Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 56:2 (NA 2005)
Article: The Descent of the Eschatological Temple in the Form of the Spirit at Pentecost Part 2: Corroborating Evidence
Author: Gregory K. Beale

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TynBul 56:2 (2005) p. 63

The Descent of the Eschatological Temple in the Form of the Spirit
at Pentecost
Part 2: Corroborating Evidence

G. K. Beale

Summary

The first part of this article (published in the previous issue) argued that certain Old Testament and early Jewish references to a temple have been formative for the depiction of the Spirit appearing as fire and for other associated features in Acts 2. This second part examines all of the other usually recognized Old Testament references in Acts 2 in order to determine whether or not they relate to a temple theme. The vast majority of the references are observed to occur in contexts that pertain to a temple, which supports the conclusion of Part 1 that the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost is a description of the inaugurated eschatological descent to earth of the heavenly temple to establish God’s end-time people as a part of this temple.

In Part 1, we proposed that Acts 2 portrays the descent of the heavenly latter-day temple of the divine presence on saints at Pentecost. While the first essay dealt with the strongest evidence for this thesis, we now turn primarily to a survey of all the usually recognized Old Testament citations and references in Acts 2:1–40 in order to determine how they may or may not relate to the notion of the temple explored in the earlier essay.

TynBul 56:2 (2005) p. 64

1. The Significance of Other Old Testament Allusions in Acts 2, Which Are Directly Set in a Temple Context

Other intimations of a temple atmosphere in Acts 2 may be observed in some of the Old Testament allusions that occur elsewhere in the chapter, for the most part in 2:30–39 (as, e.g., except for Ps. 68:18, listed in the margin of NA²⁷). Each of the directly following eight allusions occurs in Old Testament contexts in direct connection to mention of the temple. The following survey treats the allusions in the order they occur in Acts 2.

(1) The same manner in which God’s presence comes to fill the Old Testament tabernacle and temple and the ‘house’ in Acts 2:2 enhances the plausibility that Luke is describing Pentecost as the time when the new temple emerged. When Moses finished constructing the tabernacle, ‘the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle’ (Exodus 40...

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