Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 2:15
For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is [but] the third hour of the day.
15. are not drunken ] Wine was drunk by the Jews with flesh only, and, founding the custom on Exo 16:8, they ate bread in the morning, and flesh in the evening, and so took no wine till late in the day. So Ecc 10:16-17, by the “princes who eat in the morning ” are meant those who eat to the full of all sorts of food and so take wine, and their opposites are next described as those who eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness.
The paraphrase of this passage given in the Targum is worth notice in illustration of the text of the Acts. It reads, “Woe to thee, O land of Israel, when there shall reign over thee Jeroboam the wicked, and shall exterminate from the midst of thee the offering of the morning sacrifice, and when thy lords shall eat bread before any man has offered the perpetual offering of the morning. Blessed art thou, land of Israel, at the time when Hezekiah the son of Ahaz (who is of the genealogy of the house of David) shall reign, who will be a mighty hero in the law, and fulfil all the duties of the commandments, and then thy princes shall only eat bread after the perpetual offering has been offered (i.e. their eating shall be) at the fourth hour, from the labour of their hands in the strength of the law, and not in faintness and blindness of the eyes.”
third hour of the day ] Only one quarter of the day was yet over. The Jews divided the day and night each into twelve parts, which they called hours but which varied in length as the daylight was less or more. When the day was as long as the night the third hour would be nine o’clock in the morning.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For these are not drunken … – The word these here includes Peter himself, as well as the others. The charge doubtless extended to all.
The third hour of the day – The Jews divided their day into twelve equal parts, reckoning from sunrise to sunset. Of course the hours were longer in summer than in winter. The third hour would correspond to our nine oclock in the morning. The reasons why it was so improbable that they would be drunk at that time were the following:
(1) It was the hour of morning worship, or sacrifice. It was highly improbable that, at an hour usually devoted to public worship, they would be intoxicated.
(2) It was not usual for even drunkards to become drunk in the daytime, 1Th 5:7, They that be drunken are drunken in the night.
(3) The charge was, that they had become drunk with wine. Ardent spirits, or alcohol, that curse of our times, was unknown. It was very improbable that so much of the weak wine commonly used in Judea should have been taken at that early hour as to produce intoxication.
(4) It was a regular practice with the Jews not to eat or drink anything until after the third hour of the day, especially on the Sabbath, and on all festival occasions. Sometimes this abstinence was maintained until noon. So universal was this custom, that the apostle could appeal to it with confidence, as a full refutation of the charge of drunkenness at that hour. Even the intemperate were not accustomed to drink before that hour. The following testimonies on this subject from Jewish writers are from Lightfoot: This was the custom of pious people in ancient times, that each one should offer his morning prayers with additions in the synagogue, and then return home and take refreshment (Maimonides, Shabb., chapter 30). They remained in the synagogue until the sixth hour and a half, and then each one offered the prayer of the Minchah before he returned home, and then he ate. The fourth is the hour of repast, when all eat. One of the Jewish writers says that the difference between thieves and honest men might be known by the fact that the former might be seen in the morning at the fourth hour eating and sleeping, and holding a cup in his hand. But for those who made pretensions to religion, as the apostles did, such a thing was altogether improbable.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. But the third hour of the day] That is, about nine o’clock in the morning, previously to which the Jews scarcely ever ate or drank, for that hour was the hour of prayer. This custom appears to have been so common that even the most intemperate among the Jews were not known to transgress it; Peter therefore spoke with confidence when he said, these are not drunken-seeing it is but the third hour of the day, previously to which even the intemperate did not use wine.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For these; this proves that the other apostles spake as well as Peter, and were vindicated by him.
Are not drunken; he mildly and solidly confutes their calumny.
The third hour of the day, which answers to our nine oclock in the morning, and was the ordinary time for their morning sacrifice and prayer, before which time they did not eat or drink any thing; nay, it is thought on festival days it was usual with them not to eat or drink until the sixth hour, that is, noon time, that they might be more intent upon and fit for the service of the day. How little soever (to our shame) such an argument would be of proof now, it was in their more sober times very conclusive.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. these are not drunkenmeaning,not the Eleven, but the body of the disciples.
but the third hournineA.M. (see Ecc 10:16;Isa 5:11; 1Th 5:17).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For these are not drunken,…. Meaning not only the eleven apostles, but the rest of the hundred and twenty, on whom also the Spirit was poured forth, and who were endowed with his extraordinary gifts:
as ye suppose; and had given out that they were: and this shows the sense of being filled with new wine; that they meant that they were really drunk, and which they believed, or at least would have had others believe it; the unreasonableness of which supposition and suggestion the apostle argues from the time of day:
seeing it is but the third hour of the day; or nine of the clock in the morning: for till this time it was not usual with the Jews, if men of any sobriety or religion, so much as to taste anything: the rules are these h,
“it is forbidden a man to taste anything, or do any work after break of day, until he has prayed the morning prayer.”
Now
“the morning prayer, the precept concerning it is, that a man should begin to pray as soon as the sun shines out; and its time is until the end of the fourth hour, which is the third part of the day i.”
So that a man might not taste anything, either of eatables or drinkables, until the fourth hour, or ten o’clock in the morning: hence it is said k, that
“after they offered the daily sacrifice they ate bread,
, “at the time of four hours”:”
or on the fourth hour, and sooner than this it was not lawful to eat, even ever so little; and whoever did, was not reckoned fit to be conversed with.
“Says R. Isaac l, whoever eats a green or herb before the fourth hour, it is forbidden to converse with him; and the same says, it is unlawful to eat a raw herb before the fourth hour. Amemar, and Mar Zutra, and Rab Ashe were sitting, and they brought before them a raw herb before the fourth hour. Amemar and Rab Ashe ate, and Mar Zutra did not eat: they said to him, what is thy meaning? (he replied) that R. Isaac said, whoever eats a herb before the fourth hour, it is forbidden to converse with him.”
The time for taking food by persons of different characters, is thus expressed by them:
“the first hour is the time of eating for the Lydians, the second for thieves, the third for heirs, the fourth for labourers, the fifth for every man; is it not so? Saith R. Papa, the fourth is the time of repast for every man; but (the truth is) the fourth is the time of eating for every man, the fifth for labourers, and the sixth for the disciples of the wise men m.”
Hence that advice n,
“”at the fourth hour”, go into a cook’s shop, (or tavern,) if thou seest a man drinking wine, and holding the cup in his hands, and slumbering, inquire about him, if he is one of the wise doctors, c.”
The “gloss” upon it is,
“at the fourth hour, for that is the time of eating, when all go into the shops (or taverns) to eat.”
Now whereas they that are drunken are drunken in the night, and not in the day, and much less so soon in the day, when it was not usual, at least with religious men, to have tasted anything by this time and whereas the apostles, and their company, were sober and religious men, and had never done thing to forfeit their character, it was unreasonable to suppose anything of this kind in them.
h Maimon. Hilch, Tophilla, c. 6. sect. 4. T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 28. 2. i lb. c. 3. sect. 1. Vid. T. Beracot, fol. 26. 2. k Targum in Eccl. x. 17. l T. Bab. Betacot, fol. 44. 2. m T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 10. 1. n T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 83. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As ye suppose ( ). Note use of (ye) for decided emphasis.
The third hour ( ). Three o’clock in the day Jewish time, nine Roman. Drunkenness belongs to the night (1Th 5:7). It was a quick, common sense reply, and complete answer to their suspicion.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Third hour. Nine in the morning : the hour of morning prayer.
Compare 1Th 5:7.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For these are not drunken, as ye suppose,” (ou gar hos humeis hupolanbabete houtoi methuousin) “Because these men (who witness in your dialects, native or national tongues) are not inebriated or drunk as you all imagine or suppose,” and charge in scoffing, derision, Act 2:13. The Jews of a similar attitude had charged and circulated that our Lord was “a winebibber and a glutton,” Mat 11:19; Luk 7:34.
2) “Seeing it is but the third hour of the day,” (estin gar hora trite tes hemeras) “For the simple reason it is only the third hour (nine a.m.) of the day,” the hour of morning prayer or devotion. What is more they did not normally even eat until the sixth hour of the day (high noon) on feast days. The heart and imagination that is carnally inclined to evil continually seemed to work overtime in the scoffing, deriding Jews early on that Pentecost morning, Gen 6:5. The charges were, beyond reasonable doubt, as false in nature as the scoffing of the Jews was wicked in unbelief, Pro 1:23-30.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(15) Seeing it is but the third hour of the day.The appeal is made to the common standard of right feeling. Drunkenness belonged to the night (1Th. 5:7). It was a mark of extremest baseness for men to rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink (Isa. 5:11; comp. also Ecc. 10:16). Were the disciples likely to be drunk at 9 a. m., and that on the morning of the Day of Pentecost, after a night spent in devotion, and when all decent Jews were fasting?
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Not drunken Base and preposterous as their ribaldry was, Peter replies with a most elevated calmness of denial.
The third hour Eight or nine o’clock, the Jewish hour of morning prayer, when none but profligates, as no one supposed these to be, were drunken.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“For these are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.”
He first points out the unlikelihood of these men being drunk. It is too early in the day. Most Jews would only drink wine when they ate flesh and it was usual to eat flesh in the evening. Furthermore even heartier drinkers were unlikely to have drunk enough to be in such a state by roughly 9:00 am on a Feast Day, for they would not even have had their first meal, and this was a recognised time of prayer (compare Act 3:1). So drinking by this time would simply not have been done. They were here for prayer in preparation for the more religious side of the Feast at the Temple. Such drinking as there was would come later.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Act 2:15. Seeing it is but the third hour of the day. Such of the Jews as shamefullyimitatedtheirHeathenneighbours,anddranktoolargelyatthefestival,did not use to take such criminal liberties till after the sacrifices were offered, and the oblations made; but the morning sacrifices had not been now offered, to which, as some think, St. Peter might allude. Josephus tells us, that, on the feast days, the Jews seldom ate or drank till noon; which, if true, would render the calumny here referred to the more incredible.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
Ver. 15. Seeing it is but the third hour ] This was then an argument more than probable. Now men are grown such husbands, as that by that time they will return their stocks, and have their brains crowing before day.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
15. ] , see above.
] the first hour of prayer : before which no pious Jew might eat or drink: “Non licet homini gustare quidquam, antequam oraverit orationem suam.” Berachoth. f. 28. 2; Lightf., Wetst.
But perhaps we need not look further than the ordinary intent of such a defence the improbability of intoxication at that hour of the morning. See Ecc 10:16 ; Isa 5:11 ; 1Th 5:7 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 2:15 . : the words refer to the hour of early prayer, 9 A.M., the Jews previously did not partake of food, and on festal days they abstained from food and drink until the sixth hour (twelve o’clock). But if Schrer (see on Act 3:1 , and Blass, in loco ) is right in specifying other hours for prayer, the expression may mean that St. Peter appeals to the early period of the day as a proof that the charge of drunkenness was contrary to all reasonable probability.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
suppose. Greek. hupolambano. See note on Act 1:9.
seeing = for.
the third hour: i.e. 9am. App-165. Compare 1Th 5:7.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
15.] , see above.
] the first hour of prayer: before which no pious Jew might eat or drink: Non licet homini gustare quidquam, antequam oraverit orationem suam. Berachoth. f. 28. 2; Lightf., Wetst.
But perhaps we need not look further than the ordinary intent of such a defence-the improbability of intoxication at that hour of the morning. See Ecc 10:16; Isa 5:11; 1Th 5:7.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 2:15. , ye suppose) He does not say, As some of you mockingly say. He speaks gently.-, these) He speaks in the third person, not excluding himself and the rest of the apostles. Even his speech was a sufficient defence of himself, the very act of standing was a defence to the rest of the apostles with him: and they, whom he is instructing, had used this expression, , these, Act 2:7.-, third) A drunken man generally does not know the hour: nor is any one readily intoxicated in the morning, especially in a place where he is at home: 1Th 5:7, They that be drunken are drunken in the night. It was the feast-day of Pentecost; and on feast-days the Jews used to abstain from eating up to mid-day. See var. lect. of Petitus, ch. 15. [The third hour of the Jews is what nine oclock in the forenoon is with us.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
these: 1Sa 1:15
seeing: Mat 20:3, 1Th 5:5-8
Reciprocal: Dan 6:10 – three Mar 15:25 – the Act 2:13 – These Rom 13:13 – as 1Th 5:7 – and they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5
These are not drunken. The unkind critics had only accused the apostles of being full of new wine, but Peter knew they were wanting to besmirch them with the charge of drunkenness, and hence he treated their remark from that viewpoint only. The third hour is the same as our 9 A. M. Isa 5:11 indicates that it was not the common practice to begin drinking in the early part of the day. Those people who arose early in the morning for that purpose were of a class that the prophet was condemning. Peter meant that it was too early in the day for these apostles to have become drunken, even if they had been using fermented wine, as that is a slow intoxicant anyway. And that would be especially true of these men who had been in the assembled condition all day, due to the sacredness of the occasion.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 2:15. These are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. The division of the day into twelve hours seems to have come into general use among the Jews during the captivity at Babylon. It is first mentioned by Daniel. The third hour here alluded to was about nine in the morning. It was the first of the three stated hours of prayer, the other two being noon, the sixth hour, and the ninth hour, when the evening sacrifice was offered. On Sabbath days and festivals, it was unusual for the Jews to eat or drink until the hour of morning prayer had expired; hence the extreme improbability of these many persons being already drunk at such an early hour of the day, and that day, too, a high festival, when it was not the custom even to touch food or drink till later.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See notes on verse 14
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
LAST DAYS
15-18. Peter proves by Joel the fulfillment of the latter-day prophecies on that notable occasion. The Edenic dispensation has come and gone, winding up with the terrible calamity of the Fall. The Antediluvian dispensation ran its race and went into the dark eclipse of Noahs flood. The Patriarchal culminated in Egyptian slavery, the awful plagues and the destruction in the Red Sea. The Mosaic launched from Sinai is now tottering like a drunken man and hastening to its awful slaughter by the Roman armies. Even the dispensation of our Saviors ministry, a wicked world and a fallen church united to obliterate in the bloody tragedy of Calvary. On this notable day, as Peter proves by Joel, the last dispensation is inaugurated. It is the climacteric glory of all, since the plan of salvation emanated from Eden under the preaching of Jehovah, i. e., the Excarnate Christ. The effulgent glory of this dispensation shines out in the faces of Spirit-filled saints. Man enjoyed the indwelling God before sin entered. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil (Joh 3:8). Hence, humanity must get back to the Edenic glory of the indwelling God. Christ must be incarnated an as expiatory Sufferer under the law, before the Holy Ghost can be incarnated as an indwelling Sanctifier. Hence the descension and incarnation of the Holy Ghost is confirmatory proof of the validity of Christs atonement, the perfect satisfaction of the violated law and the coronation of Christ, Mediatorial King in heaven. While in the former dispensation a prophet here and there succeeds in looking through the dim lights of type and prophecy, and by a mighty supernatural faith bounding forward into the anticipatory Pentecostal experience, now the types and symbols have all gone into the eclipse of glorious fulfillment. Not only our illiterate boys and girls, but even our servants, both male and female, are to receive the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire, be filled with the Holy Ghost and thus become burning incarnations of the Holy Ghost, before whose martyr heroism and seraphic light, princes and potentates pale and retreat and platoons of devils stampede. Aunt Amanda Smith comes from Southern slavery, by way of the wash-tub, to the front of the gospel ministry, where the princes of America, Europe, Asia and Africa learn wisdom at her feet. Bob Burkes, without a knowledge of the alphabet, gets sanctified, and edifies the multitudes, preaching alternate sermons with Dr. Carradine. Here we see that the Lord still speaks to His saints in dreams and visions; but these simple media of communication are even more prominent than in the former dispensation. In the latter all barriers are swept away. It is the glorious privilege of all Gods children to become the incarnations of the Holy Ghost, thus spiritually entering the glorious millennial theocracy and living anticipatively in the triumphs of the coming kingdom. We are well assured that we are not only living in the last days, which began at Pentecost, but we are in the time of the end. John said he was in the last hour; then we must be in the last moment. Totton and Dimbleby, the greatest chronologists of the age, expire the Gentile times with the vernal equinox of 1898. According to Lunar Chronology, used by the Jews and Mohammedans, the Gentile times expired seven years ago. The Calendar Chronology, generally used in Europe, runs them out in thirty-five years, and the Solar Chronology, used generally in America, runs them out in seventy years. Daniels period of the Tribulation (last chapter) is forty-five years. The Rapture of the Bride takes place before the Tribulation. Hence you see three out of four of these chronologies give us the Rapture overdue. Besides, the world is literally flooded with fulfillments of the latter-day prophecies.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 15
Third hour; about nine o’clock in the morning.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
2:15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is [but] the {i} third hour of the day.
(i) After the sunrise, which may be about seven or eight o’clock to us.