 |  |
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 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 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 until after
morning prayers, the third hour being equivalent to 9a.m. with us. Commenting on this
charge against the apostles, Severian says, "Behold their folly, convicted by season itself!
How could there be new wine at Pentecost? But calumny is blind". Pentecost was a
season of rejoicing:--
"Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from
such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. And thou shalt keep the feast of
weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which
thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee.
And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and
thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the
stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the
Lord thy God hath chosen to place His name there" (Deut. 16: 9-11).
The reader may remember that the first epistle to the Corinthians keeps count of
several of Israel's feasts:--
PASSOVER.--"For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us" (I Cor. 5: 7).
"The cup of blessing" (I Cor. 10: 16).
UNLEAVENED BREAD.--"Therefore let us keep holyday, not with old leaven, neither
with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (I Cor. 5: 8).
FIRSTFRUITS.--"Christ is risen from the dead, and becomes the firstfruits of them that
slept" (I Cor. 15: 20).
PENTECOST.--"I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost" (I Cor. 16: 8).