Catholic Commentary
Peter's Proclamation: Fulfillment of Joel's Prophecy
14But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke out to them, “You men of Judea and all you who dwell at Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words.15For these aren’t drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is only the third hour of the day.16But this is what has been spoken through the prophet Joel:17‘It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams.18Yes, and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days, I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy.19I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath: blood, and fire, and billows of smoke.20The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.21It will be that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Acts 2:14–21 records Peter's first public sermon, in which he defends the apostles against accusations of drunkenness and proclaims that the Spirit-empowered events at Pentecost fulfill Joel's prophecy of the last days. Peter declares that salvation comes to all who call upon the name of the Lord, establishing Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament messianic expectation.
The Spirit doesn't belong to the clergy class anymore—Peter's proclamation shatters every boundary of gender, age, and status, making prophecy the birthright of all flesh.
Commentary
Acts 2:14 — Peter Stands and Speaks The Greek verb anistēmi ("standing up") carries more than a postural note: it echoes the resurrection language that will dominate Peter's sermon. Peter does not speak alone — he stands with the eleven, signaling collegial apostolic authority even at its very first exercise. This is the same Peter who three times denied the Lord in the courtyard of the high priest (Luke 22:54–62); now, filled with the Spirit, he lifts his voice (epēren tēn phōnēn autou) — an Old Testament idiom for prophetic proclamation (cf. Isaiah 13:2; 40:9). The audience addressed — "men of Judea" and "all who dwell at Jerusalem" — is deliberately inclusive, reaching beyond the Galilean pilgrims to the heartland of Jewish religious authority.
Acts 2:15 — Dismissing the Accusation of Drunkenness The charge of drunkenness (v. 13) is dispatched efficiently: it was the third hour, approximately 9 a.m., before the customary first meal, and certainly before wine would have been consumed. But Peter's brevity here is significant — he does not dwell on the negative accusation. He pivots immediately to the affirmative: this is that (v. 16). The Spirit's action is not madness or disorder; it has a name, a history, and a prophecy.
Acts 2:16 — "This Is What Was Spoken Through Joel" This pivotal hinge-phrase — touto estin to eirēmenon — is one of the most consequential interpretive statements in the New Testament. Peter is doing what Jesus himself did in Luke 4:21 ("Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing"): asserting that an Old Testament text has arrived at its moment of eschatological realization. The verb eirēmenon (perfect passive participle of legō) underlines that the word already spoken now finds its living application. Peter does not allegorize Joel; he identifies the events of Pentecost as the literal inauguration of what Joel foresaw.
Acts 2:17 — "In the Last Days… I Will Pour Out My Spirit on All Flesh" The Septuagint of Joel 2:28 reads meta tauta ("after these things"), but Acts deliberately substitutes en tais eschatais hēmerais — "in the last days." This is a pointed editorial choice: Peter (or Luke, under inspiration) signals that the present moment is not merely a sequel to Joel's era but is itself the eschatological age. "All flesh" (pasa sarx) shatters the boundaries of earlier dispensations in which the Spirit rested upon select leaders, judges, and prophets. The inclusion of "sons and daughters," "young men" and "old men," sweeps away distinctions of gender and age. Visions and dreams — the classic modes of prophetic revelation — are democratized.
Acts 2:18 — "On My Servants and Handmaidens" The addition "Yes, and" (kai ge) intensifies the expansion. The Greek douloi and doulai — male and female slaves or servants — extends prophetic anointing to the lowest social stratum of the ancient world. The Spirit transgresses every social hierarchy: neither status, nor gender, nor age can contain the divine gift. This is not merely social commentary; it is pneumatology. The Spirit confers the dignity of prophecy upon all the baptized.
Acts 2:19–20 — Cosmic Signs The cosmic imagery of blood, fire, smoke, a darkened sun, and a blood-red moon echoes the dies Domini tradition throughout both Testaments — the "Day of the Lord" as an event of cosmic upheaval and divine judgment. The Church Fathers (notably Origen and Augustine) read this imagery typologically: its immediate historical referent includes the Passion (darkness at the crucifixion, Luke 23:44–45), but its full scope reaches toward the Last Judgment. The signs have begun with the Paschal Mystery and will culminate in the Parousia.
Acts 2:21 — "Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Will Be Saved" This is the kerygmatic apex of the quotation. The Greek sōthēsetai is a divine passive — will be saved — pointing to God as the ultimate agent of salvation. "Whoever" (pas) echoes the universality of "all flesh" in v. 17. And critically, in its original Joeline context the "Lord" is YHWH; Peter will apply this title to Jesus in verse 36 ("God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified"), effecting a Christological identification of stunning theological density.
Catholic Commentary
The Catholic tradition reads this passage as the magna carta of the Church's sacramental and missionary life. Several threads of Catholic teaching converge here.
The Holy Spirit as the Soul of the Church: The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "the mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the Church" (CCC 737) and that Pentecost is the moment the Church is "publicly manifested" (CCC 767). Peter's proclamation is not simply biographical transformation — it is the Spirit-driven inauguration of the Church's teaching office. Vatican II's Lumen Gentium (§4) echoes this: the Holy Spirit "unifies" the Church, "furnishes and directs her with various gifts, both hierarchical and charismatic."
The Universal Call to Holiness: The phrase "on all flesh" anchored Lumen Gentium's revolutionary Chapter V, "The Universal Call to Holiness." Every baptized person, not only vowed religious or ordained clergy, receives the Spirit and is called to prophetic witness. St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 106) taught that the "New Law" is primarily the grace of the Holy Spirit given through faith in Christ — precisely what Peter announces is now poured out upon all.
Typology of the Last Days: St. Augustine (City of God, XVIII.49) and St. Peter Chrysologus read the cosmic signs of vv. 19–20 as spanning the entire era from the Incarnation to the Parousia — the whole of salvation history now understood as the "last days." The Catechism confirms: "The last age of the world has already come upon us" (CCC 670, citing Lumen Gentium §48). Catholics therefore live within the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy; every Mass is a proclamation of the Lord's death "until he comes" (1 Cor 11:26).
The Name of the Lord and the Sacrament of Baptism: Origen (Commentary on Romans) and Cyril of Jerusalem (Mystagogical Catecheses) both link "calling on the name of the Lord" to the act of Baptism, in which the name of the Trinity is invoked over the one being saved. This is ratified in the practice of Trinitarian Baptism and confirmed by CCC 1226–1228.
For Today
Every Catholic is personally implicated by Peter's proclamation that the Spirit has been poured out on "all flesh." The temptation in contemporary Catholic life is to treat the Holy Spirit as the possession of a specialist class — charismatic movements, ordained ministers, consecrated religious — while ordinary laypeople feel spiritually peripheral. Acts 2:17–18 refuses this. The Spirit given at your Baptism and sealed at your Confirmation is not a diminished version of what fell at Pentecost.
Practically, this passage invites an examination of conscience around spiritual courage. Peter, who once hid behind denial, now stands publicly before thousands and declares what God has done. Catholic adults today are often silent about their faith in precisely the environments — workplaces, universities, family gatherings — where proclamation is most needed and most costly. The "lifting of the voice" is not reserved to clergy or saints.
Finally, verse 21 — "whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" — grounds a habit of invocatory prayer that the Catholic tradition has expressed through the Jesus Prayer, the invocation of the Holy Name, and simple acts of turning to God in daily life. St. Bernard called the name of Jesus "honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, jubilation in the heart." Begin there.
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