2:14-15 Peter, again representing the apostles (cf. 1:15), addressed the assembled crowd. He probably gave this speech in the Temple outer courtyard (the court of the Gentiles). He probably spoke in the vernacular, Aramaic or Koine (common) Greek, rather than in tongues. Peter had previously denied that he knew Jesus, but now he was publicly representing Him. The apostle distinguished two types of Jews in his audience: native Jews living within the province of Judea, and all who were living in Jerusalem. The Diaspora contingent was probably the group most curious about the tongues phenomenon. Peter began by refuting the charge of drunkenness. It was too early in the day for that since it was only 9:00 a.m.120
"Unfortunately, this argument was more telling in antiquity than today."121
"Scrupulous Jews drank wine only with flesh, and, on the authority of Ex. xvi. 8, ate bread in the morning and flesh only in the evening. Hence wine could be drunk only in the evening. This is the point of Peter's remark."122
2:16-21 Was Peter claiming that the Spirit's outpouring on the day of Pentecost fulfilled Joel's prophecy (Joel 2:28-32)? Conservative commentators express considerable difference of opinion on this point. This is an interpretive problem because not only Joel but other Old Testament prophets prophesied that God would give His Spirit to individual believers in the future (Isa. 32:15; 44:3; Ezek. 36:27; 37:14; 39:29; Zech. 12:10). Moreover John the Baptist also predicted the pouring out of God's Spirit on believers (Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33).
Some commentators believe that Peter was claiming that all of what Joel prophesied happened that day.
"The fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel which the people had just witnessed was a sign of the beginning of the Messianic age . . ."123
"What was happening was to be seen as the fulfillment of a prophecy by Joel. . . . Peter regards Joel's prophecy as applying to the last days, and claims that his hearers are now living in the last days. God's final act of salvation has begun to take place."124
"For Peter, this outpouring of the Spirit began the period known in Scripture as the last days' or the last hour' (1 John 2:18), and thus the whole Christian era is included in the expression."125
Other scholars believe God fulfilled Joel's prophecy only partially. Ironside and Hodges, for example, believed that He fulfilled verses 17-18 on the day of Pentecost, but He will yet fulfill verses 19-21 in the future.126I believe Toussaint's explanation falls into this category.
"This clause does not mean, This is likethat'; it means Pentecost fulfilled what Joel had described. However, the prophecies of Joel quoted in Acts 2:19-20 were not fulfilled. The implication is that the remainder would be fulfilled if Israel would repent."127
Others believe that this was a partial fulfillment but in a different sense. They hold that the eschatological age had begun but that the complete fulfillment of Joel's prophecy awaited the return of Christ to the earth. They regard "the last days"as referring to the eschatological era that Jesus inaugurated at His first advent but will be realized only at His second advent.
"Certainly the outpouring of the Spirit on a hundred and twenty Jews could not in itself fulfill the prediction of such outpouring upon all flesh'; but it was the beginning of the fulfillment."128
Still others believe Peter was not claiming the fulfillment of any of Joel's prophecy. They believe he was only comparing what had happened with what would happen in the future as Joel predicted.
"Peter was not saying that the prophecy was fulfilled at Pentecost or even that it was partially fulfilled; knowing from Joel what the Spirit could do, he was simply reminding the Jews that they should have recognized what they were then seeing as a work of the Spirit also. He continued to quote from Joel at length only in order to be able to include the salvation invitation recorded in verse 21."129
"It seems quite obvious that Peter did not quote Joel's prophecy in the sense of its fulfillment in the events of Pentecost, but purely as a prophetic illustration of those events. As a matter of fact, to avoid confusion, Peter's quotation evidently purposelygoes beyond any possible fulfillment at Pentecost by including events in the still future day of the Lord, preceding kingdom establishment (Acts 2:19-20). . . . In the reference there is not the slightest hint at a continual fulfillment during the church age or a coming fulfillment toward the end of the church age."130
"Virtually nothing that happened in Acts 2 is predicted in Joel 2. What actually did happen in Acts two (the speaking in tongues) was not mentioned by Joel. What Joel did mention (dreams, visions, the sun darkened, the moon turned into blood) did not happen in Acts two. Joel was speaking of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the whole of the nation of Israel in the last days, while Acts two speaks of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Twelve Apostles or, at most, on the 120 in the Upper Room. This is a far cry from Joel's all flesh. However, there was one point of similarity, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, resulting in unusual manifestations. Acts two does not change or reinterpret Joel two, nor does it deny that Joel two will have a literal fulfillment when the Holy Spirit will be poured out on the whole nation of Israel. It is simply applying it to a New Testament event because of one point of similarity."131
I prefer this last view and find confirmation of it in the fact that Peter did not use the word "fulfilled"in verse 16. He said only that Joel had "spoken of"the phenomenon his hearers had witnessed. However, some writers have pointed out that the phrase "this is what"(touto estin to) was a particular type of expression called a "pesher."
"His use of the Joel passage is in line with what since the discovery of the DSS [Dead Sea Scrolls] we have learned to call a pesher' (from Heb. peser, interpretation'). It lays all emphasis on fulfillment without attempting to exegete the details of the biblical prophecy it interprets.'"132
Did Peter use these words as a pesher formula, or did he use them to distinguish a similarity from a fulfillment? It seems to me that he did the latter. Peter was, after all, not a rabbi but a fisherman. Therefore it seems unlikely that he would have used a sophisticated linguistic device that could have been misinterpreted. Moreover in his previous speech (1:16-22), he argued from analogy. There he called it fulfillment (1:16). Here his argument seems to be another analogy. He seems to have been claiming that what God had predicted through Joel for the end times was analogous to the events of Pentecost. The omission of "fulfilled"here seems deliberate to help his hearers avoid concluding that what was happening was the fulfillment of what Joel predicted. It was only similar to what Joel predicted.
Peter made a significant change in Joel's prophecy as he quoted it from the Septuagint, and this change supports the view that he was not claiming fulfillment. First, he changed "after this"(Joel 2:28) to "in the last days"(Acts 2:17). In the context of Joel's prophecy the time in view is the day of the Lord: the Tribulation (Joel 2:30-31) and the Millennium (Joel 2:28-29). Peter interpreted this time as the last days. Many modern interpreters believe that when Peter said "the last days"he meant the days in which he lived. However, he was not in the Tribulation or the Millennium. Thus he looked forward to the last days as being future.133
There are some similarities between what Joel prophesied would come "after this"(Joel 2:28) and what happened on Pentecost. The similarities are why Peter quoted Joel. Yet the differences are what enable us to see that this prophecy was not fulfilled then. For example, God had not poured out His Spirit on "all mankind"(v. 17), as He will in the future. He had only poured out His Spirit on believers in Jesus. Joel referred to deliverance in the Tribulation (Joel 2:32), but Peter applied this offer to those who needed salvation in his audience. Joel referred to Yahweh as the LORD, but Peter probably referred to Jesus as the Lord (cf. 1:24).
Progressive dispensationalists understand Peter as saying that Joel's prophecy was fulfilled initially on Pentecost. Baptism with the Spirit, which would mark the eschatological kingdom age (Joel 2:28), had begun. Therefore the kingdom had come in its first phase, which they view as the church.134Other aspects of Joel's prophecy will find fulfillment after Jesus begins His reign on earth.
Not all normative dispensationalists agree on the interpretation. Some of them, like Toussaint, see a partial fulfillment on Pentecost, while others, like Ryrie, see no fulfillment then. How one views the church will affect how he or she understands this passage. If one views the church as the first stage of the messianic kingdom, as progressive dispensationalists do, then he or she may see this as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies about the outpouring of the Spirit in the eschatological age. If one views the church as distinct from the messianic (Davidic) kingdom, then one may or may not see this as a partial fulfillment. It seems more consistent to me to see it not as a fulfillment but as a similar outpouring, specifically the one Jesus predicted in the Upper Room (John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7). Some normative dispensationalists who hold this no fulfillment position distinguish baptism withthe Spirit, the future event, from baptism bythe Spirit, the Pentecost event.135There does not seem to be adequate exegetical basis for this distinction.136
"Realized eschatologists and amillennialists usually take Peter's inclusion of such physical imagery [i.e., "blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke,"and "the sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood"] in a spiritual way, finding in what happened at Pentecost the spiritual fulfillment of Joel's prophecy--a fulfillment not necessarily tied to any natural phenomena. This, they suggest, offers an interpretative key to the understanding of similar portrayals of natural phenomena and apocalyptic imagery in the OT."137
By repeating, "And they will prophesy"(v. 18), which is not in Joel's text, Peter stressed prophecy as a most important similarity between what Joel predicted and what his hearers were witnessing. God was revealing something new through the apostles. Peter proceeded to explain what that was.
Another variation of interpretation concerning the Joel passage that some normative dispensationalists espouse is this. They believe that Peter thought Joel's prophecy could have been fulfilled quite soon if the Jewish leaders had repented and believed in Jesus. This may be what Peter thought, but it is very difficult to be dogmatic about what might have been in Peter's mind when he did not explain it. Jesus had told the parable of the talents to correct those "who supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately"(Luke 19:11-27). He also predicted that "the kingdom of God will be taken away from you [Jews], and given to a nation producing the fruit of it"(Matt. 21:43). Daniel predicted that seven years of terrible trouble were coming on the Jews (Dan. 9:24-27; cf. Matt. 24-25). There had to be at least seven years of tribulation between Jesus' ascension and His return. If advocates of this view are correct, Peter either did not know this, or he forgot it, or he interpreted the Tribulation as a judgment that God would not send if Israel repented. Of course, Peter did not understand, or he forgot, what the Old Testament revealed about God's acceptance of Gentiles (cf. ch. 10). Peter may have thought that Jesus would return and set up the kingdom immediately if the Jewish leaders repented, but I do not think that God was reoffering the kingdom to the Jew through Peter.138
