Acts 2:3

cloven tongues like as of fire Better, tongues like as of fire parting asunder; cf. Isaiah 5:24, where the Hebrew has "tongue of fire" while the A. V. gives only "fire." It is also to be noticed that the appearance is not called fire, but only compared unto fire. The idea conveyed by the verb is that the flamelike tongues were distributing themselves throughout the assembly, and the result is expressed by what follows; and it sat upon each of them. The intention of the writer is to describe something far more persistent than meteoric light or flashes of electricity. The sound which is heard fills the house, and the flames rest for some time on the heads of the disciples. (See Acts 2:33.)