Il,
obpavod ἦχος ὥσπερ φεροµένης πνοῆς βιαίας, καὶ ἐπλήρωσεν ὅλον
ος, 2s Ox 1 τον οίκον ου σαν καῦηµενοι ᾿
. καὶ ὤφθησαν αὐτοῖς διαμεριζόμεναι μεριζόμ
1 καθηµενοι; CD read καθεζοµενοι, so Lach., Meyer, Hilg.; but reading in text SABE, minusc., Ath., Cyr.-Jer., Cyr.-Al., Theodrt., Wendt (as against Meyer),
W.H., Weiss.
rich, p. 13, ubi supra, Lekebusch, Afos- telgeschichte, p. 75). On Spitta’s forced interpretation of the word, see p. 100. --τῆς Πεντηκοστῆς: mo occasion to add ἡμέρα, as the word was used as a proper name (although as an adjective ἡμέρα would of course be understood with it); cf. 2 Macc. xii. 32 (Tob. ii. 1), μετὰ δὲ τὴν Aeyop. Πεντηκοστήν.-- ἅπαντες, i.¢., the hundred-and-twenty as. well as the Apostles (Chrysostom, Jerome), and the expression may also have included other disciples who were present in Jerusalem at the Feast (so Hilgenfeld, Wendt, Holtzmann). This interpretation appears to be more in accordance with the wide range of the prophecy, ii. 16-21.---ὁμοθυμαδὸν, see above on ver. 14. ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό may simply = “ together,” so that of the two expressions ὁμοῦ, R.V., and this phrase ‘‘alterum abundat” (Blass, Weiss); but the reference may be to the room in which they were previously assembled ; cf. i. 15.
Ver. 2. ἄφνω: only in Acts, here, and in xvi. 26, xxvili.6; Klostermann’s Vin- dici@e Lucana, p. 55; several times in LXX, but also in classical Greek in Thuc., Dem., Eur.—ixos ὥσπερ depop. πν. βιαίας, lit., “a sound as if a vio- lent gust were being borne along”. St. Chrysostom rightly emphasises the os, so that the sound is not that of wind, but as of the rushing of a mighty wind (so too the tongues are not of fire, but as of fire). The words describe not a natural but a supernatural phenomenon, as Wendt pointedly admits. Wind was often used as a symbol of the divine Presence, 2 Sam. v. 24, Psalm civ. 3, 1 Kings xix. 11, Ezekiel xliii. 2, etc.; cf. Josephus, Ant., iii., 5, 2; vii., 4; here it is used of the mighty power of the Spirit which nothing could resist. St. Luke alone of the N.T. writers uses ἦχος--- Heb. xii. το being a quotation, and it is perhaps worth noting that the word is employed in medical writers, and by one of them, Aretzus, of the noise of the sea (cf. ἤχους θαλάσσης, Luke xxi. 25).— ὅλον τὸν οἶκον. If the Temple were meant, as Holtzmannand Zéckler think, it would have been specified, ili. 2, 11, v. Pi
4
Ver. 3. διαµεριζό.. γλῶσσαι: the audible σημεῖον is followed by a visible: γλῶσσαι the organs of speech by which the wonderful works of God were to be proclaimed, so that the expression cannot be explained from Isaiah v. 24, where the tongue of fire is represented as an organ of destruction (Wendt, note, in loco). ὡσεὶ πυρός in their appearance and brightness. The words themselves there- fore forbid reference to a natural phe- nomenon, to say nothing of the fact of the spiritual transformation of the Apostles which followed. Fire like wind was symbolic of the divine Presence, Exod. iii. 2, and of the Spirit who purifies and sanctifies, Ezekiel i. 13, Malachi, iii. 2, 3 (see Wetstein for classical instances of fire symbolical of the presence of the deity ; cf., e.g., Homer, Iliad, xviii., 214; Virgil, Ain., ii., 683). διαµεριζ., lit., dividing or parting themselves off. R.V. ‘‘tongues parting asunder,” so that origi- nally they were one, as one mighty flame of fire. This rendering is strictly in ac- cordance with the meaning of the verb. Vulgate dispertite (the word used by Blass). διαµερίζω is used once again in Acts ii. 45 in the active voice, and once only by St. Matthew and St. Mark (once by St. John as a quotation) in the middle voice, but six times by St. Luke in his Gospel ; frequently in the LXX.—éxd6ice (not -αν), sc., γλῶσσα (not πΏρ or πνεῦμα ἅγιον), although the latter is advocated by Chrysostom, Theophylact, Bengel: “it κατ, R.V. The singular best ex- presses the result of the tongues parting asunder, and of the distribution to each and all. So too ἐφ᾽ ἕνα ἕκαστον αὐτῶν, ‘‘upon each one of them,”’ R.V., cf. ver. 6 els ἕκαστος (and ver. 8). The resting of a flame of fire upon the head as a token of the favour of Heaven may be illustrated from classical sources (see above and instances in Wetstein), but the thought here is not so much of fire as the token of divine favour, as of the tongue (as of fire) conferring a divine power to utter in speech divine things.