Acts 2:13

13. Others mocking Those who asked What meaneth this? spoke in solemn sympathy with, as well as amazement at, the scene. But there was another quite different set, who have had their like in all generations, of worldly, irreligious mockers. The former class are said to be all; that is, all the devout foreign residers in Jerusalem; while these others are more likely to be Palestinian Jews, either profane in character or bigoted Judaists, and so hostile to Christianity. Out of sympathy, they were perhaps unsusceptible of receiving the supernatural impression.

New wine The must, or unfermented juice of the grape, which was a very luscious wine and not intoxicating, but only exhilarating. It is true that the grapes of the year had not been gathered, so that real new wine could not yet have been made. But there were processes by which the fermentation could be prevented, and the must be preserved through the year. One method was to boil it, (see note on John 2:3;) another was to put it into a perfectly tight cask and submerge the cask entirely in water for forty days. The fact that the must was only exhilarating seems to indicate that even these mockers did not see enough in the one hundred and twenty such ecstasies as to suggest a charge of complete drunkenness. Kuinoel quotes a Greek line which describes a minstrel as “exhilarated with must singing the sports of the Muses.” Though the Pentecostal brethren were exulting with joyous rapture, yet was every thing done “decently and in order.”

After the mockers had fully exhibited their folly, the miraculous tongues became silent; and, from the mass of the hundred and twenty, Peter stood forth as vindicator and spokesman for the whole.

With the eleven Who, heretofore undistinguished in the body of believers, now stood forth as witnesses, (Acts 2:32,) to sustain the testimony of their orator.

Lifted up his voice Lifted, because the audience he addressed was vast, and, however silent, needed a fulness of voice to be reached. After a graceful defensive exordium, Peter proceeds to answer their question, (Acts 2:12,) What meaneth this?