Acts 2:17

Acts 2:17. In the last days. The LXX. here reads μετὰ ταῡτα, after these things. The great Jewish commentator Rabbi D. Kim chi says these two expressions mean the same thing. ‘And it shall be after these things,' is the same as, ‘And it shall be in the last days' (R. D. Kimchi in Lightfoot, Horae Heb., quoted by Gloag). The expression, ‘The last days,' was used by the Rabbis for that period of time which extends from the coming of the Messiah to the end of the world. (Thus it signifies, This age or period we live in now.) The age of Messiah is so termed in 1 John 2:18: ‘Little children, it is the last time.' St. Paul also uses the same term, 2 Timothy 3:1; Hebrews 1:2.

I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and they shall prophesy. This prophecy received a partial and perhaps a special fulfilment on that Pentecost morning; but the reference extends far beyond that solemn time over a multitude, too, widely different from those few inspired ones. Joel, when he first uttered the wondrous words, grasped a part, but only a part of their meaning, for his vision was bounded by the chosen race. He conceived a time when the Spirit of the Lord should descend on no priestly or prophet caste merely, but on every faithful and true Israelite. St. Peter, taught by the Spirit, saw the grand prophecy was being then fulfilled, and dimly caught sight of something of the true meaning of ‘the Spirit being poured out on all flesh.' It was his first preparation for the great work of his noble life the admission of the vast Gentile world to an equal share in the covenant promises. At no distant date, St. Peter was to declare how Jew and Gentile were to be alike heirs of the kingdom.

And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. This part of the famous prediction of Joel was amply fulfilled by the extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit in the age of the apostles. Compare such passages as Acts 21:9, which speaks of the four virgin daughters of Philip which did prophesy, and Acts 21:10, where Agabus, a certain prophet, came to Paul; and see especially, 1 Corinthians 14, which discusses spiritual gifts in such terms as plainly show how widely diffused was this gift of prophecy at that eventful epoch; and compare also 1 Timothy 1:18.

Your young men shall see visions. Such as Stephen saw in the judgment-hall at Jerusalem (Acts 7:55), and St. Peter on the house-top by the seaside at Joppa (Acts 10:10), and St. Paul on the Damascus road (Acts 9:3) and in the Temple (Acts 22:17).

Your old men shall dream dreams. As perhaps John when in the Spirit on the Lord's day at Patmos (Revelation 1:10).