Acts 2:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,— That is, "all the hundred and twenty." See on Acts 2:1. This effusion of the Spirit, particularlydemonstrated in the gift of tongues, was intended not only as a sign of the apostles' inspiration at this period, but likewise designed for the use of the apostolic mission. Jesus himself expressly tells us so; for, on his leaving the world, he comforts his disciples with this promise: But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me,—unto the uttermost parts of the earth. This is recorded, ch. Acts 1:8 by the evangelic writer, as an introduction to his narrative of the miraculous gift of tongues, which heconsiders as the completion of this promise; and that the power to be received was the power then given; the use of which, as we see, was to enable the disciples to become witnesses unto him, unto the uttermost parts of the earth. We find St. Paul had this power, not only in the fullest measure, but in a proportionable duration; for, endeavouring to moderate the excessive value which the Corinthians set upon spiritual gifts, he observes, that, with regard to the most splendid of them, the gift of tongues, he himself had the advantage of them all.—I thank my God, says he, that I speak with tongues more than you all. The occasion shews, that he considered this his acquirement as a spiritual gift; and his using the present time shews, that he spoke of it as then in his possession. But why did he speak with more tongues than all of them? For a good reason: he was to be the peculiar apostle of the Gentiles, and was to preach the gospel among remote and barbarousnations;whichverycircumstancerenderedthisendowmentmorenecessary to him than the rest of the apostles, whose ministry was circumscribed within more narrow bounds.