Acts 2:14-21
Peter quoting the prophet Joel… A couple of things come to mind. First, Joel is writing more than 500 years (maybe even 800-900 years) before Jesus’ birth and is predicting the coming of the Spirit. I wonder what Joel’s contemporaries thought Joel had in mind. Were they wondering, what is this “Spirit” thing? Both Moses (Numbers 11:29) and Ezekiel (Ez. 36:27) had spoken of the Lord sending His Spirit, so maybe they were simply harkening back to these prophecies. And with that, I wonder how well-known this passage was to first-century Jews.
Second, Peter is quoting at length from Joel; I wonder the extent to which the Jews thought of these verses as a Messianic prophecy. That is, was it a well-known Scripture that might have been oft-quoted as a prediction of the Messiah? Third, I wonder if Jesus might have taught His disciples about this prophecy and its fulfillment in Him and in the Holy Spirit which He had promised. I wonder…!
Slava Bohu!
Lots of wondering, Fred! Also, the OT references show that I had missed the Spirit in the gospels too. But I am not thinking that they had made the connection before Pentecost.
Yeah, they had some promises from Jesus at the Last Supper, but it was foggy for them at best! Even during His 40 days on earth after His Resurrection He probably explained more, but they would not understand much until they actually experienced the Holy Spirit.