Acts 2:13

Others mocking, said,.... These were the native inhabitants of Jerusalem, the common people; and it may be also the Scribes and Pharisees, who did not understand the languages in which the apostles

Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. Others mocking, [ diachleuazontes (G1315a), the strengthened form of the verb, is the true reading] said, These men are full of new wine , [

Others; viz. the scribes and Pharisees, and also the inhabitants of Jewry and Jerusalem; who not understanding the languages of other nations, might think the apostles did but babble, and talk idly or rudely, when they spake with other tongues. New wine, or sweet wine; which done, may inebriate; and might be had at that time, though the full vintage was not yet.

13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. Ver. 13. Others mocking, said, These men, &c.] χλευαζοντες, contumeliously cavilling, as those epicures at Athens did, Acts 17:32. And that mocker, Doctor Morgan, who being set to examine Mr Philpot, martyr, asked him, How know you that you have the Spirit of God? Philpot answered, By the faith of Christ which is in me. Ah, by faith, do you so? (quoth Morgan). I think it is the spirit of the buttery, which your fellows have had that have been burned before you, who were drunk before they went to their death, and I think went drunk unto it. Philpot replied: It appeareth by your communication that you are better acquainted with the spirit of buttery than with the Spirit of God. Thou hast the spirit of illusion and sophistry, which is not able to countervail the Spirit of truth. And God, I tell thee, shall rain fire and brimstone upon such scorners of his word and blasphemers of his people as thou art, &c.

(13) These men are full of new wine.—Literally, of sweet drink—the word “wine” not being used—stronger and more intoxicating than the lighter and thinner wines that were ordinarily drunk. The Greek word was sometimes used, like the Latin mustum, for the unfermented grape-juice. Here, however, the context shows that wine, in the strict sense of the word, was intended, and the use of the same word in the LXX. of Job 32:19 confirms this meaning. The word for “new wine” in Matthew 9:17, Mark 2:22, is different, but there also (see Notes) fermentation is implied. The words, as has been said above (Note on Acts 2:4), point to a certain appearance of excitement in tone, manner, and words.

Verse 13. These men are full of new wine.] Rather sweet wine, for γλευκους, cannot mean the mustum, or new wine, as there could be none in Judea so early as pentecost. The γλευκος, gleucus, seems to have been a peculiar kind of wine, and is thus described by Hesychius and Suidas: Γλευκος, τοαποσταγματηςσταφυλης, πρινπατηθῃ. Gleucus is that which distils from the grape before it is pressed. This must be at once both the strongest and sweetest wine. Calmet observes that the ancients had the secret of preserving wine sweet through the whole year, and were fond of taking morning draughts of it: to this Horace appears to refer, Sat. l. ii. s. iv. ver. 24. Aufidius forti miscebat mella Falerno. Mendose: quoniam vacuis committere venis Nil nisi lene decet: leni praecordia mulso Prolueris melius._____ Aufidius first, most injudicious, quaffed Strong wine and honey for his morning draught. With lenient bev'rage fill your empty veins, For lenient must will better cleanse the reins. FRANCIS.

13. Others mocking, &c.] Better, But others mocking said; They are full of new wine. There is no Greek for the words these men, as is shewn by the italics of the A. V.The sight presented to the bystanders on this occasion was certainly unusual. We cannot but believe that the disciples would be in a fervour of excitement and enthusiasm, and the people who composed the several groups were likely to be no less moved by the account to which they listened in their various languages, coming from the lips of men whom some in the throng recognized for Galilæans, and whose garb and manner would be like that of the ordinary natives of Jerusalem. The excitement exhibited on both sides will account for the remark of the mockers.new wine] Lit. sweet wine, defined as made of the drippings from the clusters before the grapes were trodden.In the above description of the events of the day of Pentecost, the meaning which St Luke intends to convey is very plain in every respect, except that we cannot with certainty gather from it whether the disciples, as well as speaking new languages, also understood what they uttered. It would seem most reasonable to conclude that the Holy Spirit with the one power also bestowed the other, and this may have been so in the case of the disciples at Pentecost, even though it was not so at other times and under other circumstances. The only Scripture which bears upon the question is St Paul’s first Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 12:10 to 1 Corinthians 14:30). There among the gifts of the Spirit the Apostle enumerates “divers kinds of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:10; 1 Corinthians 12:31), and as what might be a separate gift not included in the first, “the interpretation of tongues,” (1 Corinthians 12:10). He mentions in the next chapter the tongues of angels as well as of men (1 Corinthians 13:1), but not in such an enumeration as to connect the words with our enquiry. It should be borne in mind that all which the Apostle says in the Epistle is addressed to the Corinthians, not as missionary labourers but as members of a settled Christian Church, and he is instructing them what the best gifts are after which they should seek. Now their labours and utterances were to be among their own people and mostly among those already professing Christianity. St Paul repeatedly dwells on “the church” as the scene of their labours, which expression without necessarily always implying an edifice (which however here seems to be its meaning, see 1 Corinthians 14:23; 1 Corinthians 14:27) indicates a Christian community. The Apostle tells them that gifts of tongues are not for these. Tongues are for a sign not to them that believe but to the unbelieving. To speak with tongues was therefore not the best gift to be desired for the Church at Corinth.

Others, mocking, said - The word rendered “mocking” means “to cavil, to deride.” It occurs in the New Testament in only one other place: Acts 17:32, “And when they heard of the resurrection of the

13. Others mocking—Those who asked What meaneth this? spoke in solemn sympathy with, as well as amazement at, the scene.