Acts 2:6

Verse 6. When this was noised abroad. When the rumour of this remarkable transaction was spread, as it naturally would be without delay.

Were confounded. συνεχυθη. Were violently moved and agitated; were amazed, and astonished at the remarkable occurrence.

Every man heard them speak, etc. Though the multitude spoke different tongues, yet they now heard Galilaeans use the language which they had learned in foreign nations.

His own language. His own dialect--διαλεκτω. His own idiom, whether it was a foreign language, or whether it was a modification of the Hebrew. The word may mean either; but it is probable that the foreign Jews would greatly modify the Hebrew, or conform almost entirely to the language spoken in the country where they lived. We may remark here, that this effect on the first descent of the Holy Ghost was not peculiar to that time. A work of grace on the hearts of men in a revival of religion will always be noised abroad. A multitude will come together, and God often, as he did here, makes use of this motive to bring them under the influence of religion. Curiosity was the motive here, and it was the occasion of their being brought under the influence of the truth, and of the conversion. In thousands of cases, this has occurred since. The effect of what they saw was to confound them. They made no complaint at first of the irregularity of what was done, but were all amazed and overwhelmed. So the effect of a revival of religion is often to convince the multitude that it is indeed a work of the Holy One; to amaze them by the display of his power; and to silence opposition and cavil by the manifest presence and the power of God. A few afterwards began to cavil, (Acts 2:13,) as some will always do in a revival; but the mass were convinced, as will be the case always, that this was a mighty display of the power of God.

(1) "Now when" "When this voice was made" (*) "abroad" "The report was spread" (2) "confounded" "troubled in mind"

Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain

Verse 6 When this was noised abroad - If we suppose that there was a considerable peal of thunder, which followed the escape of a vast quantity of electric fluid, and produced the mighty rushing wind already noticed on Act 2:2, then the whole city must have been alarmed; and, as various circumstances might direct their attention to the temple, having flocked thither they were farther astonished and confounded to hear the disciples of Christ addressing the mixed multitude in the languages of the different countries from which these people had come. Every man heard them speak in his own language - Use may naturally suppose that, as soon as any person presented himself to one of these disciples, he, the disciple, was immediately enabled to address him in his own language, however various this had been from the Jewish or Galilean dialects. If a Roman presented himself, the disciple was immediately enabled to address him in Latin - if a Grecian, in Greek - an Arab, in Arabic, and so of the rest.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain