They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.
These were other tongues, new tongues, not the apostles' common speech by chance or eccentricity, but each language kept distinct for its hearers' understanding. They spoke only as the Holy Spirit directed them to speak, with perfect order and fit.
AI summary
The timing was no accident: Pentecost gathered prodigious crowds from every nation, spreading the gospel's fame far and wide. The feast had commemorated the law given at Sinai fourteen centuries before; now the Holy Ghost came in fire and tongues to proclaim the evangelical law, not to one nation alone but to every creature.
AI summary
Commenting on Acts 2:1-4
The apostles spoke in actual strange tongues, not merely their hearers understanding one voice in their own language. If the miracle lay in the ears alone, not in the speakers' gift, then the Spirit would have been given to the crowd, not to them. Paul himself claims both the gift of many tongues and understanding of them, and he calls it a special grace, not common to all.
AI summary