John 20:22

And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

And when he had said this, he breathed on them - a symbolical and expressive conveyance to them of the Spirit, which in Scripture is so often compared to breath (see the note at );

And saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit - as an earnest and first-fruits of the more grand and copious Pentecostal effusion, without which it had been vain to send them at all.