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Acts 2:6
Notice that the word "tongues" appears in verse 4, but in verse 6, the word "language" is used. Why were they not both translated the same way? The reason is that they are from two different Greek words. The one in verse 4 is the most familiar, glōssais, which means a "language" or "tongue." But the Greek word in verse 6 is dialekto, which has practically come into the English language untranslated as "dialect." These people from all over the Roman world not only heard in their own language, but they heard the disciples in their own dialect. God refined this explanation to ensure that we would understand that this manifestation was of languages people were familiar with but did not necessarily speak themselves. They not only recognized the language itself but even the various local dialects within the language. The disciples, then, to whom God had given His Holy Spirit, did not speak unintelligible gibberish, but each person hearing heard each person speaking, not only in his own language but even in his own dialect! When Jesus was on trial, Peter was identified as being Galilean because of the way he spoke. Suppose the Jews in Judea spoke Aramaic, and that Peter spoke Aramaic, which is likely. Yet, Peter from Galilee spoke it in a dialect different from the Judeans' Aramaic spoken in Jerusalem. So, that young lady in Jerusalem quickly identified Peter as a Galilean. This recognition is what Luke is referring to in Acts 2 in this awesome miracle. The miracle was not only in the disciples' speaking. The miracle of hearing may have even been greater because it had to work in each hearer's mind so that he recognized that each disciple spoke in his own dialect. That is pretty precise. Based on what Paul writes in I Corinthians 14 about God's concern for order and organization at church services, it is probable that all who received God's Holy Spirit were not speaking at once. Rather, God organized it so that the language and dialect could be clearly and distinctly heard by those observing. This was an awesome miracle! The combination of these factors was never again repeated. Luke does not tell us what those who were filled with the Holy Spirit uttered. Therefore, we can reason that the purpose of their speaking in other languages was, at this point, not to help the observers listen intently to the content they were hearing from the disciples but to grab their attention to listen to what the apostle Peter would say later in his sermon.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Pentecost and the Holy Spirit
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