Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 2:41

"They then that received his word were baptized: and there were added [unto them] in that day about three thousand souls." — Acts 2:41 (ASV)

Two summary statements conclude Luke’s report of Peter’s Pentecost sermon. (1) Peter spoke earnest, solemn words, connoted by the verbs “warned” and “pleaded.” His characterization of this age as a “corrupt generation” has its parallel in Jesus’ words (cf. Matthew 16:4; 17:17) and in Paul’s (cf. Php 2:15). What we have here is the vision of an evangelist—a vision that is all too often lost as the Gospel is acclimated to the world and the world to the church. The Jews generally looked on baptism as a rite only for Gentile converts (i.e., proselytes), not for one born a Jew, and it symbolized the break with one’s Gentile past and the washing away of all defilement. So when Jews accepted baptism in the name of Jesus on hearing Peter’s message, it was traumatic and significant for them in a way we in our mildly christianized culture have difficulty understanding. (2) Yet, as a result of Peter’s preaching, “about” three thousand took the revolutionary step of baptism. Thus, the congregation of believers in Jesus came into being at Jerusalem—a congregation made up of the original 120 (1:15) and progressively augmented by about three thousand others.