Acts 2:11 (LSB)

Passage

Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.”

Nearby Context

Acts 2:9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,

Acts 2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the district of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,

Acts 2:11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.”

Acts 2:12 And they all continued in astonishment and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

Acts 2:13 But others, mocking, were saying, “They are full of new wine.”

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "cretans", "arabs", "hear", "tongues", "speaking", "mighty", and "deeds". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "cretans" and "arabs", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 10's "Phrygia and Pamphylia Egypt and the district..." into verse 12's "And they all continued in astonishment and...", so "cretans" and "arabs" belong inside that flow. In Acts context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "cretans" and "arabs" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.