Acts 2:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

If they did understand, how did they dare accuse them of drunkenness when accusers stood before them? These were the very men who heard and understood that the Apostles were speaking in different languages and were not drunk.

Let someone else resolve this. I maintain the opposite. If they had not understood, they would by no means have degraded the miracle into drunkenness, or called the miracle drunkenness.

For why try to degrade what causes no one any offense? Therefore Luke calls them revilers, as blasphemers and slanderers.

Thus they slandered while understanding what was being said. They slandered because they were displeased with what was being said, for the Apostles “spoke the mighty works of God.”

How, then, while understanding what was said, did they attribute it to drunkenness? Because of great madness and excessive cruelty.

For many people, if they are displeased with what is said, customarily consider the speaker demon-possessed or insane. Or else they accuse him of drunkenness and of not understanding what he says.

Yet the one who speaks is speaking soundly, and the reviler, even while making his accusation, nevertheless hears and understands him.

In accusing the Apostles of drunkenness, these men showed still greater audacity. Though they themselves heard them in their own language, they supposed that other people of very diverse dialects did not understand them.

They themselves understood what was said. But regarding the others, on whose account they slandered the Apostles as drunk, they thought that they did not understand the miracle.

So it was when the Lord cast out demons. Although they understood and saw these wondrous actions, instead of giving due glory, they slandered the Lord by saying that He performed them by the power of Beelzebul.

Likewise, when they saw every illness and affliction being healed, they turned these wondrous actions into a cause for envy, denunciation, and murder.

So also now, unable to deny the miraculous and supernatural character of the languages, they nevertheless dared to degrade the miracle into drunkenness.

But notice their malicious cunning. Since it was unbelievable that anyone would be drunk at such an hour, especially men who had endured many dangers and terrors, they attribute everything to the quality of the wine, saying that they are filled with wine.

Here shamelessness seeks only to say something, not to say something better founded. Therefore even what they say appears unclear, and it is full of stupidity and madness.

Notice how malice is exposed both by the season of the year and by the hour of the day. Whence could there be gleukos in the days of Pentecost? Gleukos is the name for new wine.

Furthermore, does drunkenness give the power to speak in different languages? Drunkenness deprives a man even of his natural tongue.

See what God arranges. The Jews would have refused to enter and listen if they had not suspected that this was a slander. The Lord permitted the slander in order to gather many hearers.

Orthodox Christians, from what does malicious blasphemy, or frivolous mockery of the Orthodox faith of Christ, arise and still appear? From what does mockery of her statutes and rites arise?

These rites are in harmony with the spirit of Christ's teaching, and have their beginning in apostolic times. From what, then, does this come?

First of all, it comes from frivolous family upbringing in youth, which among Christians is not fully Christian. Secondly, it comes from deliberately anti-Christian or non-Christian scientific education.

Under such education, the soulish man, wholly devoted to the world and to matter, does not understand what is of the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:14).

Everything sacred appears to such a man as foolishness, strange, excessive, aimless, and vain.

Even then the sin of blasphemy is not so grave if it is committed through frivolity and guileless ignorance, and not with pride or with the malicious judgment of one swollen with earthly wisdom.

Thirdly, mockery of sacred truths and objects comes from a corrupted heart and bad morality. A dissolute man who does not wish to amend his life finds it unpleasant to see and hear about the life beyond the grave, judgment, and torments.

So he begins to stifle the voice of his conscience, and to demean and even reject Christ's teaching and the Church's statutes.

Fourthly, there are blasphemers who allow themselves mockery of sacred actions and Christian teaching chiefly in order to show off before their acquaintances.

They want to display their wit and playfulness, and to amuse the public. But woe, woe to those through whom temptation comes into the world (Lk 17:1) and spreads far, far away.

Sooner or later the judgment of God will speak over such people. Truth will claim its own. Falsehood will be exposed. The sooner this happens, the better.

As soon as the holy Apostle Peter learned of the condemnation that had arisen concerning their extraordinary state, he immediately began to explain what had happened to them.

At the same time, he calmly exposed the injustice and inappropriateness of the mockery directed at them.

The fruit of the Apostle Peter's preaching was the conversion of three thousand people to Christ on that same memorable day of Pentecost.

Thus, on the very first day of Christian life, a large community of believers in Christ was already formed.

After the feast, some of those who believed, as well as the other Jewish pilgrims, returned home to various countries. They began to speak about the wondrous event at the feast.

Through this they disposed others, far from Jerusalem, to receive the Christian gospel.

In this way the Kingdom of God on earth, the grace of the Holy Spirit, spread over the whole face of the earth and came to dwell in human hearts.

Even now the grace of the Holy Spirit has not grown poor. It still appears in extraordinary gifts of healing from holy relics and holy icons, according to the faith of those who ask.

It also grants clairvoyance to souls that are solitary, renounce the world, are simple, and are fools for Christ's sake.

Without the grace of the Holy Spirit we do not do a single good deed. He works all things in us, both to will the good and to do it (Phil 2:13).

The Holy Spirit Himself helps us even to pray as we ought (Rom 8:26). In all this, He also rewards us during prayer and after it with joy and unearthly peace in our soul.

Let us therefore not cease humbly to receive the gracious signs of the Holy Spirit. Let us not attribute virtues personally to ourselves.

Let us cry out to the Holy Spirit that He would not abhor us, but cleanse us from every defilement.

“O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of truth, who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life: come and dwell in us, and cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls, O Good One.”

On this table is "the cup that makes drunk, how mighty it is" (Ps 22:5), or how strengthening it is. In the Greek text it is written κράτιστσν, meaning "mighty," "strong," or "strengthening."

It is strengthening because it removes or washes away transgressions. Blessed is the drunkenness of the saving cup.

But there is also another drunkenness, from the abundance of Scripture, or drunkenness from the descent of the Holy Spirit. Therefore in the Acts of the Apostles those speaking in various tongues seemed to the hearers to be filled with new wine; see Acts 2:4-13.

The house is the Church. The abundance of the house is the abundance of grace. The torrent of delight is the Holy Spirit.

Let neither the name nor the properties of a torrent disturb you. Sometimes it dries up, or its water grows scanty, and its waves cease to flow.

Our torrent also ceased. Once the abundant spiritual torrent among the Jewish people ceased.

Why do I say that the torrent ceased? Even the sea dried up, as today's reading teaches us in the words of the Lord.

"Behold, by My rebuke I will make the sea desolate, and I will turn rivers into a wilderness, and their fish shall dry up" (Is 50:2).

The Jews especially dried up because of their treachery, so that they could no longer swim. Thus the torrent ceased because of the sacrilege of the synagogue.

The people became dry in faith, barren in works, and captive to sins. Is the torrent poured out for those who do not drink?

Is it poured out for those who defile the sacred waters by denying the very fountain? The good fountain ceased for them, so that it might abound for us.

It also turns away the dryness and thirst of human captivity, "as a torrent by the south wind" (Ps 125:4). Therefore Scripture says: "Arise, north wind, and come, south wind" (Song 4:16).

This wind blows in the groves of paradise.

The sensual and stiff-necked people could not understand what was taking place before them. It was a miracle, great and mysterious.

It was that wondrous gift which the heavenly Teacher had promised before His Ascension, when He said that those who believe in Him “will speak with new tongues” (Mk 16:17).

Now this promise was fulfilled. His disciples began to speak in other, new languages, and they spoke what the Comforter, the Holy Spirit sent down upon them, had taught them.

Every miracle directed toward lofty religious and moral aims first has in view the removal of natural obstacles to that aim. So it was now.

The teaching of Christ had to be preached to all the nations of the earth. Yet a barrier separated them in the form of different languages and dialects.

The gift of tongues removed this barrier, and the word of Christ could freely spread throughout the whole world.

As a miraculous gift, it was incomprehensible not only to the ignorant crowd of that time. It will remain such even for the highest scientific knowledge, and all scientific attempts to explain it are nothing but vague conjecture.

Some interpreters, among others, have thought to explain this miracle by attributing it chiefly to the hearers.

They suppose that the Apostles spoke in their usual language, but that the hearers, under the impression of the extraordinary phenomena and enthusiasm, imagined that each heard his native tongue.

Or they suppose that, by the action of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles received back the pure, primordial, universally intelligible language lost at the building of the tower of Babel.

This language, they say, was now understood by all nationalities. But under such an explanation, the phenomenon remains perhaps even more miraculous and mysterious.

As for other free-thinking interpreters, who do not acknowledge the gift of tongues as a miracle, they try to explain it naturally.

They point to certain cases of somnambulism, when those subject to it suddenly began, in ecstasy, to speak words and speeches previously unknown to them.

Since this explanation attributes the miracle to an abnormal condition, it is obviously not new. It is only a modified repetition of the explanation given by interpreters contemporary with the phenomenon.

They blasphemously mocked and said, “They are filled with sweet wine.” No, neither sweet wine nor somnambulism was at work in the Apostles.

The wisdom of God was at work in them, clothing them with superhuman power.

Meanwhile the rumble of exclamations spread more and more through the masses of the people, who did not know how to explain the miraculous phenomenon.

But amid the cries of wonder, the mocking voices of blasphemers began to be heard more loudly. They tried to give dominance to their frivolity.

The moment was terrible. The work of God was threatened with general ridicule. But it is never mocked.

At that moment the Apostle Peter stepped forth from among the Apostles and addressed the agitated crowd with a loud voice. “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem!” he cried out.

The crowd, struck by the Apostle's courage, fell silent and held its breath. The Apostle Peter continued: “Let this be known to you, and give heed to my words.

For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is the third hour of the day.”

Those who asked, "What does this mean?" were evidently well-disposed and even devout people, as verse 5 shows. They sensed that this event was extraordinary.

They were also certain that an explanation of it would follow. This was soon fulfilled by the Apostle Peter.

Blessed Theophylact writes: "When the Lord cast out demons, His enemies understood and saw these wondrous works. Yet instead of duly glorifying Him, they slandered the Lord, saying He did them by the power of Beelzebul.

So too now, unable to deny the miraculous and supernatural character of the tongues, they dared to reduce the miracle to drunkenness, which even deprives a man of his natural tongue.

But look at what God orders! The Jews would have refused to enter and listen, had they not suspected that this was slander. The Lord permitted the slander in order to gather many hearers."