Which apostle preached to the crowd at pentecost

The text tells us they were all united in their commitment to prayer. When the Day of Pentecost arrived they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. What appear to them as individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them.

They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as he Spirit enabled them. They quickly shifted from inside the upper room where the disciples had gathered to the street outside where the gospel is already drawing a crowd.

Never was there a more international crowd as those days in Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost. Who would have ever thought that Peter would have been at Pentecost when in the midst of a hostile crowd, Peter denied that he was a disciple of Christ or ever knew him.

But the Spirit has breathed new life into a once cowardly disciple and created a new man who now has the gift of bold speech. Peter uses this miracle as an occasion for the proclamation of the good news. This is the first Christian sermon ever preached. A renewed Peter stands up before this vast crowd and raises his voice to address them. The trouble is, much of his audience would have had difficulty understanding him e.

For this reason I suggest that Aramaic is less likely than Hebrew. Of course, if Peter did give the sermon in Aramaic, the gift of tongues or as some would more specifically state--the gift of interpretation of tongues could have made his words known to the audience.

Peter could have spoken in Aramaic, but Divine intervention would have been needed. That the gift of tongues was operative that day is clearly stated in Acts So any language is possible , but if the goal were to enable the audience to understand the sermon, no human language would have been more effective than Greek.

I have listed the possibilities in the order I consider most to least likely. Aramaic or literally anything else is possible if the understanding was gained through the gift of tongues or the gift of interpretation of tongues. The segue introduced by Luke in Acts suggests to me that the gift of tongues effectively got people's attention--though some of that attention was negative--and then Peter proceeded to demonstrate that there was no drunkenness or trickery going on, by addressing them plainly--in Greek.

My own observation of the way God uses miracles is this: He uses them to bless people, not merely to impress people. As a good Father He lets people do the best they are able rather than always doing everything for them. Perhaps the gift of tongues served to bring the crowd; perhaps it continued to operate for the duration of the sermon.

My leaning would be that if Greek could get the job done, God may very well have just allowed Peter's sermon to proceed in Greek. Although it has been commonplace in recent generations to suggest that Jesus, Peter, and others of their socio-economic status spoke only Aramaic, the evidence supporting the claim is remarkably fragile.

Why have many scholars concluded that Mishnaic Hebrew was not spoken in 1st century Galilee? It's a claim oft-repeated but seldom argued from the evidence. Baltes offers a trenchant criticism here of the assumptions that led to this conclusion. There is a modern myth that only extremely well-educated people speak more than one language this myth is particularly popular among Americans--I can say that because I'm an American!

This is a sampling error. Greek did not become the lingua franca of the eastern Mediterranean until Alexander. English did not become the lingua franca of global business until the economic heyday of the British Empire. The evidence of a living Hebrew language at the time of Jesus has invalidated the Aramaic interpretation. Buth and C. For a high-level discussion of the uses of Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek in Jesus' milieu, see my thoughts on this site here.

For a much deeper dive, see this video on my channel: What languages did Jesus speak? Towards the end of the second century there was a man called Papias who liked to obtain and transmit such information as he could glean about the early days of the Church. Here is what Papias says:. For he was not a hearer of the Lord or a follower of his. So that Mark was not wrong in writing down some things in this way from memory, for his one concern was neither to omit nor to falsify anything that he had heard.

Barclay, W. Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press. However, it was humanly impossible for a normal human being to preach in all the languages mentioned in Acts This must have been a miracle of hearing for everyone to hear in their own language.

There own language means they weren't hearing one common language. Sign up to join this community. Context Crossref Comment Greek. Verse Click for Chapter. Make no mistake about this. Berean Literal Bible But Peter, having stood up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke forth to them: "Men of Judea and all those inhabiting Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give heed to my words.

American Standard Version But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spake forth unto them,'saying , Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and give ear unto my words. Douay-Rheims Bible But Peter standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spoke to them: Ye men of Judea, and all you that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known to you, and with your ears receive my words. English Revised Version But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spake forth unto them, saying, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and give ear unto my words.

Good News Translation Then Peter stood up with the other eleven apostles and in a loud voice began to speak to the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me and let me tell you what this means.

In a loud voice he said to them, "Men of Judea and everyone living in Jerusalem! You must understand this, so pay attention to what I say. International Standard Version Then Peter stood up among the eleven apostles and raised his voice to address them: "Men of Judea and everyone living in Jerusalem!