The incredible events of Pentecost are something with which virtually all Christians are acquainted. As Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, enabling them to speak in the languages of the throng of Jews who had come to Jerusalem from every nation. This miracle resulted in thousands of conversions to belief in Jesus as the risen Messiah, which in turn meant that new believers would return to every nation to spread the word. But while all this is familiar, its Old Testament context is habitually overlooked.
Earlier we saw that the events at Babel provided the context for most of what occurred thereafter, from the call of Abraham through the exile. Specifically, Deuteronomy 32:8–9 informed readers that God disinherited the nations when he dispersed them at Babel. Instead, they were put under the dominion of the sons of God, lesser divine beings. This was why God next called Abraham and started his own people, his “portion” as Deuteronomy 32:9 puts it.
The list of disinherited nations is given to us in Genesis 10, the “table” of the known nations at the time. If you were to look at a map of those nations, they would extend from the Persian Gulf (the area of Babylon) in the east to Tarshish (modern day Spain) in the west. At the time of the writing of Genesis 10, Tarshish was the westernmost land mass known.
Moving to Acts 2, the nations at Pentecost also stretch from east to west, this time from the Persian Gulf to Italy. The names can be different at times because the events of Acts occur in the first century AD, thousands of years removed from Babel. If we read the nations listed in Acts 2 in the order they appear, they proceed from the east to the west. When the list hits the Mediterranean, the nations fork north and south and continue westward.
The point should not be missed. Jews from all nations were gathered at Pentecost and would be a new army of missionaries to spread the gospel to the disinherited nations. The reclamation of the nations begins in the regions where the Jews were exiled and proceeds westward, sweeping across the known world. But why does the list in Acts 2 not extend to Spain, the westernmost region included in both Genesis 10 and the punishment of Babel? Because it didn’t need to. Paul would finish the job.
The apostle Paul, the apostle to the disinherited gentile nations, understood the symbolism of what happened in Acts. Twice in his letter to the Romans he expressed confidence and urgency about getting to Spain (Acts 15:24, 28). The repatriation of Spain to the true God (Tarshish) had been prophesied by Isaiah (Isa. 66:19). Paul believed it was his destiny to get there and to bring the rest of the gentiles into God’s family (Isa. 66:20–23).