Speaking in Tongues

Having narrated the reconstitution of the Twelve, Luke now records the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13). This episode is completely understandable as it reads, but there are many nuances that are unlocked when we have a fuller understanding of the significance of Pentecost.

What is Pentecost?

Pentecost (“the fiftieth day”) is the name used by Greek-speaking Jews for the festival known in Hebrew as Shavuot (“Feast of Weeks”). Originally it celebrated the wheat harvest when Jews thanked God for the blessings of the harvest by offering up leavened bread. But because Israel had arrived at Mt. Sinai in the third month after leaving Egypt (Exod 19:1) – that is, after Passover – Weeks picked up a secondary significance as the commemoration of the day God gave the Torah to the nation of Israel assembled at Mt. Sinai.

When the Jewish historian Josephus explains Pentecost in his Antiquities (3.10.6), he writes: “on the fiftieth day, which is Pentecost, but is called by the Hebrews Asartha…” Asartha is the Aramaic word for “solemn assembly” and indicates that in the 1st century CE Jews were celebrating Pentecost as a pilgrimage “Feast of Assembly.” Josephus does not give a reason why Jews would assemble on that date, but it is plausible that they did it in commemoration of the nation of Israel gathered at Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah.

The last piece of extra-biblical information on Pentecost comes from the Qumran Temple Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In this we learn that the Jews of Qumran celebrated three Pentecostal feasts, each fifty days apart: the feast of new grain, the feast of new wine, and the feast of new oil. If Luke knew of these multiple Pentecosts, he could have conflated them thinking that the Feast of Assembly was associated with the harvest of grain and wine. This would explain the crowd’s mockery of the apostles speaking in tongues in v. 13: “They are filled with new wine.”

Pentecost by El Greco (1541-1614)

Remembering Mt. Sinai

The Sinai theophany – manifestation of God – is described in Exod 19:16-19:

On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder.

In elaborating on this event, the Jewish philosopher Philo explained in The Decalogue (n. 46) that the fire of God descending on the mountain communicated with Israel in a language they could understand:

And a voice sounded forth from out of the midst of the fire which had flowed from heaven, a most marvelous and awful voice, the flame being endowed with articulate speech in a language familiar to the hearers, which expressed its words with such clearness and distinctness that the people seemed rather to be seeing than hearing it.

With this background in mind, we can now see how Luke alludes to the Sinai revelation with “the noise from heaven like a strong wind” and “tongues of fire” that came to rest on each of the disciples. The Hebrew word ruah and Greek word pneuma can both mean “wind” or “spirit.” Philo’s flame endowed with articulate speech familiar to the hearers resonates in “they began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them the ability.” And the gathered crowd remarked, “How is it that each of us hears them speaking in our own native language?”

Babel in Reverse

Paul speaks of the gift of tongues and compares it to the gift of prophecy in 1 Cor 14:2, 4-6, 9. He is referring to glossolalia, “ecstatic speech.” It is practiced in contemporary Pentecostal and charismatic services. What Luke is referring to in v. 4 is xenologia, “speaking in foreign tongues,” and is the first miracle recounted in Acts. Either the disciples were speaking various foreign languages – a speech miracle – as in v. 4, or the disciples were speaking their native Aramaic and the recipient understood them in their native language – an auditory miracle – as in v. 6.

Nowhere else in the NT do we have a reference to xenologia. Biblical scholars believe that the original tradition Luke inherited referred to glossolalia: “the disciples were filled with the Spirit and began speaking in tongues.” Luke modified this to “other tongues” to dramatize the apostolic proclamation to Jews from all over the world. In a sense, it is a reversal of the story of the Tower of Babel in which God confused human speech and scattered humanity over the face of the earth.

Map showing the 15 regions from which, according to Luke in Acts, pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem for the Feast of Assembly (also known as Pentecost).

Immediately before the Babel story was the Table of Nations passage which explained how the nations and peoples surrounding Israel descended from Noah’s three sons. There are similarities in the Pentecost episode to that passage when the assembled crowd of Jews list their places of origin. Luke’s list of fifteen different regions moving from east to west seems to have been something he inherited, but modified to suit his purposes. “Cretans and Arabs” seem to be an afterthought, appearing as they do after the parenthetical comment of the visitors from Rome being Jews and converts. Rome, itself, being a city and not a region, doesn’t quite fit. And you would expect Judeans to understand the language of Galileans, so why are they mentioned?

Luke wants to emphasize how the Jews gathered in Israel for Pentecost/Feast of Assembly represent the regathered Twelve Tribes who were scattered across the earth. And, preaching to them for the first time are the reconstituted Twelve. They were empowered by the Holy Spirit descending on them like fire, gifting them with the ability to speak in foreign tongues.

Jesus commissioned the Twelve to be witnesses to him “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, even to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Pentecost is known as the birth day of the Church because that is when it started living out its mission to the world.

Replacing Judas

Wedged between the stories of Jesus’ ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is a short report on the reconstitution of Jesus’ inner circle known as “the Twelve” (Acts 1:15-26). This brief passage is notable for two things: (1) an explanation of what happened to Judas and (2) the procedure for choosing his replacement.

What is a Disciple?

Many people only casually familiar with the gospel stories would recognize the terms “the twelve disciples” or “the twelve apostles” and could probably name Peter and one or two others as members of the group. But this should not be understood as there only being twelve disciples or twelve apostles. There were more than just twelve disciples; according to Luke, there were at least 70 (10:1). And Paul was an apostle, but definitely not one of the Twelve.

In today’s terminology, anyone who follows the example of Jesus with commitment and devotion would be called a disciple, either in the 1^st or the 21^st century. But, with few exceptions, the evangelists tend to restrict the title “disciple” to those who were called and left everything behind to physically follow Jesus during his public ministry. When Peter proposed to fill the empty seat left by Judas, the qualifications laid out in vv. 21-22 define a disciple: one of the men who has followed Jesus from his baptism by John until his ascension. Even a woman like Mary Magdalene, who seems to meet the criteria for discipleship, is never called a disciple in any of the gospels.

The title of disciple is not used outside the gospels and Acts. Paul, however, does refer to apostles and considers himself one. The word “apostle” means “one who is sent.” The gospels report that the Twelve were briefly sent on a missionary journey inside Israel and, after the resurrection, commissioned to baptize and witness to the resurrection. But there’s scant evidence that the Twelve served as missionary apostles to the world in the way that Paul and Barnabas did. And, according to Paul, at least one woman named Junia was “prominent among the apostles” (Rom 16:7).

The Twelve

Of the many called by Jesus to leave everything and follow him, there were twelve who were part of his inner circle. First among them is Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, followed by James and John, the sons of Zebedee. The second group of four are Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew. The final four gets a little confusing with James of Alphaeus, Simon the Cananean/Zealot, and either Thaddeus (Mark and Matthew) or Jude of James (Luke). Judas Iscariot is always listed last.

The twelve apparently were meant to symbolize the regathering of the twelve tribes of Israel in the kingdom of God. It was a prophetic action meant to proclaim, and to some degree actualize, the kingdom. By choosing these twelve men, Jesus was prophetically setting in motion the regathering of the twelve tribes. In Matt 19:28 and Luke 22:30, Jesus promises them that “you shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Part of the Remorse of Judas and Crucifixion fresco, by Giovanni Canavesio, 1491. Luke 22:3 states that Satan had entered Judas and led him to betray Jesus. The reference to Judas bursting open in Acts 1:18 was interpreted as Satan forcibly exiting. In this grotesque image, I believe the artist was trying to convey the devil devouring Judas' soul.

The Last Days of Judas

Because of his notoriety in having betrayed Jesus, Judas Iscariot appears last in every list of the Twelve. According to Matthew 27:3-10, feeling remorse for what he had done, Judas returned his payment of thirty pieces of silver and hanged himself. Having determined that they cannot return blood money to the Temple treasure, the chief priests used the money to buy a potter’s field as a place to bury foreigners. This field became known as “the Field of Blood.”

Acts 1:18-19 give us a different version of the death of Judas and the origin of the Field of Blood. Awkwardly intruding into Peter’s speech, these parenthetical verses tell how Judas bought a plot of ground with his ill-gotten money and then he laid prostrate (or swelled up) and burst open in the middle, his guts spilling out. That is why the field was called Field of Blood.

In a third, non-biblical, account by Papias (c. 70-163 CE), Judas’ body had swelled up to the point where a passing wagon struck him and his guts spilled out.

No matter the actual cause of Judas’ death, since it happened shortly after the crucifixion, his violent end was seen as God’s punishment on a wicked person.

Reconstituting the Twelve

The death of Judas left an empty slot that needed to be filled in order to maintain the prophetic action of the regathering of the twelve tribes of Israel in the kingdom of God. Peter spoke to the gathered community and Luke tells us they were 120 in number. The number is somewhat surprising because in the previous passage we are only told of the Eleven, the women followers, and Jesus’ family (Mary and his brothers).

Of these 120, two are nominated to fill Judas’ spot. One is named Matthias and the other is known by three different names: “Joseph called Barsabbas, also known as Justus” (v. 23). Barsabbas (son of Sabba) is his Semitic name; Justus his Latin name.

But how to choose between them? Just as Jesus selected the original Twelve, he would choose Judas’ replacement. The casting of lots was seen as a means of ascertaining God’s will (cf. Prov 16:33). The lot fell on Matthias and he took his place alongside the Eleven.

After this passage, Matthias is never mentioned again. The Twelve fade from view. In Acts 6:6, the Twelve are last mentioned appointing seven men to take over food distribution. When James of Zebedee is executed by Herod Agrippa (12:1), there is no mention of the need to replace him. The Twelve were the founding members of the regathered twelve tribes and thus had fulfilled the role Jesus intended for them. In the following story of Pentecost, Peter and the other Eleven will give their first testimony to an Israel gathered for the first great feast day following Passover. It is fitting that this initial testimony of the resurrection be made by the apostles to the Twelve Tribes of God’s people.