Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Acts · About this commentary
Every man in his own language
Acts 2:5-13
5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under the sky. · WEB
The crowd's bewilderment is precise: these are Galileans, and each hearer is hearing his own native speech — a sign aimed at the barrier that divides nations.
The crowd is described exactly. They are Jews, devout men, from every nation under the sky — resident in Jerusalem rather than passing through, which explains how so many language groups could be assembled and stay assembled through a sermon. The list that follows runs roughly from east to west: the old Persian territories first, then the provinces of Asia Minor including Cappadocia , then Egypt and the country around Cyrene , then visitors from the capital, then islanders and Arabians.
What astonishes them is stated twice, in two different words, and the second is the sharper. They heard them speaking in his own language, and then, more narrowly, everyone in our own native language — the word for the local speech of a place, the dialect a person is raised in rather than the trade language he does business in. These men are not hearing a translation. They are hearing home.
The objection they raise against their own experience is the honest one: aren't all these who speak Galileans? Galilee had a reputation for provincial speech, and a Galilean accent had already given Peter away once in a courtyard. The one thing everybody in the square can verify is that this group has no business knowing these languages, and that is precisely what makes the sign a sign.
The content is reported too, and it rules out an obvious misreading. They were not preaching yet; Peter's sermon has not begun. They were speaking the mighty works of God. The first use of the gift is praise, overheard, in languages the speakers had not learned — a fact worth holding beside the older story where languages were multiplied to scatter a proud building project Genesis 11:7–9. Here the multiplication of languages gathers rather than scatters, and nobody's language is taken away.
Two reactions close the scene, and both are recorded. Some were amazed and perplexed and asked what it meant, which is the right question. Others mocked and said the men were full of new wine, which is not an argument but is at least an admission that something out of the ordinary was going on. The text does not pretend to a unanimous response, here or anywhere afterward.
settled What this mark means