Acts 1:15

‘And in these days Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, and said (and there was a multitude of persons gathered together, about a hundred and twenty),'

It was some time during the ten days before Pentecost that Peter stood up among the gathering of disciples of about one hundred and twenty. Here Peter is clearly looked up to as the spokesman and natural leader, a man with drive and initiative, although sometimes too impetuous. This gathering probably took place in the colonnades of the Temple (compare Luke 24:53). The number of one hundred and twenty is twelve intensified. This signified that they were the holy remnant of Israel, and under the authority of the eleven, soon again to become ‘the twelve'. We can see from this the emphasis that was being laid on ‘twelve' as signifying the full number. (Later it would be ‘three thousand' (Acts 2:41), the number of completeness intensified, and then ‘five thousand' (Acts 4:4) indicating the covenant community).

We can compare with this figure the ‘five hundred' (five intensified indicating another covenant connection) who in Galilee had seen the risen Christ at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6). Not all had been able to come to Jerusalem.

We should note carefully that whereas previously the emphasis has been on the Apostles (Acts 1:2), and then on the Apostles and those who were with them (Acts 1:14), that number has now expanded into one hundred and twenty (Acts 1:15), whom it would be pointless mentioning if they were not now part of the ‘they'. The one hundred and twenty indicated an amplification of the twelve ready for the coming of the Holy Spirit and can be compared with the seventy who waited for the coming of the Spirit under Moses (Numbers 11).