Acts 2:6

φωνῆς ταύτης : “when this sound was heard,” R.V. “Hic idem quod ἦχος comm [119] 2,” so Wetstein, who compares for φωνή in this sense Matthew 24:31; 1 Corinthians 14:7-8 (2 Chronicles 5:13), and so most recent commentators (cf. John 3:8); if human voices were meant, the plural might have been expected. But the word in singular might refer to the divine voice, the voice of the Spirit, cf. Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5. The A.V., so too Grotius, following Erasmus, Calvin, render the word as if φήμη, but the two passages quoted from LXX to justify this rendering are no real examples, cf., e.g., Genesis 45:16, Jer. 27:46. τὸ πλῆθος : a characteristic word of St. Luke, occurring eight times in his Gospel, seventeen in Acts, and only seven times in rest of the N.T.; on the frequency with which St. Luke uses expressions indicative of fulness, see Friedrich, Das Lucasevangelium, pp. 40, 102. In inscriptions the word seems to have been used not only of political but of religious communities, see Deissmann, Neue Bibel-studien, pp. 59, 60 (1897), and see below on Acts 15:30. συνεχύθη from συνχύνω (συνχέω) only found in Acts, where it occurs five times (cf. also σύγχυσις, Acts 19:29), see Moulton and Geden, sub v. For its meaning here cf. Genesis 11:7; Genesis 11:9 1Ma 4:27, 2Ma 13:23; 2Ma 14:28; Vulg., mente confusa est. διαλέκτῳ : only in the Acts in N.T. The question has been raised as to whether it meant a dialect or a language. Meyer argued in favour of the former, but the latter rendering more probably expresses the author's meaning, cf. Acts 1:19, and also Acts 21:40; Acts 22:2; Acts 26:14. The word is apparently used as the equivalent of γλῶσσα, Acts 2:11, A. and R.V. “language”. As the historian in his list, Acts 2:9-10, apparently is following distinctions of language (see Rendall, Acts, p. 177, and Appendix, p. 359), this would help to fix the meaning of the word διάλεκτος here. Wendt in revising Meyer's rendering contends that the word is purposely introduced because γλῶσσα, Acts 2:3-4, had just been employed not in the sense of language but tongue, and so might have been misunderstood if repeated here with λαλεῖν. On the other hand it may be urged that some of the distinctions in the list are those of dialect, and that St. Luke intentionally used a word meaning both language and dialect.

[119]omm. commentary, commentator.