Bible Study: Preparing For Pentecost

"Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. (Gen 11: 7-8 ESV)

Beyond Babel: Pentecost Sunday
May 27, 2007
by Dan Clendenin

Language is fascinating, but it can also be lethal. Throughout history people have subjugated one another because of language. In the Old Testament the Gileadites slaughtered 42,000 Ephraimites when the latter were exposed as the "enemy" because they incorrectly pronounced the word "Shibboleth" as "Sibboleth" (Judges 12). The orphan Moses learned Egyptian and its customs, while the Babylonian exiles Daniel and his three friends were not only "re-educated" in a new language and literature, but also given new names…

Language has divided Christians, too. Among the earliest followers of Jesus, strife emerged between Greek-speaking Jews who complained that the Aramaic-speakers overlooked their widows in the distribution of food (Acts 6). A thousand years later the Latin-speaking, Catholic west and the (mainly) Greek-speaking, Orthodox east divided in the Schism of 1054. During the Protestant Reformation the Catholic Church banned translations of the Bible into the everyday vernacular of the common laity.

Language is fascinating, but it can also be lethal. Throughout history people have subjugated one another because of language.

Given the volatile dynamics of language, it's remarkable that in the transition from the earthly days of Jesus to the age of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church, God featured human language—one of humanity's most salient and divisive characteristics—to symbolize his kingdom community. In the book of Acts Luke describes the first Pentecost, which Pentecost believers celebrate this Sunday as they have for two millennia.

The term "Pentecost" comes from the Greek word pentekostos, meaning fiftieth, from which one of the most important feasts in the Jewish calendar derives its name. Fifty days after Passover the Jews celebrated the "Feast of Harvest" (Exodus 23:16) or "Feast of Weeks" (Leviticus 23:15–21). Centuries later, after their exile to Babylon, Jewish Pentecost became one of the great pilgrimage feasts of Judaism, when Diaspora Jews returned to Jerusalem for worship. Since about the second century, Christians have celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit fifty days after the death and resurrection of Jesus, on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, and with the descent of the Spirit the birth of the church. After Christmas and Easter, Pentecost marks the most important celebration of the Christian calendar.

Given the volatile dynamics of language, it's remarkable that in the transition from the earthly days of Jesus to the age of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church, God featured human language...

Luke describes "God-fearing Jews from every nation of the world" as having converged upon Jerusalem for Pentecost; he specifies at least fifteen ethno-linguistic groups who were present. Jesus had instructed his followers not to leave Jerusalem until they had received the Spirit whom He had promised (Acts 1:4). In Luke's narrative, a small band of 120 followers of Jesus were “constantly in prayer” (Acts 1:14) together in an upper room. Suddenly, the sounds of violent winds and the visions of tongues of fire fell upon them, and “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:4). In a miracle of speaking and/or of hearing, "each one heard them speaking in his own language. . . How is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" Whatever "speaking in tongues" might mean, on this occasion it involved known languages.

Some people in the crowd ridiculed the believers as drunk, but Peter explained that a momentous time had arrived in the history of salvation, a time when God was now calling not only Jews but "all people" (Acts 2:17) to a life full of the Spirit. At its best, this new community of the Spirit celebrates, incorporates, and then transcends barriers of race, social stratification, economics, ethnicity, language, and gender. Diversity without division, and unity without uniformity, ought to characterize the Jesus community.

Pentecost and the birth of the new unified-but-diverse Jesus community thus reverses the curse of the tower
of Babel.

Pentecost and the birth of the new unified-but-diverse Jesus community thus reverses the curse of the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1–9). In those first pages of the Bible language divided humanity in a cacophony of confusion. In the last pages of the Bible, the new community that began at Pentecost culminates in a linguistic extravaganza of "a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language" (Revelation 7:9). In that heavenly vision, all... known language groups will complete the unity of all humanity rather than destroy it.

This article is quoted from, “Beyond Babel: Pentecost Sunday” by Dan Clendenin. For Further Reading: The Church Year: Pentecost by Dennis Bratcher.

Random Factoid

According to the United Bible Societies, there are now over 2,167 languages in which at least one book of the Bible has been published since it was first printed by Johann Gutenberg. This is far short of the 6,912 living languages of the Ethnologue, but enough to include the primary means of communication of over 90% of the world’s population.

Was Pentecost a miracle of speaking, or one of hearing and understanding?

And they were amazed and astonished, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God."
(Acts 2:5-11 ESV)

Photo Credits: laogooli, B Tal, Mr Wabu, Vintage Patrisha, W Whyte (Flickr)

Bookmark This