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Acts 2 is the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the events on the day of Pentecost, about 10 days after the ascension of Jesus Christ. The book containing this chapter is anonymous but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke.
Contents
Text
The original text is written in Koine Greek and is divided into 47 verses. Some most ancient manuscripts containing this chapter are:
Structure
This chapter can be grouped:
Coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost
The biblical narrative of Pentecost is given in the second chapter of the Book of Acts. Present were about one hundred and twenty followers of Christ (Acts 1:15), including the Twelve Apostles (i.e. the eleven faithful disciples and Matthias who had replaced Judas Iscariot), his mother Mary, various other women disciples and his brothers (Acts 1:14). Their reception of the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room and their empowerment to speak in tongues are recounted in Acts 2:1–6:
While those on whom the Spirit had descended were speaking in many languages, the Apostle Peter stood up with the eleven and proclaimed to the crowd that this event was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel: " . . . I will pour out my Spirit . . .". In Acts 2:17, it reads: "'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, / that I will pour out my Spirit on all fresh, / and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, / and your young men shall see visions, / and your old men shall dream dreams" Peter also mentions (2:15) that it was the third hour of the day (about 9:00 AM). Acts 2:41 then reports: "So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls."
Location of the First Pentecost
Traditional interpretation holds that the Descent of the Holy Spirit took place in the Upper Room, or Cenacle, on the day of Pentecost (Shavuot). The Upper Room was first mentioned in Luke 22:12-13. This Upper Room was to be the location of the Last Supper and the institution of Holy Communion. The next mention of an "upper room" is in Acts 1:13-14, the continuation of the Luke narrative, authored by the same biblical writer.
Here the disciples and women waited and they gave themselves up to constant prayer, until the arrival of the "wind" mentioned above.