The Apostles and first Christians retained from the Old Testament the feasts of Passover (Easter) as well as the feast of Pentecost (Pentecost – the same name is used). Why? Because of the similarity in the ideas that essentially brought about the establishment of these feasts. Further, in Christian history there was an additional effort to replace all Jewish and Pagan feasts with Christian feasts.

The events of the first Christian Pentecost are recounted in ACTS (2:1-41). It is important to note that ACTS indicates that the tongues of fire, that is the coming of the Holy Spirit, came down upon the entire community, consisting of about 120 persons which included the Mother of God, the Apostles and the other disciples. The explanation of the phrase in verse 4, “to speak in foreign tongues”, is disputed. Elsewhere in ACTS “to speak in tongues,” refers to glossolalia, the language of ecstatic prayer, which is intelligible only to those to whom the Spirit has given the gift of interpretation. It is likely that this is the original sensed of verse 4. But at some stage in the tradition, perhaps at the stage of final redaction, the tongues motif was connected by insertion of the word foreign with another and quite distinct theme: salvation made known to the people of the earth. In connection with tongues, this theme recalls, perhaps with conscious intention, both the confusion of tongues that according to Genesis chapter 11 divided mankind into distinct and hostile people, and the rabbinic legend of the preaching of the Law of Sinai to the nations. On the supposition that these allusions are    consciously intended, the Pentecostal event is present as the restoration of mankind’s unity, the reverse of Babel, and as a new Sinai in which the law of the Spirit takes the place of the Mosaic Law.

In the specifically Lucan perspective,  Pentecost inaugurates a new era in salvation   history, defined at its temporal extremes respectively by Jesus’ already accomplished enthronement as Lord and His still future coming as Judge. Concern over an imminent Parousia (i.e., second coming of Christ), gives way to concentration on the Church’s inner life and apostolic mission. As the Lucan Gospel is conceived in terms of movement from Galilee to Jerusalem, so the dynamic of the early Church’s life and growth, as portrayed in ACTS is conceived in terms of movement from Jerusalem to the rest of the known world. It is the glorified Christ who governs this movement through the Spirit bestowed on the feast of Pentecost and highlights that God has infused His Spirit into mankind. It is only for mankind to believe!