Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars
Click to get our FREE MOBILE APP and stay connected
| PentecostalTheology.com
Acts 5:32 Peter says,
“And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom
God hath given to them that obey him.”
My reading of Greek grammar tells me that obey is a present participle that should normally denote an action simultaneous with the principal verb gave, which is in the aorist indicative. This would translate to, “Whom God gave to those who obeyed [listened to] him.” The reference would be to a previous outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Simple English Bible translation, “God has given the Spirit to those who obeyed him”). Peter refers to Pentecost.
Prior to Pentecost, the apostles had certainly been responsive to the message of Christ, as opposed to most of the Jewish authorities. Therefore, when the Spirit came on Pentecost it did not fall on the recalcitrant Jewish leaders, but on those who had shown receptivity to the gospel, the apostles. This would not be an invitation to respond to the gospel, but a rebuke of the Jewish leaders. This would account for their subsequent rage (v. 33).
If this analysis is incorrect, please explain.
