Pentecost ACT 2:4

Fifty days after Passover, with Jerusalem full of Jewish pilgrims from many nations, a sound like a rushing wind filled the house where the believers were sitting, and something like tongues of fire rested on each of them. They began to speak in other languages, and each visitor heard his own. Peter then stood up and preached, and three thousand people were baptized that day.

This episode is counted as the moment the Holy Spirit was given in a new way to the gathered believers, equipping them for public witness. Peter's bold preaching, after having denied even knowing Jesus seven weeks earlier, along with the large response of three thousand baptisms, mark it as a turning point for the early church in Jerusalem. Many Christians look back to this day as the beginning of the church.

Some in the crowd did say this, apparently because the sudden outburst of praise in many languages seemed strange to onlookers. The text does not say most people thought this, only that some did; Peter directly answers this accusation in his speech. Luke records it to show the range of reactions, from mockery to the astonishment of those who recognized their own language being spoken.

Readers differ on whether these were real human languages unknown to the speakers or an ecstatic prayer language that God enabled hearers to understand. The passage itself describes visitors from many nations each hearing their own language, which most readers take to mean actual known languages. Other Christians connect this moment to later New Testament passages about tongues, reading this account alongside those differently understood experiences.