Acts 2:2

‘And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind (pnoe), and it filled all the house where they were sitting.'

Suddenly, as they were praying there, there came the ‘sound from heaven of a rushing, mighty wind (Gk. pnoe)' which filled the all the house where they were sitting. It is primarily said to be a noise that they heard, not a wind that they experienced, although it may be that the wind did come with the noise so that they did also experience the wind. But what mattered was that all knew that ‘the wind' was there. They were surrounded by the noise of a wind. The word used for wind is interesting. It is not ‘anemos' the usual word for wind, nor is it ‘pneuma' which we might have expected as symbolising the Holy Pneuma (Spirit). It is ‘pnoe'. It is used only once elsewhere in the New Testament where it means ‘breath' and is paralleled with ‘life' (Acts 17:25). It is, however, more common in the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint) where it most often translates ‘neshamah' which refers to the ‘breath of life' (e.g. Genesis 2:7; Genesis 7:22; 2 Samuel 22:16; Psalms 150:6; Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 57:16). In Genesis 2:7 it is the breath of life breathed into man to give life, in 2 Samuel 22:16 it is God's breath as figurative for a storm wind (compare Ezekiel 13:13), in Psalms 150:6 it is the breath of life, and in Ezekiel 13:13 it is a wind raised by God. But of especial interest is Isaiah 42:5 because there it is connected with the Servant. There it refers to the giving by God to those who are in the world of ‘breath' (pnoe) and ‘spirit' (pneuma). Outside the New Testament it is used both for ‘wind' and ‘breath'. Luke clearly has a reason for uniquely using this particular word here. There seems good ground therefore for seeing its use here as stressing especially the life-giving breath of God, as symbolised by the wind.

This would immediately bring the thoughts of those who knew their Scriptures to another time when the breath of God came like a mighty wind. In Ezekiel 37:5 Israel were likened to a valley of dry bones, which remained dead until God's wind came and revitalised them. The wind blew on them and they lived through the breath of God. The picture is of God giving life to a spiritually dead people. This did not, of course, directly apply to those who were endued here, for they were already born of the Spirit (John 3:5), but they were receiving the Spirit in order for the Spirit to flow through them to the world (John 7:39) and give life to all who responded to Christ. They were being empowered to bring life to the dead bones of Israel.

This also agrees with the idea found in John 20:22. In John also it was the breath of the Lord, which, while more gentle noisewise, was none-the-less equally powerful. There He breathed on them and His Apostles ‘received the Holy Spirit'. Here in Acts, then, is an extension to that when the mighty ‘pnoe' is the breath of God publicly coming in mighty life-giving power, offering through these men new life to the ‘dead' (Ezekiel 37:5), so that by becoming one with His body, the church, men might become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). It is a new revelation of the creative and life-giving power of God (compare Genesis 1:2; Genesis 2:7; Psalms 33:6), and the application of it to His people. It is the imparting of resurrection life.

Indeed God is breathing into His people and beginning His new creation which will finally result in the new heaven and the new earth (Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22). We sense here the breath of God breathing on the dry bones that they might live (Ezekiel 37:5). These particular recipients were not dry bones for they were already ‘born from above', but it would be their task to go out to the dry bones of Israel, and then of the world, in order to offer them life. For what came to them was not just for them, it was for the world. It was to be their task to fashion the new Israel, infilled with the power and life of God. He was taking the Kingly Rule of God away from old Israel, and giving it to this new nation of His people who would bring forth its fruits through the living breath of His Spirit (Matthew 21:43; Galatians 6:16; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 2:11).

The ‘sound of a rushing mighty wind' also reminds us of “the sound of marching in the trees” (2 Samuel 5:24) when God was acting with His chosen king to establish His people in the land. God was again marching forth to action to establish His chosen King. The stress on the loudness of the noise emphasises what a climactic moment it was. It was intended to be seen as a powerful new beginning.

‘And it filled all the house where they were sitting.' As already mentioned it seems probable that these events in Acts 2 took place in the Temple area, ‘the House where they were sitting'. Compare Luke 24:53 where we learn that they were continually in the Temple blessing God. It was there that we have been told that they met ‘continually', almost unceasingly, for praise and worship. In Luke's writings the Temple is elsewhere referred to as “the House” (Luke 11:51 in the Greek; ‘your (Jerusalem's) House' Acts 13:35; Acts 7:47), while when he refers to private houses he usually tells us whose house it is (Acts 12:12; Acts 18:7; Acts 21:8 and all the many references to houses in Luke). So ‘the House' standing without explanation would appear to indicate the Temple.

We can consider here how in Acts 2:46 the Christians eat in their houses but worship in the Temple area, which is a place regularly visited by these early Christians (Acts 3:1; Acts 5:12; Acts 5:42). And there must be some reason why, unusually for Luke, he does not give details of the place where they are. We can also compare how the next filling with the Holy Spirit takes place in the anonymous ‘place where they were gathered together' causing them to speak the word of God with boldness.

Luke elsewhere describes the Temple, in words of Jesus, as the ‘House of prayer', in Luke 19:46 (compare Luke 6:4), and this would excellently fit the context. In the Temple area, apart from the Holy Place and the court of the priests, there was a courtyard for the men of Israel, a further courtyard which women also could enter, and an outer court for Gentiles (non-Jews). It was partly because this latter was a place for prayer that Jesus was so angry at the noisy trading taking place there (John 2:13). Each courtyard was surrounded by walls in which were large porticoes, where people regularly met for prayer, and these later were a general meeting place for disciples (Acts 3:1; Acts 3:10; Acts 5:12).

Their presence at this time in the Temple would explain how the crowd gathered so easily and so quickly, and could witness the ‘sound' (Acts 2:6), and how such a large group of disciples could be together (probably over one hundred and twenty - Acts 1:15). But Luke avoids stressing the Temple because he does not want to suggest that the Temple has become the centre of Christianity. By the time he wrote he was fully aware of the problem of the Judaisers which Paul faced, and he does not want to strengthen their arm. And the fire fell on the gathered disciples of Jesus and not strictly on the Temple. To have mentioned the Temple would have deviated from that fact. For it was what happened that mattered, not where it happened.