According to the Acts of the Apostles, the followers of Jesus remained in Jerusalem frequently visiting the Temple (cf. Acts 3:1).  Luke records that on “the day of Pentecost” (the biblical feast of weeks, Shavuot, cf. Exodus 34:22; Num. 28:26), the followers of Jesus gathered together, but he does not specify the location of their gathering.  Christian tradition has identified the location for the gathering of the disciples on the day of Pentecost as the same place where Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Passover meal, his “Last Supper,” within the upper city of Jerusalem.  These traditions, however, do not predate the Byzantine period.  The genesis for this assumption lies in the description of the location of the Last Supper in a “large upper room” (ανάγαιον: Luke 22:12; Mark 14:15) and place where the disciples gathered after the ascension of Jesus mentioned in Acts, an “upper room” (υπερωον: 1:13).  Even if the room of the Last Supper was the same “upper room” in Acts 1 where the disciples met, the second chapter of Acts begins with a Hebraic-styled narrative break, “And when the day of Pentecost came,” which separates what follows from everything that had previously occurred.[1] In other words, the followers of Jesus have moved in time and location from the first chapter of Acts when the second chapter of Acts opens.

According to the Gospel of Luke, after the ascension of Jesus, his disciples remained in Jerusalem and “were continually in the temple blessing God” (24:52-53).  Clearly they did not interpret any of Jesus’ actions leading up to and including his crucifixion as either rejecting the temple or rendering it obsolete.  Therefore, when we ask where the disciples of Jesus were on the day of Pentecost, we should assume that they participated in the pilgrimage festival of Pentecost in accordance with the commandment of God: “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place which he will choose: at the feast of unleavened bread (Passover), at the feast of weeks (Pentecost), and at the feast of booths (Sukkot)…” (Deut. 16:16).  According to Josephus, the population of Jerusalem swelled at Pentecost as Jewish pilgrims came from all over the countryside (War 1:253).  Luke also indicates that numbers of Jewish pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost: “Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome” (Acts 2:9-11).

The amazement of these crowds of pilgrims at what they saw and heard led Peter to stand and address the crowd (Acts 2:14-39) recounting the events of the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Peter identified that which the pilgrims had seen and heard from the disciples as the “pouring out” of the Holy Spirit signifying the advent of the Messianic era and called upon the crowds “to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus” (Acts 2:38).  The crowd of pilgrims who heard the disciples, Peter’s discourse to the crowds, as well as the response of 3,000 people “to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus” (Acts 2:41), suggests a public setting for the events recounted in Acts 2, not an “upper room” somewhere in Jerusalem.  The most practical setting for such a series of events on the festival of Pentecost would be in the vicinity of the Temple.[2]

The only setting within Jerusalem that could handle the ritual immersion of 3,000 people was the ritual immersion pools, miqva’ot, at the southern, pilgrim’s entrance to the Temple Mount.  These ritual pools serviced those entering the Temple (cf. Luke 2:22; Acts 21:24), and there were enough to accommodate the masses of pilgrims that converged on the Temple during the festivals.  On the festival of Pentecost, the area around the Temple provided the crowds for Peter’s audience and the setting that could accommodate the ritual immersion, baptism, of 3,000 people.

Furthermore, the mention of a “rush of a mighty wind” that “filled all the house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:2) may hint at the location for the events recounted in Acts 2.  In Hebrew, the most common term used to refer to the Temple is “house” (בית).  The Temple Mount is referred to as הבית הר (lit. “the mountain of the house”; cf. m. Bikkurim 3:4).  At this point within the Greek narrative of Acts, Luke often preserves Hebraic-styled syntax and idiom.  His narrative mention of the “house” in which the disciples sat quite likely reflects this Hebrew idiom referring to the Temple, which is where one would expect to find Jesus’ disciples on the festival of Pentecost as well as the crowds they encounter.

When the Temple stood, the Jewish people identified it as the dwelling place of God’s presence, i.e., His Holy Spirit; thus, it makes perfect sense that the manifestation of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost would occur in relationship with the Temple in Jerusalem (cf. Joel 3:5).  Moreover, Jewish tradition believed that the Holy Spirit manifested itself among those sitting together (Acts 2:2) studying Torah (cf. m. Avot 3:2; and b. Berachot 6a).  During the days of the Second Temple, the Temple served as a center for the study of the Torah (cf. Antiquities 17:140-163; Luke 2:48-49, 21:37; t. Sanhedrin 7:1; t. Hagigah 2:9; m. Yoma 7:1; m. Sotah 7:7-8; and b. Pesahim 26a), and perhaps this was the context for the manifestation of the Holy Spirit described in Acts 2 (cf. m. Bikkurim 1:6; t. Sotah 15:12).  According to Jewish tradition, God gave Moses the Torah on the festival of Pentecost (cf. Jubilees 1:1),[3] which explains the appearance of many of the Sinai motifs, e.g., fire, wind, and languages,[4] in Luke’s description of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  Given how Peter and the New Testament interpreted the events that happened on the day of Pentecost, the only natural location for these events to take place was the Temple in Jerusalem.

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[1] F. Blass and A. Debrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1975), 208.

[2] Cf. A. F. Rainey and R. Steven Noltey, The Sacred Bridge (Jerusalem: Carta, 2006), 370.

[3] Jewish tradition identifies Pentecost as the day upon which David was born and died (Ruth Rabbah 1:17; y. Bezah 2, 61b; cf. Acts 2:29).

[4] The school of Rabbi Ishmael interpreted the verse, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces” (Jer. 23:29) as “Just as a hammer is divided into many sparks, so every single word that went forth from the Holy One (i.e., at Sinai), blessed be He, split up into seventy languages (i.e., the languages of the nations of the world; cf. Acts 2:5-11)” (b. Shabbath 88b).