What did the crowd hear the apostles speaking at Pentecost?
At Pentecost, the crowd heard the apostles speaking in other tongues, meaning known languages they could understand, not an unknown guttural noise. The Holy Spirit enabled them to speak the various languages of the Jews gathered from many regions, each hearing in a language they could understand.
Les explains that at Pentecost the apostles began to speak with other tongues after being filled with the Holy Spirit. These were not unknown sounds but other languages, because Jews had come from Babylon, Spain, and many places, speaking different languages. The miracle was that God gave the apostles the gift to speak all the languages of the people in the massive crowd. Verse 6 says the hearers were confounded because every man heard them speak, not in an unknown guttural noise, but in a language they could understand. This was the first time in Scripture that the Holy Spirit manifested this gift of speaking known languages not intrinsic to the speakers' own education. Peter and most of the disciples were from Galilee, uneducated fishermen, yet suddenly they spoke the various languages evident on Pentecost.
Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
More Questions
Why was the Pentecost crowd confounded when the disciples spoke?
The crowd came together and were confounded at Pentecost because every person, no matter where in the empire he had come from, heard these disciples speaking in his own native language.
What really happened when the disciples spoke in tongues at Pentecost?
At Pentecost, the twelve disciples were speaking the languages of the Jewish pilgrims who had come from all over the empire, so each person could understand in his own language.