Pentecost Acts 2 Reading: Updated Countries & Traditional Pronunciation Guide

The Acts 2 reading for Pentecost Sunday with the countries mentioned updated to their modern day equivalents (and a few suggested sound effects!):

Acts 2:1-21
"It was the festival of Pentecost, and the apostles were all together in a house. And suddenly from heaven there was a sound like a giant rush of wind, WHOOSH, and it filled the whole house!  Flames of fire that looked like tongues appeared among the apostles, and each of them were touched by one of the tongue-like flames.  They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, because the Spirit gave them that ability.

There were faithful Jewish people from around the world who were in Jerusalem at the time, to celebrate the festival of Pentecost, and when they heard the great WHOOSH a crowd gathered at the house where the apostles were, and they were confused as they listened to the apostles speak, because each person heard the apostles speaking in their own native language.

Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Aren’t all of these people from the same place in Galilee?  How can they be talking in so many languages at once?  We are from Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, Iran and Iraq, Israel and Palestine and many parts of Turkey, including near Istanbul and Ankara; some of us are from Egypt and northern Libya, or visiting from Rome in Italy, from the island of Crete or from Saudi Arabia.  But still we all hear the apostles speaking about God’s deeds of power in our own languages!”  All of them were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another “What does this mean?” But other people laughed at the apostles, saying they were drunk.

Peter was standing with the other apostles, and he raised his voice and spoke to the crowd, “People of Israel and everyone who is in Jerusalem, listen to me! We are not drunk, as you might think, it’s only 9 in the morning! No, this is what the prophet Joel said, ‘God tells us that in the last days, God will pour out his Spirit on all people, that your children will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit on them in those days and they will prophesy too.  And I will show signs in the sky above them and in the earth below them, blood, fire and smoky mist. The sun will turn dark and the moon will turn red, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who says the Lord’s name will be saved.’”

Traditional Pronunciation Guide for the names of the ancient countries and areas of Acts 2:9-11:

"Parthians, Meeds, EE-lah-mites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cap-pah-doh-shia, Pontus and Asia, FRIH-gih-ah and Pam-FILL-ih-ah, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cree-tans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”

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