, et juvenes vestri visiones videbunt, et seniores vestri somnia somniabunt. [18] Et quidem super servos meos, et super ancillas meas, in diebus illis effundam de Spiritu meo, et prophetabunt : [19] et dabo prodigia in caelo sursum, et signa in terra deorsum, sanguinem, et ignem, et vaporem fumi : [20] sol convertetur in tenebras, et luna in sanguinem, antequam veniat dies Domini magnus et manifestus. [21] Et erit : omnis quicumque invocaverit nomen Domini, salvus erit.
Notes
14. Peter. He takes his place as Head of the Church, and, for the first time, solemnly promulgates the New Law. The apostles at once take their place as the founders of the Church.
standing up. “ More eagerly than the rest, he rushes forth to bear witness to Christ, and to confound his adversaries with the doctrine of the Resurrection. . . . The same Peter, for whom we had wept when he denied Christ, is seen and admired preaching Him. . . . That tongue, which at the sound of one was driven to denial, now inspires many thousand enemies to confess Christ. This was the work of the Holy Spirit. ” (St Aug. in Ps. xcii.).
lifted up his voice. St Luke generally calls attention to the attitude of the speaker before commencing the discourse, — e.g. Then Paul rising up, and with his hand bespeaking silence, said : Ye men of Israel, and you that fear God, give ear (infra, xiii. 16. See also x. 34, xvii. 22, xxiii. 1).
spoke to them. He “ gave utterance ” (ἀποφθεγξατο). See annotations on verse 4, where the same verb is used. It seems probable that St Peter spoke in Aramaic, since this tongue was familiar to the natives of Jerusalem and to strangers resident there. St Peter’s audience was composed of these two classes.
Note.— “ It was the apostles’ first duty to bear witness to facts, i.e. the facts of the Lord's life, culminating in the Resurrection. And this speech is just such a summary of facts, and represents the apostolic ‘preaching’ long before any gospels or epistles were written. But though a proclamation of facts, rather than an exposition of doctrine, we find in it the elements of the Apostles’ Creed — the Father, Son, and Spirit (32-8) : Jesus is Man (22), but also Lord (30), and He bestows the Divine Spirit : the Spirit being poured upon the disciples makes them a divine fellowship ; the offer is made of remission of sins, which is conveyed through baptism " (Kackhani, Acts of the Apostles, p. 24).
with your ears receive my words. (ἐνωτισασθε) Our Rheims version renders the sense of the verb exactly. This is the only passage in which this verb occurs in the New Testament, but it is frequently found in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms. Cf. Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech (Gen. iv. 23). Give ear, 0 earth, for the Lord hath spoken (Is. i. 2).
15. these. St Peter and the Eleven came forward from the rest of the disciples whom the word “ these ” evidently designates (οὑτοι).
are not drunk. The rabbinical precepts forbade the Jews to take a second meal (i.e. the first of the day was taken at sunset) until the fourth hour, when the prayers of the third hour were accomplished (“ Non licet homini gustare quidquam antequam oraverit orationem suam” (Berachoth., 28. 2).
On Sabbaths and festivals this meal was deferred until noon. Cf. “ The sixth hour . , . , when our laws require us to go to dinner, on Sabbath-days ” (Josephus, Life), The Jews prayed at sunrise, at the third, sixth, and the ninth hour, i.e. at dawn, at nine o'clock, at noon, and at three o’clock.
On this passage St Augustine (sermon 266) remarks : “ A drunken man does not learn a foreign language, but loses his own ; but the apostles were made new vessels full of new wine ”
16. this is that which was spoken of — i.e. the miraculous phenomenon which you witness is that concerning which Joel prophesied.
by the prophet. Better, “ through the prophet” (δια του προφητου). The prophet was but the instrument of God: hence, a little further on, St Peter inserts “saith the Lord, ” although he is quoting the words of Joel. These verses are quoted from Joel ii. 28- 32, but they do not follow to the letter either the Hebrew or the Septuagint version.
Joel was the earliest of the prophets after Jonas. His prophecy was primarily written to assure the Israelites that they should be delivered from a plague of locusts and other pests which devastated the land, but, like most prophecies, it had a reference to some other event, and so passes from what was terrestrial and temporal to things spiritual and eternal.
17. in the last days. The Septuagint version reads here after these things ” (μετα ταυτα). The two phrases have the same meaning, since, “ after these things” predicted by Joel, the Messianic days were to come, and these were often called “ the last days ” (“ Extremum tempus omnium doctorum consensu sunt dies Messiæ ” — Nachman, ad Gen, xlix. 1),
The expression is constantly used in the Scriptures in this sense. Cf. Christ .... foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but manifested in the last times for you (1 St Peter i. 20). As St Peter omitted “ these things” of which Joel wrote, he necessarily paraphrased the prophet's words in order to make them intelligible to his hearers.
I will pour out of my Spirit. Here “ of ” must be taken in the distributive sense. God gives the gifts of the Spirit to individuals as He pleases, and the greatest is His abiding presence in the soul. The verb here rendered “pour out” (ἐκχεω) denotes giving abundantly.
“ The Jews, cautiously enough here, though not so honestly, apply this prophecy and promise to Israel solely; as having this for a maxim amongst them, 'that the Holy Ghost is never imparted to any Gentile.’ Hence those of the circumcision that believed were so astonished when they saw that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (ch. x. 46), (Lightfoot, Horæ Hebr., p. 30).
all flesh. Humanity in general of all social ranks and nationalities, but not on every individual, because all are not desirous to receive the Paraclete.
Under the Mosaic dispensation the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were limited to a few, e.g. “Abraham had a vision (Gen xv,), Isaac prophesied (Heb. xi. 20), Jacob dreamed dreams, and Joseph interpreted dreams.” St Peter himself had need of a special revelation in order to grasp the full import of this prophecy, which opened the door of the Church to Gentiles.
your sons and your daughters. These words are used generally of the Jewish nation.
shall prophesy. Prophesy is used in two senses :
(а) To foretell future events, e.g . —
In these days there came prophets from Jerusalem to Antioch ; and one of them named Agabus, rising up, signified by the Spirit that there should be a great famine over the whole worlds which came to pass under Claudius (infra, xi. 27-28. See also xxi. i l).
(b) To announce or declare, to explain the Scriptures, e,g . —
Judas and Silas, two of the brethren of Antioch, being prophets also themselves, with many words comforted the brethren, and confirmed them (infra, xv. 32).When St Paul had confirmed the twelve men at Ephesus, the Holy Ghost came upon, them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied (infra, xix. 6).It is recorded that St Philip, the deacon, had four daughters, virgins, who did prophesy (infra, xxi. 9).
young men .... old men. In Joel this order is inverted.
see visions .... dream dreams. Examples of Hebrew parallelism, and of the cognate object. A vision is a supernatural image presented to a person who is awake. Thus the three apostles who witnessed the Transfiguration were awake when they had a vision and saw Moses and Elias (St Matt. xvii. 9). The person may, however, be in an ecstasy, like that in which St Peter saw in an ecstasy of mind a vision, a certain vessel descending, as it were a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners, and it came even unto me (infra, xi. 5). When St Peter was delivered by an angel, we are told that he knew not that it was true which was done by the angel, hut thought he saw a vision (infra, xii. 9). A dream differs from a vision in that it takes place during sleep, but all dreams are not supernatural revelations, nor is it wise, in general, to attach importance to them. On one occasion, St Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia in the night (infra, xvi. 9). It was in the night by a vision that the Lord comforted St Paul in Corinth (infra, xviii. 9). For other examples see Intro., p. 48.
18. And upon. Better, “ yea and upon (και γε ἐπι).
my servants .... my handmaids. The words in the original point to bondservants (τους δουλους μου και τας δουλας μου). The word “ my ” is not in the original prophecy, but “ the ” instead. The first disciples of Christ were drawn from the humblest classes, and the first Jewish converts in Rome were men whom the emperors had liberated from slavery.
they shall prophesy. These words are not found here in the original prophecy, either in the Hebrew or the Septuagint.
19. wonders .... signs. Three words are frequently joined to express a supernatural intervention — miracles, wonders, and signs; they are sometimes referred to as “ mighty deeds.”
The word “ miracle ” (δυναμις ) has special relevance to the divine agency by which it is worked.
The word “wonder” (τερας ) expresses the supernatural character of the act, and may be expressed by “ prodigy.”
The word “sign” (σημειον) points to the fact that such deeds are proofs or credentials given by God to those who witness them. “ Hence there are three views of a miracle, according to (a) its nature, (b) its appearance, (c) its object or end ” (Meyer).
St Cyril understands the words I will shew wonders, etc., to refer to—
(a) The destruction of Jerusalem by Nabuchodonosor.(b) The miraculous phenomena which were witnessed at our Lord’s Crucifixion— the eclipse, the earthquake, the rending of the rocks, the resurrection of certain saints.(c) The supernatural events which accompanied the siege and fall of Jerusalem.(d) The convulsions of Nature at the last day.
heaven above .... earth beneath. The words “ above ” and “ beneath are not in the original, but are often coupled respectively with “heaven” and “ earth.”
blood and fire. “The imagery is drawn as from one of the great thunderstorms of Palestine. There is the lurid blood-red hue of clouds and sky ; there are the fiery flashes, the columns or pillars of smoke- like clouds boiling from the abyss. These, in their turn, were probably thought of as symbols of bloodshed, and fire, and smoke, such as are involved in the capture and destruction of a city like Jerusalem” (Ellicott, Comm., p. 11).
20. The sun shall be turned, etc. These are the usual phenomena which accompany an eclipse, and our Lord used much the same language when speaking of the last judgement. (See St Matt. xxiv. 29.)
manifest. The word in the Hebrew is “ terrible,” but, as Lumby remarks, “ to fear ” and “ to see ” are often confounded in the Septuagint version, with which the quotation in the text agrees.
21. whosoever shall call upon. Not merely those who invoke, as the original expression (which is much stronger) shows clearly (ἐπικαλεσηται) but it means all who worship God and keep His commandments.
This doctrine is plainly taught in other passages of the Scriptures. Cf. Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven (St Matt. vii. 21). Also St Paul, writing to the Christian church at Corinth, addresses his words to those who are called to be saints, with all that invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in every place of theirs and ours (1 Cor. 1. 2). And evidently the apostle means far more than merely invoking the name of Christ. Faith and good works are both necessary for salvation ; for as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead (St James ii. 26).
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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