Five-minute study · Day 250 · Acts 2
Acts 2:1
A word worth stopping on: Pentecost πεντηκοστή pentekoste
'And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.' The word 'Pentecost' is pentekoste, Greek for 'fiftieth.' It refers to the fiftieth day after Passover, the Jewish festival of Shavuot. Shavuot had two layers of meaning. The agricultural layer: it celebrated the wheat harvest, the first loaves baked from the new grain. The theological layer: by the first century, Jewish tradition had connected Shavuot to the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, fifty days after the Exodus. The Spirit arrived on this day. The timing reframed Sinai. What was given on tablets of stone was now being given on tablets of the heart.
Word study: Pentecost
- Greek
- πεντηκοστή
- Pronounced
- pentekoste
- Strong's
- G4005
- Definition
- Fiftieth. The Greek name for the Jewish festival of Shavuot ('Weeks'), celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover. In the Jewish calendar, it marked the wheat harvest and, by the first century, the giving of the Torah at Sinai. In Christian usage, it became the name for the day the Holy Spirit was poured out on the early church (Acts 2).
Pentekoste appears 3 times in the New Testament (Acts 2:1, 20:16, 1 Corinthians 16:8). BDAG defines it as 'Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Passover.' The word is simply the Greek ordinal for 'fiftieth' (from pente, 'five'), applied to the Jewish festival that fell on the fiftieth day of the Omer count (Leviticus 23:15-16).
The Hebrew name for the festival is Shavuot ('Weeks'), from the seven complete weeks counted between Passover and the festival (Leviticus 23:15: 'ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete'). The agricultural significance is explicit in the Torah: Shavuot was the festival of the wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22), when two loaves of leavened bread baked from new wheat were presented as a wave offering (Leviticus 23:17). It was one of the three pilgrimage festivals (along with Passover and Tabernacles) when all male Israelites were expected to appear at the Temple in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 16:16).
Keener's commentary on Acts identifies the Sinai connection as the crucial theological backdrop for Acts 2. The Book of Jubilees (2nd century BC) dates the Sinai theophany to the third month after the Exodus, which corresponds to Shavuot. By the first century AD, the Sinai-Shavuot connection was well established in Jewish tradition (Talmud, Shabbat 86b; Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana 12). The festival that celebrated the giving of the Torah at Sinai became the day the Spirit was given to the church.
The parallels between Sinai and Pentecost are specific. At Sinai: fire on the mountain (Exodus 19:18). At Pentecost: 'cloven tongues like as of fire' (Acts 2:3). At Sinai: the voice of God in a language the people could hear (Exodus 20:1). At Pentecost: the disciples speaking in languages every person present could understand (Acts 2:6-8). At Sinai: the Torah was given, written on stone tablets (Exodus 31:18). At Pentecost: the Spirit was given, writing on hearts (Jeremiah 31:33, 2 Corinthians 3:3). Luke, who narrates Acts, uses the Sinai typology deliberately. The Spirit's arrival on Shavuot reframed the Sinai event: the God who gave the law externally now gives the Spirit internally.
The phrase 'fully come' (sympleroousthai) in Acts 2:1 carries weight. TDNT notes that the word means 'to be fulfilled, to be completed.' Luke chose a verb that implies the day did not merely arrive; it reached its fulfillment. The day that had been counting toward this moment for fifty days from Passover, and for centuries since Sinai, had reached its appointed completion.
Historical context · Pentecost event approximately AD 30-33; Shavuot observed from the period of the Exodus onward (approximately 1446 or 1250 BC, depending on dating model)
Shavuot, Sinai, and the Harvest Festival Reframed
The Pentecost event in Acts 2 occurred in Jerusalem during the Shavuot pilgrimage festival. Jerusalem's population swelled dramatically during the three annual pilgrimage festivals. Josephus estimates the population of Jerusalem during major festivals at over two million (Jewish War 6.425), though modern scholars consider this an exaggeration. Even conservative estimates suggest hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across the Roman Empire and beyond converging on the city. Acts 2:9-11 lists the geographic origins of those present: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Crete, and Arabia. The list is a geographic catalogue of the Jewish Diaspora.
The agricultural dimension of Shavuot was significant in first-century Jerusalem. The wheat harvest in the Judean hills occurred in late May or early June. The two leavened loaves presented at the Temple (Leviticus 23:17) were baked from the new wheat crop. The offering acknowledged God as the source of the harvest. The agricultural and theological dimensions were not separate: the same God who gave rain for the wheat gave Torah for the people. Giving was the thread connecting both layers of the festival.
Keener traces the Sinai-Shavuot connection through Jewish interpretive tradition. The Book of Jubilees (c. 160-150 BC) is the earliest source that explicitly connects Shavuot with the Sinai covenant. By the rabbinic period, the connection was firmly established. The Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 86b) records a debate between Rabbi Yose and the Sages about the exact date of the Sinai revelation, with both parties agreeing it occurred in the third month (Sivan), the month of Shavuot. The liturgical readings for Shavuot in synagogue worship included Exodus 19-20 (the Sinai theophany and the Ten Commandments) and Ezekiel 1 (the vision of God's throne, another theophany).
Luke's narrative in Acts 2 activates this double meaning. The 120 disciples in the upper room (Acts 1:15) experience fire, sound, and speech: the elements of the Sinai theophany transposed to an urban room in Jerusalem. The result is communication: 'we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God' (2:11). At Sinai, God spoke one language to one nation. At Pentecost, the Spirit speaks every language to every nation represented. The harvest metaphor also activates: three thousand people are 'added' to the community that day (Acts 2:41). The wheat harvest festival becomes a harvest of persons. Peter's sermon (Acts 2:14-36) provides the theological interpretation, identifying the event as the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy: 'I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh' (Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17). The fiftieth day reached its fullest meaning.
For reflection
The timing was deliberate. Fifty days after Passover. The same day that celebrated the wheat harvest and, by the first century, the giving of the Torah at Sinai. Fire on the mountain became fire in the room. God's voice at Sinai spoke one language to one nation. The Spirit at Pentecost spoke every language to every nation present. Think about what was being reframed. The external law given on stone was now being given internally, on the hearts of 120 ordinary people in an upstairs room. The harvest festival of wheat became a harvest of three thousand souls by the end of the afternoon. What does it mean that the Spirit chose this day and not another? What is being fulfilled in you that was promised a long time ago?
Pentekoste: the fiftieth day. The Greek name for the Jewish festival of Shavuot, which celebrated the wheat harvest and the giving of the Torah at Sinai. The Spirit arrived on this specific day, reframing the Sinai event.
Sources: TDNT; Keener, 'Acts' (NICEC)