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Did the disciples receive the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathed on them, or at Pentecost?
Hard question · The death and resurrection of Jesus · raised by 2 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
On Easter evening Jesus “breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost”.
And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
Before the ascension: “ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.”
For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
“ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you”.
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
At Pentecost “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues”.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The objection
John says the disciples received the Holy Spirit on the evening of Easter Day, when Jesus breathed on them. Acts says that forty days later they were still waiting for the Spirit, who came at Pentecost. Critics ask when the Spirit was actually given.
The answer
Many Christian interpreters, Calvin among them, see two real givings of the Spirit for different purposes, with the second as the great outpouring that the rest of the New Testament looks back to. On Easter evening Jesus commissioned the apostles (“as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”, John 20:21), breathed on them as God breathed life into Adam (Genesis 2:7), and gave them the Spirit together with authority to declare sins forgiven or retained (John 20:23). That was a real gift, but a first one, tied to their commission.
At Pentecost came what Jesus told them to wait for: the Spirit coming “upon” them in power for their witness to the world (Acts 1:8), the baptism with the Spirit that John the Baptist had promised (Acts 1:5), and the public outpouring with which the church began (Acts 2:1–4, 16–18). John’s own Gospel looks ahead to this fuller coming, which would follow Jesus’ glorification and departure (John 7:39; 16:7). Calvin puts it this way: at Easter the apostles were ‘only sprinkled by his grace, but were not filled with full power’, which came when the Spirit rested on them in tongues of fire. The Old Testament already knows of the Spirit coming on the same person more than once (Judges 14:6, 19; 15:14), so a first gift followed by a fuller one is no contradiction.
Other answers Christians give
A sign and pledge of Pentecost
Others, including Gill and Barnes, take the breathing as an acted promise, like the symbolic actions of the prophets: Jesus gave the disciples a sign and pledge of the Spirit they would receive at Pentecost. On this view the Spirit was given at Pentecost, and John 20:22 points forward to it.
Still open
Christian interpreters are divided between these two readings: a real but first gift of the Spirit at Easter, or an acted promise of Pentecost. Both agree that the full outpouring came at Pentecost.
From the classic commentators
the Spirit was given to the Apostles on this occasion in such a manner, that they were only sprinkled by his grace, but were not filled with full power; for, when the Spirit appeared on them in tongues of fire, (Acts 2:3,) they were entirely renewed.John Calvin, Commentary on John 20 (1553)
this breathing on them, and the words that attended it, were a symbol, pledge, and confirmation, of what they were to receive on the day of PentecostJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on John 20 (1746–1763)
Sources
- John Calvin, Commentary on John 20 (1553), at HelloAO
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: John 20 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: John 20 (1832), at Bible Hub