The Apostolic Age, CE 30�135, began with the founding of the Church of God (Hebrew: q^ehal'el, Greek: ekklesia tou Theou) on the day of Pentecost, an annual Sabbath, ca. CE 30. The single surviving account of its founding, shortly after the death of Jesus, is the New Testament at Acts 2. The writer of Acts, traditionally understood as the apostle Luke, tells of the Holy Spirit descending on that day upon the assembled followers of Jesus thereby creating quite a commotion (Acts 2:1, 2:4, 2:6-7).^F1

The apostles and their followers appear to have assembled on the Temple Mount (Acts 2:1), in the Royal Stoa (also known as Solomon�s Portico), or in one of the large halls in the Temple Court available for public religious meetings.^F2 Peter, as the leading apostle and the spokesman, proceeded to speak in public to Jews who came for Shavuoth (Pentecost) activities.^F3 Led by Peter, all the apostles similarly spoke in the name of Jesus of Nazareth proclaiming to the crowd that God had made Jesus "both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36).

Reportedly three thousand Jews underwent ritual baptism by immersion (Acts 2:41). In all probability this took place in the ritual pools below the southern wall of the Haram esh-Sharif.^F4 These ritual purification baths mikvaot (pools) were for Jews to ceremonially cleanse themselves before ascending the Temple Mount.^F5

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^F1The group including women and children apparently comprised about 120 families, e.g. Greek: onoma (names) not individuals (Acts 1:15), encompassing in all about 500 people (I Corinthians 15:6).

^F2On the Day of Pentecost all were sitting (Acts 2:2) in a building not in a private family residence. The belief that the first Christians met in the "Upper Room", where Jesus had instituted the Christian Passover, is a myth. The Temple Court, a single structure, was a large complex with many rooms. The colonnade forming an unenclosed building, known as Solomon�s Portico, was most likely venue for this event. Its exposed access allowed people in the building to be easily seen and heard from the outside the colonnade. The apostles had immediate access to Jews and proselytes gathered for the festival. They did not need to run out into the narrow streets of Jerusalem babbling in ecstatic nonsense as if they had completely lost their minds.

^F3This assembly must have begun fairly early in the morning, for Peter began his public address to the crowd of curiosity seekers about 9:00 a.m., which was "the third hour of the day" (Acts 2:15). This suggests that the group were aware of the special significance of this particular Day of Pentecost but not of the specific hour God would bestow the Holy Spirit. It appears in context that the group came together very early in the morning, perhaps even before sunrise, which in CE 30 was about 5:00 a.m. Jerusalem time.

^F4The excavation of this site, between 1969�1975, was by an expedition under the direction of Professor Benjamin Mazar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem supported by Ambassador University (Israel Exploration Society 1975:25) in conjunction with Hebrew University and the Israel Exploration Society. Scores of students and faculty from Ambassador University, then Ambassador College, assisted Mazar and his associates, albeit little public exposure was given to their efforts. The erection of a sign in commemoration of Ambassador�s efforts at the excavation site, later transformed into the archaeological park, as promised by Israeli political authorities was never done in spite of frequent assurances and rhetoric to the contrary. Nearby, however, in Liberty Bell Park officials placed a modest memorial to Ambassador's founder "H. W. Armstrong", located at the children�s playground near a memorial to Hubert Humphrey, that later became abandoned and vandalized when funding for the park�s maintenance from the Ambassador Foundation ceased.

^F5mikvaot were ritual purification baths for facilitating the required submersion in a pool of fresh water to ceremonially purify the visitor before he or she could ascend into the Temple precincts. According to Jewish law a mikveh must contain not less than forty seah of non-drawn water, that is, rain water (Danby 1980:733; see Mishna at Mikwaoth 1.7, 2.3, 6.8, 7.1).

Page last edited: 01/26/06 07:12 PM

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