What two images indicated the presence of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost?

Answer 1

A:On the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:2-3 says there were (i) a sound from heaven as from a rushing mighty wind and (ii) tongues of flame that sat upon each of the apostles, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, gaining the power to speak in other languages.

Of course, the all-powerful God of Christianity ought to have been able to give the disciples this power without any theatrics and even without the intervention of the Holy Spirit. In that case, perhaps, the reader could be left wondering whether anything divine had happened at all. The wonderful images of the rushing wind and the tongues of flame would leave even the Gentile reader in no doubt that God is real and that the apostles were given special power.

Another Answer:

The power emanating from the God Family that sustains the physical creation had been held back and not freely offered since the fall in the Garden. Few people had been 'begotten' with it to their human spirit in the Old Testament. As part of the promise of the initiation of the New Covenant via Jesus' sacrifice, God would now give His Spirit freely to all that truly repent and are baptized (see Acts 2:38-39).

Surely one can see how this is a tremendous gift and event for all mankind. As God chooses who/what/where/when/how He gives out His Holy Spirit, He insures all around know about it in spectacular fashion via His control of the physical world. In this case, He stirred the wind loudly sent tongues of fire - two of the symbols for God's Spirit used in The Bible.

Answer 2

Acts 2 (NIV):
1

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

2

Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

3

They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

Answer 3

a dove and fire