The major semantic difficulty in this first clause is the expression filled with the Holy Spirit. Since in many languages people are not regarded as “empty,” they cannot the filled. One must, therefore, shift the semantic framework and employ some such equivalent as “the Holy Spirit possessed them completely” or “the Holy Spirit came into them entirely.” It is also important to note that with the Holy Spirit specifies the object which fills and not the agent of the filling.

The Holy Spirit enabled the believers to talk in other languages, that is, to speak a language which was different from the one they normally spoke. As the Spirit enabled them to speak represents a Greek construction that suggests the ability to speak in other languages was given successively to them as individuals, and not to all of them at the same time.

That the language is a meaningful language, fully intelligible to the hearers, is suggested not only by what comes in the following verses but by the word which Luke chose for “speaking.” This verb is used both in the Septuagint and in classical Greek to indicate solemn or inspired speech, but not ecstatic utterance. Elsewhere in the New Testament this verb occurs only in Acts 2.14 and 26.25.

To talk in other languages must be rendered in many instances as “to speak the languages of other peoples,” “to speak foreigners’ languages,” or “to speak like the strange people speak.” Some languages simply do not have a noun for “language,” but express the same concept by means of a verb “to speak.”

The clause as the Spirit enabled them may be rendered in many languages as “it was the Spirit who caused them to speak” or “it was the Spirit who made them able to speak.” It may be useful to employ a verb form meaning “speak in turn” or “speak one after the other.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .