Read the passage and its setting
Acts 2:1–2:13, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Acts 2:1–2:13
The Spirit fills the multilingual gathering
The Main Point
At Pentecost a windlike sound and divided firelike tongues accompany the Spirit's filling, and diaspora Jews hear God's works in their own languages while observers divide between wonder and mockery.
Context That Shapes This Passage
What prompted this passage?
Acts 2:1Acts 2:1–2:13 opens “The Spirit fills the multilingual gathering” by naming the speaker, setting, action, question, or conflict that starts this movement. That opening controls what the complete scene or speech answers.
Why this relationship fits: The pinned KJV begins the unit, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.”
How does this passage relate?
Acts 2:1–2:13The complete unit develops this movement: At Pentecost a windlike sound and divided firelike tongues accompany the Spirit's filling, and diaspora Jews hear God's works in their own languages while observers divide between wonder and mockery.
Why this relationship fits: The reviewed boundary keeps the scene or speech together and preserves this limit: The phenomena are narrated with comparison language, and the list maps a Jewish diaspora horizon; tongues here are recognizable languages, but Acts later uses related phenomena in varied settings.
What earlier material does it rely on?
Acts 1:15–1:26Acts 1:15–1:26 materially prepares this movement: Peter interprets Judas's collapse through Scripture, the assembly identifies an eyewitness qualification, proposes Joseph and Matthias, prays, casts lots, and counts Matthias with the eleven.
Why this relationship fits: The reviewed transition continues a speaker, journey, hearing, argument, mission, persecution, custody, voyage, or communal decision across the two natural units.
What following material clarifies it?
Acts 2:14–2:21Acts 2:14–2:21 carries this movement forward: Peter rejects the drunkenness charge and cites Joel to interpret the outpouring across sons, daughters, ages, and social status before the day of the Lord.
Why this relationship fits: The reviewed transition continues the active question, response, witness, conflict, travel sequence, hearing, or outcome.
Where does this sit in the whole book?
Acts as a wholeAt Pentecost a windlike sound and divided firelike tongues accompany the Spirit's filling, and diaspora Jews hear God's works in their own languages while observers divide between wonder and mockery. This movement advances Acts from Jerusalem toward Rome through Spirit-enabled witness, Jewish continuity, Gentile inclusion, accountable community, public conflict, and an open ending.
Why this relationship fits: Acts 2:1–2:13 contributes to the reviewed whole-book movement without importing every theme or later event into this one unit.
Follow the Witness from Jerusalem to Rome
See why this section appears here and how the author's witness movement leads to its meaning.
Follow the Scene or Speech
At Pentecost a windlike sound and divided firelike tongues accompany the Spirit's filling, and diaspora Jews hear God's works in their own languages while observers divide between wonder and mockery.
The unit distinguishes narrated event, participant speech, the narrator's framing, material uncertainty, and the ethical boundary: Pentecost does not rank ethnicities, promise identical sensations, prove spiritual superiority, or make ecstatic claims immune from testing.
Why This Interpretation Fits
Unit movement
At Pentecost a windlike sound and divided firelike tongues accompany the Spirit's filling, and diaspora Jews hear God's works in their own languages while observers divide between wonder and mockery.
Narrator and speech control
The account must be read as a complete scene: human motive, claimed divine action, institutional power, and narrator evaluation are related but not interchangeable.
Understand the Meaning and Its Boundaries
Clarify the words that matter and keep the conclusion no broader than the passage allows.
Words That Matter
with one accord
See SBLGNT and STEP data for the exact inflected form · homothymadon
The KJV phrase marks shared purpose or gathering, not the erasure of personality, judgment, or legitimate dissent.
What the Passage Is Not Saying
Reading Acts 2:1–2:13 within Luke-Acts and the complete thought unit rules out this use:
Pentecost does not rank ethnicities, promise identical sensations, prove spiritual superiority, or make ecstatic claims immune from testing.
Context check: At Pentecost a windlike sound and divided firelike tongues accompany the Spirit's filling, and diaspora Jews hear God's works in their own languages while observers divide between wonder and mockery. The account must be read as a complete scene: human motive, claimed divine action, institutional power, and narrator evaluation are related but not interchangeable.
What Remains True Today
Faithful witness preserves the unit's narrated sequence, speaker and narrator distinction, Jewish and Gentile identities, affected people, and material uncertainty. Pentecost does not rank ethnicities, promise identical sensations, prove spiritual superiority, or make ecstatic claims immune from testing.
Respond and Remember
Let the meaning shape life carefully, then practice explaining the section in context.
How This Should Shape Us
Why these applications follow
At Pentecost a windlike sound and divided firelike tongues accompany the Spirit's filling, and diaspora Jews hear God's works in their own languages while observers divide between wonder and mockery.
At Pentecost a windlike sound and divided firelike tongues accompany the Spirit's filling, and diaspora Jews hear God's works in their own languages while observers divide between wonder and mockery. The account must be read as a complete scene: human motive, claimed divine action, institutional power, and narrator evaluation are related but not interchangeable.
Faithful witness preserves the unit's narrated sequence, speaker and narrator distinction, Jewish and Gentile identities, affected people, and material uncertainty. Pentecost does not rank ethnicities, promise identical sensations, prove spiritual superiority, or make ecstatic claims immune from testing.
What accountable response follows?
Welcome Spirit-enabled communication across languages and cultures, and make understanding more important than religious spectacle.
Teach It Back
Explain Acts 2:1–2:13 in your own words, naming its movement, speaker or narrator role, one source-controlled detail, one uncertainty, one affected person, and one conclusion the passage does not authorize.
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Go Deeper
The main explanation above stands on its own. Open these optional sections for fuller language, history, disagreements, and source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Narrative or speech movement
At Pentecost a windlike sound and divided firelike tongues accompany the Spirit's filling, and diaspora Jews hear God's works in their own languages while observers divide between wonder and mockery.
Interpretive control
The account must be read as a complete scene: human motive, claimed divine action, institutional power, and narrator evaluation are related but not interchangeable.
Ethical boundary
Pentecost does not rank ethnicities, promise identical sensations, prove spiritual superiority, or make ecstatic claims immune from testing.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
with one accord
The KJV phrase marks shared purpose or gathering, not the erasure of personality, judgment, or legitimate dissent. The wording is material in Acts 2:1–2:13; its sentence and narrated setting control the responsible sense.
How certain? probableWhat the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Setting and recoverable limits
The phenomena are narrated with comparison language, and the list maps a Jewish diaspora horizon; tongues here are recognizable languages, but Acts later uses related phenomena in varied settings. Geography, chronology, social practice, Roman procedure, and institutional reconstruction are claimed only to the degree supported by the cited sources.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
KJV and Greek wording in 2:1–2:13
The pinned KJV remains displayed exactly. SBLGNT, STEP, and NET comparison clarify the specific wording or material question in this unit: The phenomena are narrated with comparison language, and the list maps a Jewish diaspora horizon; tongues here are recognizable languages, but Acts later uses related phenomena in varied settings.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Israel's Scriptures and Jewish setting
Acts continues Israel's scriptural story through Jewish witnesses, synagogues, temple worship, Torah practice, diaspora communities, and contested interpretations. At Pentecost a windlike sound and divided firelike tongues accompany the Spirit's filling, and diaspora Jews hear God's works in their own languages while observers divide between wonder and mockery.
How certain? strongHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Luke-Acts and responsible canonical reading
Luke's first volume is the immediate literary horizon. Later canonical connections must preserve Acts 2:1–2:13's own sequence, Jewish setting, speakers, and unresolved questions.
How certain? strongTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
The inspected SBLGNT, NET notes, and where relevant Codex Bezae do not expose a variant that changes this unit's central movement; The phenomena are narrated with comparison language, and the list maps a Jewish diaspora horizon; tongues here are recognizable languages, but Acts later uses related phenomena in varied settings.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
No competing reading changes Acts 2:1–2:13's reader-level conclusion enough to justify a separate disagreement panel.
Theology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
Acts joins divine initiative, the Spirit, human witness, communal discernment, and accountable action in this movement: At Pentecost a windlike sound and divided firelike tongues accompany the Spirit's filling, and diaspora Jews hear God's works in their own languages while observers divide between wonder and mockery.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
God's action in Acts 2:1–2:13 is narrated as particular gift, judgment, guidance, or preservation; it is not a technique readers can control or a warrant for the misuse explicitly rejected here.
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
Pentecost does not rank ethnicities, promise identical sensations, prove spiritual superiority, or make ecstatic claims immune from testing.
A vivid event or line in Acts 2:1–2:13 can be detached from its narrator, speaker, first audience, ancient institutions, literary placement, and later Acts parallels.
At Pentecost a windlike sound and divided firelike tongues accompany the Spirit's filling, and diaspora Jews hear God's works in their own languages while observers divide between wonder and mockery. The account must be read as a complete scene: human motive, claimed divine action, institutional power, and narrator evaluation are related but not interchangeable.
Keep description distinct from command, actor interpretation distinct from authorial evaluation, and original setting distinct from faithful application.
At Pentecost a windlike sound and divided firelike tongues accompany the Spirit's filling, and diaspora Jews hear God's works in their own languages while observers divide between wonder and mockery.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and unit coverage.
Acts 2:1–2:13, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Greek wording and punctuation control, without pretending one edition is a complete apparatus.
SBLGNT official text, Acts 2:1-2:13
Supports: Morphology and lexical cross-check for words explicitly discussed in this unit.
STEP Bible Data, TAGNT rows for Acts 2:1-2:13
Supports: Verse-attached textual, translation, language, geography, chronology, and historical notes actually printed for the unit.
NET Bible First Edition Acts PDF, printed pp. 2104-2205, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to 2:1–2:13
Supports: Introductory critical orientation to the unit's place in Luke-Acts, with contested judgments retained as interpretations.
Yale Bible Study Acts course, course unit 'The Church Begins in Jerusalem,' Acts 1-4 study guide
Supports: One complete confessional commentary reading, independently checked against the text and critical controls.
Thompson, online Acts commentary, heading and paragraphs explicitly covering Acts 2:1–2:13
Supports: Abstract-supported control for Jewish continuity and Gentile inclusion in Acts 2:1–2:13, not a settlement of every conflict scene.
Smith, JTS 72.2 (2021), pp. 738-765, official abstract and bibliographic record
Supports: Direct manuscript evidence only where a material Western reading is named; Bezae is not treated as the Western text as a whole.
IGNTP Codex Bezae Acts transcription, verse-addressable witness at 2:1–2:13, checked with SBLGNT and the NET tc note
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and unit coverage.
Exact location: Acts 2:1–2:13, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and punctuation control, without pretending one edition is a complete apparatus.
Exact location: SBLGNT official text, Acts 2:1-2:13
Open the Acts Greek text file ↗Lexical and grammatical evidence
STEP Bible Data
Tyndale House Cambridge
Tyndale House Cambridge, repository snapshot verified 2026
Supports: Morphology and lexical cross-check for words explicitly discussed in this unit.
Exact location: STEP Bible Data, TAGNT rows for Acts 2:1-2:13
Open source ↗open translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Acts
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-attached textual, translation, language, geography, chronology, and historical notes actually printed for the unit.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Acts PDF, printed pp. 2104-2205, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to 2:1–2:13
Open source ↗open university bible study course
Acts of the Apostles Course and Study Guides
Yale Divinity School faculty
Yale Bible Study, 2019
Supports: Introductory critical orientation to the unit's place in Luke-Acts, with contested judgments retained as interpretations.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study Acts course, course unit 'The Church Begins in Jerusalem,' Acts 1-4 study guide
Open source ↗open confessional commentary
The Acts of the Apostles
Alan J. Thompson
The Gospel Coalition, 2023
Supports: One complete confessional commentary reading, independently checked against the text and critical controls.
Exact location: Thompson, online Acts commentary, heading and paragraphs explicitly covering Acts 2:1–2:13
Open source ↗peer reviewed article abstract and metadata
The Jewishness of Luke-Acts: How Recent Scholarship Has Challenged the View that Luke-Acts Is Pro-Gentile and Anti-Jewish
Joshua Paul Smith
The Journal of Theological Studies 72.2, 2021
Supports: Abstract-supported control for Jewish continuity and Gentile inclusion in Acts 2:1–2:13, not a settlement of every conflict scene.
Exact location: Smith, JTS 72.2 (2021), pp. 738-765, official abstract and bibliographic record
Open source ↗primary manuscript transcription
Codex Bezae: Electronic Transcription of Acts
International Greek New Testament Project
Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing, University of Birmingham, 2012 transcription; current online edition
Supports: Direct manuscript evidence only where a material Western reading is named; Bezae is not treated as the Western text as a whole.
Exact location: IGNTP Codex Bezae Acts transcription, verse-addressable witness at 2:1–2:13, checked with SBLGNT and the NET tc note
Open source ↗