ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Acts 2.17

Book: Acts · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

15. For these are not drunken, as ye suppose; seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 16. but this is that which hath been spoken through the prophet Joel:

17. And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams:

  1. Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19. And I will show wonders in the heaven above, And signs on the earth beneath; Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: (Acts 2:15-19, ASV)
WEB

15. For these aren’t drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is only the third hour of the day. 16. But 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.

  1. Yes, and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days, I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy. 19. I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and billows of smoke. (Acts 2:15-19, WEB)
KJV

15. For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 16. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

17. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

  1. And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19. And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: (Acts 2:15-19, KJV)
YLT

15. for these are not drunken, as ye take it up, for it is the third hour of the day. 16. 'But this is that which hath been spoken through the prophet Joel:

17. And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;

  1. and also upon My men-servants, and upon My maid-servants, in those days, I will pour out of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy; 19. and I will give wonders in the heaven above, and signs upon the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke, (Acts 2:15-19, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Peter, quoting the prophet Joel
  • Audience: the Pentecost crowd, devout Jews from many nations
  • Location: Jerusalem
  • Time period: c. AD 30

Theological reading

Peter's first move in the first Christian sermon is not to argue but to date the calendar. What you are seeing, he says, is what Joel described, and he opens the citation with a phrase Joel does not use: in the last days.

Joel 2:28 reads afterward. Peter's substitution is interpretive and it is the sermon's hinge. He is claiming that the age the prophets pointed to has arrived, that the outpouring of the Spirit is its marker, and that his hearers are standing inside it rather than waiting for it. Everything else in the sermon follows from that dating.

The content of the promise is deliberately levelling: sons and daughters, young men and old men, and in verse 18 servants and handmaids. Prophetic gifting in the older covenant fell on selected individuals; Joel's promise, as Peter deploys it, distributes it across every category the ancient world used to rank people. See Pentecost.

The eschatological structure this creates governs the rest of the New Testament. The last days began at Pentecost and are still running, which is why the apostolic writers can speak of themselves as living at the end of the ages while a future consummation remains outstanding. Readers who take the last days as a description of some period still to come have misread Peter's own use of the phrase on the day the church began.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.