Acts 2:33Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"And having received," he says, "from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit." This again is a great truth. I think he is now speaking of the promise made before the Passion.

See how at last he ascribes all this to Christ, doing so very imperceptibly. Indeed, if He poured out the Holy Spirit, then the prophet above clearly spoke of Him.

"In the last days, says God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy"; Acts 2:17.

See what truths he imperceptibly places in his words. Yet because this was a great matter, he again veils it by saying that Christ received from the Father.

He spoke of the benefits bestowed by Him and of the miracles. He said that He is King, and that He came to them. He said that He gives the Holy Spirit.

Yet whatever anyone says will be in vain if he does not have benefit in view. John acts like Peter when he says, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit"; Mt 3:11.

At the same time Peter shows that the Cross not only did not diminish Christ, but, on the contrary, glorified Him still more. What God had promised Him from of old, He now granted.

Or otherwise: Peter is speaking here of the promise that Christ gave to us. Thus He already knew beforehand of the future promise, and after the Cross He granted us something still greater.

"He poured out." Here the Apostle shows His dignity, and also that He did not simply give the Spirit, but gave Him abundantly.

Then, to make this dignity clear as well, he adds the following words.

Since Peter was about to utter a great and lofty truth, namely that Christ poured out the Holy Spirit, he shades it by saying that the Father gave Him this promise.

For whatever anyone may say, if he ends his word without benefit, he speaks vainly and to no purpose. Peter also shows that the Cross not only did not abase Jesus, but gave Him still greater splendor.

The right hand of God, which made all that exists, is the Lord, through whom all things came to be. Without Him nothing that exists can exist; see Jn 1:3.

Through this union, He raised the man united to Him to His own height.

In this he wholly repeats those words of the Lord and Teacher: "When the Comforter comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father"; Jn 15:26.

Therefore the Spirit is poured out to us from the Father, as also from Himself. From the Son He is poured out as from One who has received from the Father.

Thus the Son does not have the Spirit from Himself, nor does the Spirit have being through the Son. Rather, the Father has Him from Himself, proceeding immediately from Himself, without cause and before the ages.

Yet the Son, he says justly and wholly truly, pours Him forth to us from His own nature, since the Three have one nature. The Spirit abides naturally in Both.

Whenever this divinely wise Cyril says that the Spirit is from the essence of the Son, he thereby affirms consubstantiality. He does not affirm that the Son is the cause of the Spirit.

For he also wrote thus to those who objected to consubstantiality: the Holy Spirit is called living water, and the source of this water is the Father.

As He says through the prophet concerning the Jews: "They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and hewed out for themselves broken cisterns"; Jer 2:13.

The present illumination of the Spirit of God opened for Peter's speech a new source of power and proof in the prophecies.

Until then, these prophecies had been obscure and could not exercise such power over the minds of the Jews. Now they were intelligible to everyone who wished to know the truth.

The sign from heaven, which the Jews had so often and so vainly asked of Jesus, now appeared of itself from Him who had ascended into heaven. It testified where the Crucified One, whom they considered powerless, now dwelt.

The ability to speak in new and unknown tongues was an extraordinary gift among the miracles known from ancient and more recent times.

The prophecy of Joel has been fulfilled exactly. The Holy Spirit has been poured out upon all flesh. You hear that these unlearned Galileans speak in various languages.

Our assembly is made up of the Lord's servants and handmaids. The Most Holy Virgin and the women equal to the Apostles had been mentioned earlier as present in the Apostolic gatherings after the Lord's Ascension.

Without doubt, they were also in the gathering on the day of the Spirit's descent. Behold, in it there are both young men and elders.

Among the Apostles themselves some, for example John and Philip, were of youthful age. Has not the first of the gifts of the Spirit mentioned in the prophetic word clearly been revealed upon all of us, the spirit of prophecy?

And that it was not David, but one of his descendants, who had to ascend into the heavens, was also said by David himself.

This outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon believers is what the present hearers of the Apostle Peter now see and hear.

"Exalted by the right hand of God." The Greek turn of phrase allows two translations and interpretations. Either it means, being exalted by the right hand, that is, by the power and authority of God the Father, into heaven.

This is the same sense in which it is said above that God raised Him from the dead; verse 24. Or it means, being exalted to the right hand of God the Father.

In that sense, Christ's glorified humanity entered into the glory of God. Under both translations and interpretations, the truth is one and the same.

It is the truth of the Lord's Ascension and His sitting at the right hand of God the Father. Yet the first translation and interpretation is preferable.

Judging from the whole composition of the speech, Peter intends to set forth more clearly the contrast. Christ Jesus, humbled and put to death by men, was raised from the dead by God and exalted above all by His almighty power.

Chrysostom also holds this translation and explanation: "Again he turns to the Father, though what he had already said would have sufficed. Yet he knew how important this was"; cf. Theophylact.

"Having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit." This is an abbreviated expression, as above in Acts 1:4.

More fully it may be expressed thus: having received from the Father, as Redeemer of the world, authority to send into the redeemed world, that is, to those who believe in Him, the Holy Spirit promised by the Father and by Himself.

See the notes to Jn 15:26; Jn 16:7 and parallels. He received this authority precisely after His Resurrection and Ascension, as He Himself said in His farewell discourse to the disciples.

"He poured out," and so forth. The abundance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is represented under the image of outpouring, as also in the prophet Joel; see above, verse 17.

The image is probably taken from the anointing with sacred oil of those called to special service to God; see the note on Mt 1:1.

The abundance of such anointing, when oil was poured upon the heads of those consecrated and flowed down upon their beard and the hem of their garments, signified the abundance of the gifts communicated; cf. Ps 132:2.

"You now see and hear." This means the whole event of the day of Pentecost with all its particular features, everything at which those assembled marveled; verse 7.

Thus the Apostle brought his speech back to what he had begun with, and fully explained the phenomenon incomprehensible to the assembled people.

The same One, in fulfillment of the promise earlier given to the Apostles by the will of the heavenly Father, poured out those wondrous gifts. They were so evident and audible to all, and brought everyone into perplexity.

Thus here is the answer to all these troubled perplexities. The very Jesus whom you crucified has risen, ascended into heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit from the Father, pouring Him out in great abundance.

This outpouring partly recalls what was done in the Old Testament through the pouring of oil; see Ps 132:2. Such an outpouring consecrated someone to one or another sacred ministry.

From this the hearers could understand that the Apostles were now no longer simple witnesses of what they had heard and seen. They were grace-filled organs of the Holy Spirit, and therefore their words were worthy of acceptance.

"See," says Blessed Theophylact, "at the beginning of the speech, when he brought the prophet Joel as witness, he did not say that Christ sent the Holy Spirit. He said that the Father sent Him.

But when he had recalled Christ's signs, and what had been done against Christ, and had boldly proclaimed the truth of His Resurrection, then at last he says that He, Christ, poured out the Holy Spirit.

Therefore the prophet was speaking of Him: 'And it shall come to pass in the last days'; Acts 2:17."