Moses a type of Christ.

Prison for Peter.

We cannot but speak.

Threatened: Let go.

A2 4:23 to 5:11. PENTECOST  Signs and wonders.

REPEATED.

David's testimony.

The kings of the earth rebel.

Place shaken.

Filled with holy spirit.

All things common.

Possessions sold

(part of price kept back).

Great fear on the church.

B2 5:12-42.

Miracles of healing.

WITHSTOOD.

Solomon's Porch.

Prison for Peter.

We ought to obey God rather

than man.

Beaten: Let go.

A3 6:1-7.

The ministry of the deacons;

EXTENDED.

`Full of holy spirit'.

B3 6:8 to 8:1.

Moses a type of Christ.

REJECTED.

Stephen stoned.

The introduction of Saul strikes the first note in Israel's rejection.

To attempt a literary structure of these chapters would occupy about one half of the present chapter, and is

uncalled for, but with the foregoing hints the reader will be able to dig for himself and find more and more treasure.

Let us now return to Peter's explanation of what the happenings on the day of Pentecost really meant. And here

we are at a disadvantage. Most of us who know anything at all about Pentecost have received that knowledge

through tradition. We were sure that it was a feast of the church; we were convinced that on the day of Pentecost the

church was brought into being; we were positive that there were gathered together on that day a multitude of both

Jews and Gentiles who, by having all things in common, gave expression to the truth of the One Body and its

fellowship. Yet all these fondly held views vanish in the light of actual truth, for Acts 2 knows nothing of a feast of

the church; it knows nothing of that unity in which there is neither Greek nor Jew; it gives no countenance to the

idea that a single Gentile, other than a proselyte, listened to Peter on that momentous day:

`But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said ... ` (Acts 2:14).

We have drawn attention elsewhere to the peculiar word used here for `said' (apophtheggomai), which also

occurs in Acts 2:4 in the phrase `as the Spirit gave them utterance'. We are to understand by this that Peter's

explanation of the meaning of Pentecost was an exercise of that recently conferred power from on high. We have

already referred to the fact that nearly every important act and word both of Peter and of Paul is echoed later in the

Acts. The word apophtheggomai occurs but once more, namely in Acts 26:25, this time in the record of Paul's

defence before Agrippa. Others will be noted as we proceed.

The multitude charged the apostles with being drunk with new or sweet wine. `He is sweetened' was a way of

saying that a person was drunk. The Rabbins speak of a demon, Cordicus, who possessed those who were drunk

with new wine (Gittin Cap 7). `And Rabba saith a man is bound to make himself so mellow (or sweet) on the feast

of Purim, that he shall not be able to distinguish between "Cursed be Haman" and "Blessed be Mordecai"`

(Lightfoot Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations). Peter's remark, `It is but the third hour', has little meaning to us,

but it was the teaching of the Rabbins that a man should abstain from eating and drinking on Sabbath days and feasts