[252] John 14:6, 26; 15:26; 16:7. The preparatory communication of the Spirit is related in John 20:22.

[252] John 14:6, 26; 15:26; 16:7. The preparatory communication of the Spirit is related in John 20:22.

[253] Comp. especially the classical chapters on the gifts of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 12, 13, and 14, and Rom. 12.

[254] The Greek name he pentekoste (hemera) is used (like quinquagesima) as a substantive, Tob. 2:1; 2 Macc. 12:32; Acts 2:1; 20:16; 1 Cor. 16:3, and by Josephus, Ant. III. 10, 6, etc. It survives not only in all the Romanic languages, but also in the German Pfingsten. The English Whit-Sunday is usually derived from the white garments of the candidates for baptism worn on that day (hence Dominica alba); others connect it with wit, the gift of wisdom from above. The Hebrew names of the festival are ry?qh gch, heorte therismou, the feast of harvest (Ex. 23:16), vyrvbkh vvy and hemera ton neon, day of the first fruits (Num. 28:26), tv?vsh gch, heorte hebdomadon, hagia hepta hebdomadon, festival of (seven) weeks, as the harvest continued for seven weeks (Deut. 16:9, 10; Lev. 23:15; Tob. 2:1). It began directly after the Passover with the offering of the first sheaf of the barley-harvest, and ended at Pentecost with the offering of the first two loaves from the wheat-harvest.

[255] Josephus speaks of "many tens of thousands being gathered together about the temple" on Pentecost, Ant. xiv. 13, 4; comp. xvii. 10, 2; Bell Jud. II. 3, 1. The Passover, of course, was more numerously attended by Jews from Palestine; but distant foreigners were often prevented by the dangers of travel in the early spring. Paul twice went to Jerusalem on Pentecost, Acts 18:21; 20:16. Many Passover pilgrims would naturally remain till the second festival.

[256] Hence called the feast of the joy of the Law (hrvth tchmsh). The date of Sinaitic legislation is based on a comparison of Ex. 12:2 with 19:1 (comp. my Hist. of the Ap. Ch., p. 192, note 5). The legislation on Pentecost, Deut. 16:9-12, represents it as a feast of rejoicing, and concludes with a reference to the bondage in Egypt and the commandments of Jehovah. Otherwise there is no allusion in the Bible, nor in Philo nor Josephus, to the historical significance of Pentecost. But there was a Jewish custom which Schöttgen (Hor. Heb. in Acts 2:1) traces to apostolic times, of spending the night before Pentecost in thanksgiving to God for the gift of the law. In the present Jewish observance the commemoration of the Sinaitic legislation is made prominent. Some Jews "adorn their houses with flowers and wear wreaths on their heads, with the declared purpose of testifying their joy in the possession of the Law."

[257] The list of nations, Acts 2:8-11, gives a bird's eye view of the Roman empire from the East and North southward and westward as far as Rome, and then again eastward to Arabia. Cyprus and Greece are omitted. There were Christians in Damascus before the conversion of Paul (9:2), and a large congregation at Rome long before he wrote his Epistle (Rom. 1:8).

[258] Acts 1:15; 2:7. Ten times the number of tribes of Israel. These were, however, not all the disciples; Paul mentions five hundred brethren to whom the risen Lord appeared at once, 1 Cor. 15:6.

[259] Exod. 19:16; comp. Hebr. 12:18, 19.

[260] hechos hosper pheromenes pnoes biaias, ein Getöse wie von einem dahinfahrenden heftigen Wehen (Meyer). The term pheromene, borne on, is the same which Peter uses of the inspiration of the prophets, 2 Pet. 1:21.

[261] diamerizomenai glossai hosei puros, Acts2:3, are not parted or " cloven"tongues (E. V.)--resembling the fork-like shape of the episcopal mitre--but distributed tongues, spreading from one to another. This is the meaning of diamerizein, in ver. 45; Luke 22:17; 23:34; John 19:24; Matt. 27:35. The distributive idea explains the change of number in ver.3, glossai--ekathisen, i.e., one tongue sat on each disciple.

[262] Hence hosper and hosei. John Lightfoot: "Sonus ventus vehementis, sed absque vento; sic etiam linguae igneae, sed absque igne."

[263] Luke 3:22 (hos peristeran); Matt. 3:10 (hosei); Mark 1:10; John 1:32. The Rabbinical comment on Gen. 1:2 makes the same comparison, that " the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters like a dove," and Milton sings (Parad, Lost, i. 20): " With mighty wings outspread Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss."

[264] They were baptized with water by John; but Christian baptism was first administered by them on the day of Pentecost. Christ himself did not baptize, John 4:2.

[265] 1 Pet. 1:3, 4.

[266] Comp. Acts 1:13, 14.

[267] Acts 2:3: "it (a tongue of fire) sat upon each of them."

[268] Acts 2:3, 4, 17, 18.

[269] Gal. 3:28.

[270] ta megaleia tou Theou, Acts 2: 11; comp. the same term Luke 1:69, and the megalunein ton theon, Acts 10:46.

[271] Comp. 1 Cor. 14:22.

[272] Acts 10:46.

[273] Acts 19:6.

[274] 1 Cor. 12 and 14.

[275] Acts 2:8:hekastos te idia dialekto hemon en he egennethemen. Comp. 2:11:akouomen lalounton auton tais hemeterais glossais ta megaleia tou theou..

[276] Comp. Acts 2:4, and 6.

[277] 1 Cor. 14:5, 13, 27, 28; comp. 1 Cor. 12:10, 30.

[278] Comp. 1 Cor. 14:23.

[279] Grotius (in loc.): "Paena linguarum dispersit homines, donum linguarum dispersos in unum populum collegit." See note on Glossolalia (p.17).

[280] The former is the usual view, the latter is maintained by Stanley, Plumptre, and Farrar. Paul addressed the excited multitude in Jerusalem in the Hebrew tongue, which commanded greater silence, Acts 22:2. This implies that they would not have understood him in Greek as well, or listened as attentively.

[281] What may be claimed for St. Bernard, St. Vincent Ferrer, and St. Francis Xavier is not a miraculous heteroglossolalia, but an eloquence so ardent, earnest, and intense, that the rude nations which they addressed in Latin or Spanish imagined they heard them in their mother tongue. St. Bernard (d. 1153) fired the Germans in Latin to the second crusade, and made a greater impression on them by his very appearance than the translation of the same speech by his interpreter. See Neander, Der heil. Bernhard, p. 338 (2d ed.). Alban Butler (Lives of the Saints, sub April 5) reports of St. Vincent Ferrer (died 1419) "Spondanus and many others say, the saint was honored with the gift of tongues, and that, preaching in his own, he was understood by men of different languages; which is also affirmed by Lanzano, who says, that Greeks, Germans, Sardes, Hungarians, and people of other nations, declared they understood every word he spoke, though he preached in Latin, or in his mother-tongue, as spoken at Valentia." This account clearly implies that Ferrer did not understand Greek, German, and Hungarian. As to Francis Xavier (d. 1552), Alban Butler says (sub Dec. 3) that the gift of tongues was "a transient favor," and that he learned the Malabar tongue and the Japanese "by unwearied application;" from which we may infer that his impression upon the heathen was independent of the language, Not one of these saints claimed the gift of tongues or other miraculous powers, but only their disciples or later writers.