Acts 2:2-4

Suddenly. Without warning, unexpectedly. The 120 could have had no inkling of the way in which the Comforter would come.

A sound. Gr. echos, “sound,” or “noise,” whence our word “echo.” It is used by Luke in his Gospel (ch. 21:25) to describe the “roaring” of the sea and the waves, and by the writer of Hebrews (ch. 12:19) for the “sound” of a trumpet from Sinai.

From heaven. Literally, “out of the heaven,” the place from which the Holy Spirit came to descend on Jesus at His baptism (Matt. 3:16; Luke 3:21, 22).

A rushing mighty wind. Literally, “a violent wind being borne onward.” Note that it was not actually a wind, but “as of,” or “like to,” a wind. The sensory impression made upon those going through the experience was as though it were a wind. The word translated “wind,” (pnoe) is used in the NT only here and in ch. 17:25 where it means “breath.” It is used in this same sense in the LXX. Luke may have chosen pnoe here as describing the supernatural “breathing” that the disciples were about to experience, and that must have recalled to them their sensations when the Lord “breathed on them,” and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). Now once more they felt the divine impact of the awe-inspiring, divine “breathing.”

It filled. No subject of the verb is given, and the context does not make clear to what the “filling” refers. “It” may refer to the “sound,” or to the “wind.” Many commentators, however, hold that “it” refers to the wind “wind,” that is, to the Holy Spirit (cf. John 3:8).

All the house. Rather, “the whole house,” that is, the “one place” of v. 1. Sound or wind has the ability to fill quickly every nook and cranny of a building. Even so did the coming of the Spirit fill the place where these Christians were assembled.

Were sitting. Early in the day (see v. 15), possibly awaiting the hour of prayer.