I do not think that I have used this "headline" in any context, but it will not be the last time. It describes in fact an important aspect of the Holy Spirit, and it is expressed between the lines of this verse: “They’re speaking our languages, describing God’s mighty works!”
Their heads were spinning; they couldn’t make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused:
“What’s going on here?”They who were astonished and amazed that they understood, belonged to a large group of Diaspora Jews who had come to Jerusalem in connection with the Jewish Pentecost. Although they were Jews, many of them had lost their ancestral language in exile (1). Anyway, it is not certain that everyone understood Aramaic which was the language used by the disciples, but now they heard the word of God, each in his own language.
Acts 2:11b-12
The explanation could have been that speakers (the disciples) belonged to a group of "scholars". But some people in the audience must have understood Aramaic, because they had noticed the Galilean dialect. Galilee was in the province. In the province the people were “unschooled”. The intelligentsia was often linked to the Temple and the Jewish Council.
They understood what they heard, but they did not understand why they understood!
This is the miracle of the Holy Spirit with regard to all issues of the Kingdom. He is the key to the mystery. When I open myself to the Holy Spirit, he makes it possible to see and accept spiritual truths, but I am still not able to understand why I understand. I can not explain it rationally. It remains a mystery, but a mystery in which I am now a part.
'Manna' for today:
Spiritual insight has nothing to do with inteligence-------------------------------------
(1) Because of the diaspora of the Jewish people, Hebrew was not used as an oral language, and for a long time it was nearly extinct. It was as late as the 18th century that the Jews, as part of the awareness about their own identity, again began to use the language in everyday speech.
This reflection is part of 'Who acts throug Acts?'
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