After Pentecost

After Pentecost

Acts 2 tells us that on the day of Pentecost, the power of the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, just as Jesus had promised (Acts 1:8).  Anointed by God, Peter preached in Jerusalem that day, and about 3,000 souls repented and were baptized (2:41).  These new devotees of Jesus Christ didn't yet have a New Testament to guide them, so they dedicated themselves to the apostles' oral teaching (2:42).  The former disciples of Jesus relied upon the Septuagint-an ancient Greek version of the Old Testament, completed about 150 B.C. and translated for Greek-speaking Jews.  As the church began to compile sacred texts of its own, it was this translation of Hebrew Scripture that the New Testament writers would later refer to and quote.