John Calvin Commentary Acts 2:17

"And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams:" — Acts 2:17 (ASV)

It shall be in the last days. By this effect, he proves that the Messiah is already revealed. Joel, indeed, does not express “the last days” (Joel 2:29); but since he treats of the perfect restoring of the Church, there is no doubt that that prophecy belongs to the last age alone.

Therefore, what Peter brings forward does not in any way dissent from Joel’s meaning; he only adds this word for the sake of exposition, so that the Jews might know that the Church, which had then decayed, could be restored by no other means than by being renewed by the Spirit of God.

Again, because the repairing of the Church would be like a new world, Peter therefore says that it shall be in the last days. And surely this was a common and familiar thing among the Jews: that all those great promises concerning the blessed and well-ordered state of the Church would not be fulfilled until Christ, by His coming, should restore all things.

For this reason, it was beyond all doubt among them that what is cited from Joel pertains to the last time. Now, by “the last days,” or “fullness of time,” is meant the stable and firm condition of the Church in the manifestation or revealing of Christ.

I will pour out my Spirit. He intends to prove (as we have already said) that the Church can be repaired by no other means, except only by the giving of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, since they all hoped that the restoring was drawing near, he accuses them of sluggishness, because they do not even consider the way and means of it.

And when the prophet says, “I will pour out,” it is without any question that he meant by this word to indicate the great abundance of the Spirit. And we must take I will pour out of my Spirit in the same sense, as if he had said simply, I will pour out my Spirit.

For these latter words are the words of the prophet. But Peter followed the Greeks, who translate the Hebrew word ח (cheth), as apo. Therefore, some men in vain philosophize with excessive subtlety, because however the words may be changed, we must still retain and keep the prophet’s meaning.

Nevertheless, when God is said to pour out His Spirit, I confess it must be understood in this way: that He causes a manifold variety and change of gifts to flow to men from His Spirit, as if from the only fountain—the fountain which can never be drawn dry. For, as Paul testifies, there are diverse gifts, and yet but one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4). And from this we gather a profitable doctrine: that we can have no more excellent thing given to us by God than the grace of the Spirit; indeed, that all other things are worth nothing if this is lacking.

For, when God will briefly promise salvation to His people, He affirms that He will give them His Spirit. From this it follows that we can obtain no good things until the Spirit is given to us. And truly it is, so to speak, the key which opens the door for us, so that we may enter into all the treasures of spiritual good things, and also that we may have entrance into the kingdom of God.

Upon all flesh. It appears, by what follows, what the force of this generality is. For, first, it is set down generally, all flesh; after that, the distinction is added, by which the prophet signifies that there shall be no difference of age or kind, but that God admits all, one with another, to the partaking of His grace.

It is said, therefore, all flesh, because both young and old, men and women, are signified by it. Yet here a question may be raised: why does God promise that to His people as some new and unusual good thing, which He was accustomed to do for them from the beginning throughout all ages? For there was no age void of the grace of the Spirit.

The answer to this question is set down in these two phrases: “I will pour out,” and, “Upon all flesh;” for we must here note a double contrast between the time of the Old and New Testament. The “pouring out” (as I have said) signifies great plenty, whereas there was under the Law a scarcer distribution; for which reason John also says that the Holy Spirit was not given until Christ ascended into heaven.

All flesh signifies an infinite multitude, whereas God in times past was pleased to bestow such plenty of His Spirit only upon a few.

Furthermore, in both comparisons we do not deny that the fathers under the Law were partakers of the very same grace of which we are partakers; but the Lord shows that we are above them, as we are indeed. I say that all godly men since the beginning of the world were endowed with the same spirit of understanding, of righteousness, and sanctification, with which the Lord at this day illuminates and regenerates us; but there were only a few who had the light of knowledge given them then, if they are compared with the great multitude of the faithful whom Christ suddenly gathered together by His coming.

Again, their knowledge was only obscure and slender, and, so to speak, covered with a veil, if it is compared with that which we have today from the gospel, where Christ, the Sun of righteousness, shines with perfect brightness, as it were at noonday. Nor does that in any way hurt or hinder that a few had such an excellent faith that perhaps they have no equal today.

For their understanding nevertheless savored of the instruction and schoolmastership of the Law. For that is always true, that godly kings and prophets have not seen nor heard those things which Christ has revealed by His coming. Therefore, so that the prophet Joel might commend the excellency of the New Testament, he affirms and foretells that the grace of the Spirit shall be more plentiful in its time; and, again, that it shall come to more men (Matthew 13:17; Luke 10:24).

And your sons shall prophesy. By the word prophesy he meant to indicate the rare and singular gift of understanding. And to the same purpose tends that distinction which follows afterwards, “your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams”; for we gather from Numbers chapter 12 that these were the two ordinary ways by which God revealed Himself to the prophets. For in that place, when the Lord exempts Moses from the common sort of prophets, He says,

“I appear unto my servants by a vision, or by a dream;
but I speak unto Moses face to face” (Numbers 12:6).

Therefore, we see that two kinds are placed after the general word for confirmation; yet this is the sum: that they shall all be prophets as soon as the Holy Spirit shall be poured out from heaven. But here it is objected that there was no such thing, even in the apostles themselves, nor even in the whole multitude of the faithful.

I answer that the prophets commonly used to foreshadow the kingdom of Christ under figures of speech most fitting for their time. When they speak of the worship of God, they name the altar, the sacrifices, the offering of gold, silver, and frankincense. Nevertheless, we know that the altars cease, the sacrifices are abolished (which had some use in the time of the Law), and that the Lord requires something higher from us than earthly riches.

That is true, indeed. But the prophets, while they adapt their style to the capacity of their time, comprehend under figures (with which the people were then well acquainted) those things which we see otherwise revealed and shown now. Just as when He promises elsewhere that He will make priests of Levites, and Levites of the common sort of men (Isaiah 66:21), His meaning is that under the kingdom of Christ every lowly person shall be exalted to an honorable estate.

Therefore, if we desire to have the true and natural meaning of this passage, we must not insist on the literal words taken from the old order of the Law. Instead, we must only seek the truth without figures. And this is it: that the apostles, through the sudden inspiration of the Spirit, treated of the heavenly mysteries prophetically—that is to say, divinely, and above the common order.

Therefore, this word prophesy signifies nothing else except only the rare and excellent gift of understanding, as if Joel should say: Under the kingdom of Christ there shall not be a few prophets only, to whom God may reveal His secrets; but all men shall be endowed with spiritual wisdom, even to prophetical excellency. As it is also in Jeremiah,

“Every man shall no longer teach his neighbor;
because they shall all know me, from the least unto the greatest” (Jeremiah 31:34).

And in these words Peter invites the Jews, to whom he speaks, to be partakers of the same grace. As if he should say, the Lord is ready to pour out that Spirit far and wide which He has poured upon us. Therefore, unless you yourselves are the cause of hindrance, you shall receive with us of this fullness.

And as for us, let us know that the same is spoken to us today which was then spoken to the Jews. For although those visible graces of the Spirit have ceased, yet God has not withdrawn His Spirit from His Church. Therefore He offers Him daily to us all by this same promise, without making any distinction.

Therefore we are poor and needy only through our own sluggishness. And it also appears manifestly that those are wicked and sacrilegious enemies of the Spirit who keep back the common Christian people from the knowledge of God, since He Himself does not only admit, but also calls by name to Himself, women and men, young and old.