Voiceover Voice:
It would have been something quite extraordinary, and extraordinary things cause a lot of fear.

Helena Martin:
Welcome back to Chapter, Verse, and Season: a lectionary podcast from Yale Bible Study. Join us each week as two Yale Divinity School professors look at an upcoming text from the Revised Common Lectionary.

This week, we welcome for the first time: Volker Leppin, Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology, and Vasileios Marinis, Associate Professor of Christian Art and Architecture.

They’re discussing Acts 2:1-21, which is appointed for the Day of Pentecost in years A, B, and C because, well… it’s the story of Pentecost. The text is read for you by student Misty Kiwak-Jacobs.

Misty Kiwak-Jacobs:
[Acts 2:1-21]
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, 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 Arabs–in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Volker Leppin:
That’s fascinating: this text about a moment in which you understand so many languages. Coming here from another country to the United States, being obliged to speak the language of the country, allows it to think about everyone speaks his, her, their own language, and everyone would understand them. Isn’t it great?

Vasileios Marinis:
Yeah, it would be wonderful just to be able to understand all the languages that we hear. And I guess in this passage, this is an indication of the universality of the message that this has been underscored.

Volker Leppin:
Absolutely. And it’s a message on the basis of the history of Israel. When Peter starts saying to the group, “men of Judea,” he makes clear he’s speaking to brothers and sisters from the Jewish people. They feel together. That’s the basis of all universality.

Vasileios Marinis:
Yeah, absolutely. The many languages that are being understood by everybody (and in connection with the signs that accompany this revelation) is for me also very important. We have essentially, I think, an epiphany, which could be a Hebrew Bible epiphany. We have wind, and fire, and noise: something that reminds us, for example, the theophany in Sinai in Exodus. And I think all these are there to validate the opening of the church’s public mission. They underscore its importance and its favor by the Divinity.

Volker Leppin:
But does it work, the validating? Does it really work when people think they are drunk? And I find it so funny, Peter saying, “they are not drunk;it’s early in the morning.” I don’t want to be too personal, but there are people who can be drunk at quite early in the morning. So, he needs an argument, even all those signs you’re talking about don’t seem to be enough. But then, coming from a Lutheran tradition, I would say it is the word that makes things clear. It is this sermon of Peter who explains what happens here.

Vasileios Marinis:
I find it fascinating that there is this moment of, essentially, comic relief in the middle of what we would consider a theophany. Somebody essentially says, “Oh, you know, they’re just drunk.” And Peter’s argument is not that great a counterargument, that it’s only nine o’clock in the morning and that’s not possible. But I think this little detail enlivens this story so well and gives an opportunity to Peter to launch into an explanation of what is going on and the fulfillment of the prophecy: for example, John the Baptist prophesies that Christ would baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire in Luke 3:16. So, Peter has the opportunity to explain why this is happening.

Volker Leppin:
And then he speaks about the last days, which have started according to the Hebrew prophecy of Joel. And usually in our churches, we are used to think about this text as a kind of starting point of the foundation story of the Church. It is like this, but in the same, it is a kind of concluding, ending story. So, as a Church which is based on Pentecost, we always have to have in mind, we are part of this story of ending the world.

Vasileios Marinis:
But why do you say this is a concluding story?

Volker Leppin:
Because I see he starts, “In the last days, it will be, God declares.” And then he says, that’s what happens. So, the last days start with Pentecost. They even have started with Jesus Christ hanging on the cross. And so, we are in a kind of eschatological existence. We only forgot most times about this.

Vasileios Marinis:
Yeah, that’s a very interesting point. So, in a sense, we have a paradox here. It’s the beginning and at the same time, the end, and the eschatological character of Peter’s speech is quite prominent, even from the first sentence.

Volker Leppin:
The last sentence, then, is: “Everyone shall be saved,” which is so comfortable. So, even in all signs (signs can be misunderstood as we had about people seemingly being drunk), you can be afraid of the signs, but what is the important message here is we will be saved.

Vasileios Marinis:
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, and this is indeed a very comforting message. And we can imagine–as historians, we cannot really discuss whether a miracle such as what is described here occurred or not, but let’s suppose for a second that something happened–it would have been something quite extraordinary, and extraordinary things cause a lot of fear. Peter comes in and gives this quite comforting message that despite all these things that you see and that might cause you fear, and despite the fact that these are the last days, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Volker Leppin:
Yeah, thank you very much for the hint that it should be dogmatically correct [chuckles]. It is about those who call on the name of the Lord, which however makes it very broad, too! He speaks about the Lord not coming back, but again, connecting the end with the beginning. It is the Lord who has promised to their people to be saved. So, we are in a big family of Jewish, Christian, and maybe more believers who can trust in this promise of salvation.

Vasileios Marinis:
I would like to go back for just a second to the divine manifestations that preceded Peter’s speech. As we mentioned before, this is a supernatural validation of the Church’s mission. But it’s quite interesting that, despite all these–the air. and the noise, and the tongues of fire, and so on–and the fact that the people can hear Apostles speaking in their own language, they still don’t quite believe them. This sets up a nice opportunity for Peter to come and explain. But perhaps this passage also underscores the extraordinary message that the Christian/Jewish-Christian community at that point was putting forward, that was difficult to believe and understand even when it was accompanied by such a supernatural validation.

Volker Leppin:
And I wonder what understanding of nature it is. If the nature gives signs of God, what do we think about the signs of nature we read in our days? These are not signs of God, but signs of humans destroying the nature. So, how can we connect this understanding of nature as absolutely subdued to God, and to being the messenger of God, with our understanding of nature, where we see we are those who bring the climate change, we are those who destroy God’s nature, God’s good nature. We are making it part and a consequence of our selfish sin.

Vasileios Marinis:
Yeah. That’s wonderful. In my now 13 years in the United States, rather, in Connecticut, I’ve seen dramatic changes in the weather, especially in the winter. Yet people continue to deny that there is such a thing. And I think we can make a nice parallel here, that it’s always difficult to get over our political ideas, our understanding of the world, and see what’s simply in front of us. It’s not always easy. And that’s why we have people that, even facing overwhelming evidence about what is going on in the world, they continue to pretend that we’re all drunk. At nine o’clock in the morning.

Helena Martin:
Thanks for listening! And thank you so much, Professors Leppin and Marinis, for joining us this week.

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Chapter, Verse, and Season is a production of the Center for Continuing Education at Yale Divinity School. It’s produced by Creator and Managing Editor, Joel Baden; Production Manager, Kelly Morrissey; Associate Producer, Aidan Stoddart; and Host and Executive Producer, me, Helena Martin. The theme music is Calvin Linderman.

We’ll be back next week with another conversation from Chapter, Verse, and Season.