Bible Strands
Acts 2:3
They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrative describes the disciples in the house immediately following a sound like a mighty rushing wind. The event occurs while they sit together, marking the moment before they are filled with the Spirit.
The words — γλῶσσαι (glōssai) translates to tongues, and διαμεριζόμεναι (diamerizomenai) means dividing or separating. These terms describe the visible form that appeared and settled individually among the group.
The thread — The pattern of a divine manifestation resting on a specific person runs in John 1:32, where the Spirit descends and remains on Jesus. The accompanying fire imagery parallels Jeremiah 23:29, which declares God’s word operates like consuming fire, and Matthew 3:11, which contrasts water baptism with a coming baptism of fire.
Why it lands — The text records a visible, distributed phenomenon occurring before the Spirit’s filling, requiring the reader to note the shift from a single focal point to a communal indwelling. It demands recognition that divine empowerment now operates through individual reception rather than collective proximity.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Cross-references
- Matthew 3:11 I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come One more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
- John 1:32 Then John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and resting on Him.
- Jeremiah 23:29 “Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”
- Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
- Isaiah 11:2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD.
- Luke 24:32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
- Genesis 11:6 And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them.
- Malachi 3:2 But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.
- Acts 2:11 both Jews and converts to Judaism; Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
- 1 Corinthians 12:10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in various tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.