Acts 2:7

7 ¹They were amazed and astonished, saying, "Why, are not all these who are speaking ²Galileans?

Acts 2:7 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 2:7

And they were all amazed, and marvelled
They were struck with surprise, they were as it were out of themselves, like persons in an ecstasy, not knowing what could be the cause or meaning of this:

saying one to another;
the phrase "one to another", is left out in the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions, and so it is in the Alexandrian copy:

behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
rude, unpolished, and unlearned men; who had never been brought up in any school of learning, and had never learned any language but their mother tongue; and that they pronounced with an ill grace, and in a very odd manner; and which made the thing the more astonishing to them. The apostles were inhabitants of Galilee, and so very likely were the greatest part of those that were with them: hence the Christians afterwards, by way of contempt, were called Galilaeans; as they are by Julian ^F24 the apostate, and others ^F25.

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 Opera, par. 1. Fragment. p. 557. & par. 2. Ep. 49. p. 203, 204.
F25 Arrian. Epictet. l. 4. c. 7.

Acts 2:7 In-Context

5 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.

6 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.

7 They were amazed and astonished, saying, "Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?

8 "And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?

9 "Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,

Cross References

• 1. Acts 2:12
• 2. Matthew 26:73; Acts 1:11

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "Behold"