Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 2:8
And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
8. every man in our own tongue ] i.e. language. There is no description here of any jargon or incoherent speech, we are told of utterances tested by the ears of those who had spoken these languages from their youth. The only question on which from St Luke’s description we are left in uncertainty is this: whether the disciples did or did not understand the new words which they were enabled to utter. The only other place in the New Testament which throws any light on this matter is St Paul’s first Epistle to the Corinthians. For a consideration of the expressions which St Paul there employs concerning these marvellous gifts, see note after Act 2:13.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wherein we were born – That is, as we say, in our native language; what is spoken where we were born.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. How hear we every man in our own tongue] Some have supposed from this that the miracle was not so much wrought on the disciples as on their hearers: imagining that, although the disciples spoke their own tongue, yet every man so understood what was spoken as if it had been spoken in the language in which he was born. Though this is by no means so likely as the opinion which states that the disciples themselves spoke all these different languages, yet the miracle is the same, howsoever it be taken; for it must require as much of the miraculous power of God to enable an Arab to understand a Galilean, as to enable a Galilean to speak Arabic. But that the gift of tongues was actually given to the apostles, we have the fullest proof; as we find particular ordinances laid down by those very apostles for the regulation of the exercise of this gift; see 1Co 14:1, &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
signifies commonly a different way of speaking, or pronouncing in the same language; as our southern, and northern men differ in some words and pronunciation, though speaking both the English tongue. Gods works being most perfect, the apostles might speak, not only the same language which all understood, but in the same idiom and propriety of speech which agreed to every one best.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And how hear we every man in our own tongue,…. Them speaking, as the Ethiopic version reads; that is, we everyone of us hear one or another, speak in the same language,
wherein we were born; our native language; for though these men were Jews by descent, yet were born and brought up in other countries, which language they spake; and not the Hebrew, or Syriac, or Chaldee.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1) “And how hear we,” (kai pos hemeis akouomen) “And how do we hear,” for they were hearing and comprehending what was being witnessed by the members of the Holy Spirit empowered church, which had been empowered on that very day to go into all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, Act 1:8.
2) “Every man in our own tongue,” (hekastos tes idia dialekto hemon) “Each of us (how do we hear) in his own dialect,” so that there was no basis for failing to understand the testimony of Jesus Christ that was being effectively witnessed by the church, throughout the Jerusalem area that morning very early, perhaps even during the night which preceded the light of the Hebrew day, Luk 24:45-47.
3) “Wherein we were born?” (en he egennethemen) “in which we were born?” in the dialect of the language of the national origin of each, in their native land tongue. Yet, this is what prophecy had affirmed would come to Israel in her years of rebellion against God, Deu 28:49; Isa 28:11-12; as specifically interpreted by Paul, 1Co 14:21-22. The countries of their nativity covering the continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa are as follows:
The tongues spoken on this occasion were intelligible, recognizable, national languages, literally spoken and literally understood – not some imagined “heavenly gibberish.”
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(8) And how hear we every man in our own tongue?We have here, it is obvious, a composite utterance, in which the writer embodies the manifold expressions which came from those who represented the several nationalities that are afterwards enumerated.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Wherein we were born The tongue of the country of their birth. A Persian Jew understood Persic, an Egyptian one Coptic; just as an American Jew knows English, and in addition perhaps the vernacular Hebrew or Aramaic.
How shall we consider the house such as to admit so large an audience as this one hundred and twenty, three thousand devout hearers, and perhaps, five hundred mockers? We may figure an eastern structure (see fig., vol. i, pp. 121, 326) so built as to enclose a square central area, lined with galleries looking in upon the area from the four sides. The gathering crowds, called by the supernatural sound, fill the area and galleries; and from the most elevated gallery we conceive Peter as addressing the whole.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Ver. 8. Every man in our our tongue ] Cleopatra was so skilful in the Eastern tongues that she could readily answer the Ethiopian, Hebrew, Arabian, Syrian, Median, Parthian ambassadors that came unto her; turning and tuning her tongue with ease (as an instrument of many strings, a saith Plutarch) to what dialect soever she listed.
a
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
8 11 .] This question is broken, in construction, by the enumeration of Act 2:9-10 , and then Act 2:11 takes up the construction again from Act 2:8 . As regards the catalogue itself , of course it cannot have been thus delivered as part of a speech by any hearer on the occasion , but is inserted into a speech expressing the general sense of what was said, and put, according to the usage of all narrative, into the mouths of all. The words . . are very decisive as to the nature of the miracle. The hearers could not have thus spoken, had they been spiritually uplifted into the comprehension of some ecstatic language spoken by the disciples. They were not spiritually acted on at all, but spoke the matter of fact : they were surprised at each recognizing, so far from his country, and in the mouths of Galilans, his own native tongue.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 2:8 . used distributively as Act 2:11 . shows and hence cannot be taken to mean that only one language common to all, viz. , Aramaic, was spoken on the outpouring of the Spirit.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
tongue. Greek. dialektos, as in Act 2:6.
wherein. In (App-104.) which.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
8-11.] This question is broken, in construction, by the enumeration of Act 2:9-10, and then Act 2:11 takes up the construction again from Act 2:8. As regards the catalogue itself,-of course it cannot have been thus delivered as part of a speech by any hearer on the occasion, but is inserted into a speech expressing the general sense of what was said, and put, according to the usage of all narrative, into the mouths of all. The words . . are very decisive as to the nature of the miracle. The hearers could not have thus spoken, had they been spiritually uplifted into the comprehension of some ecstatic language spoken by the disciples. They were not spiritually acted on at all, but spoke the matter of fact: they were surprised at each recognizing, so far from his country, and in the mouths of Galilans, his own native tongue.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 2:8. , and yet how) The period is concluded at Act 2:11. For the words, How do we hear, each of us in our own tongue in which we were born, which sound abrupt by themselves (with which comp. Act 2:6), are, after the long parenthesis, whereby the sense of the sentence is elegantly kept in suspense, resumed in these words, We do hear them speak, etc. The language is eminently suited to express wonder. Comp. what we have observed on such parentheses in our comment on Gregorii Thaum. Paneg. 94. The apostles were representatives of a variety both of dialects, for instance, Pontic and Asiatic Greek, and of tongues.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
tongue
language.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Reciprocal: 1Sa 10:11 – What is this Psa 145:12 – make known 1Co 12:28 – diversities
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
8
Wherein we were born denotes the language peculiar to the country where they were born and where they had acquired the individual speech.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 2:8. In our own tongue, wherein we were born. Foreign Jews had long lost their acquaintance with Hebrew and its various dialects. The translation of the LXX. bore witness to the wide diffusion of the Greek language among the chosen people, who, born and brought up in distant lands, were utterly ignorant of Hebrew. At Jerusalem at this time there were separate synagogues where various languages were used in the services, and to these the foreign Jews resident in the city used to resort (see chap. Act 6:9).
List of Nations to whom the Strangers belonged, who heard the Disciples speak in their own Languages.
The catalogue contains the names of fifteen nations, in each of which a different language was spoken. In some few instances (as in Parthia, Media, Elam), different dialects, for all practical purposes, ranked as distinct languages. These countries, from various causes, had become the principal residences of the dispersed Jewish nation. The list seems roughly to follow a certain geographical plan, which proceeds from the northeast to north-west, then to the south, and lastly, to the west. But this plan is not adhered to in all cases, for the last two names are independent of any such arrangement. The names, of course, never formed part of the words uttered by the astonished crowd gathered round the house where the miracle had taken place, but were added by St. Luke when he finally revised the Acts.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See notes on verse 6
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
8. E. g., while Peter was preaching in Greek the Parthian heard him in his native Chaldaic tongue, the Median, the Elamite and the Mesopotamian each heard in his own native dialect. And regardless of the language spoken by any One, every auditor heard in his own language. To human apprehension this was miraculous superfluity, as either of these miracles covered all the ground, and to our diagnosis precluded the necessity of the other. But in this double miracle we have a wonderful manifestation of the divine beneficence and the superabundance of redeeming grace (Rom 5:20). This double miracle largely accounts for the paradoxical efficiency of the gospel on that wonderful occasion when the world saw a brilliant prelude, adumbrating the ineffable glories of the coming kingdom.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
2:8 {e} And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
(e) Not that they spoke one language, and different languages were heard, but the apostles spoke with different languages: for otherwise the miracle would have been in the hearers, whereas it is really in the speakers; Nazianzen in his oration of Whitsunday.