Tongues, Babel and Abraham

Acts 2:5-6

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone (Part One)

The whole question of Acts 1, you remember, was of how God would fulfill the promise to extend his kingdom, his saving sovereign rule, not only in Israel but through Israel, to reach the rest of the world. In other words, the question had to do with the challenge to see how God was going to fulfill what he had said to Abraham in Genesis 12.3: “In you, and in your family, all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Now Luke is implying, with the day of Pentecost [that the curse of Babel, which immediately preceded the call of Abraham] is itself overturned; in other words, God is dramatically signaling that his promises to Abraham are being fulfilled, and the whole human race is going to be addressed with the good new of what has happened in and through Jesus (28-9).