Jesus “breathed upon them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost” KJV
In the Amplified Bible it says “Receive (admit) the Holy Spirit.”
Ken Wuest translates this in the Expanded NT as “Receive at once the Holy Spirit.”
Malcolm Smith translates/paraphrases it as “Receive here and now the Holy Spirit.”
There are differences of opinion on what actually happened here that night as they saw and believed in the resurrected Christ and acknowledged Him as Lord.
Some believe this was a symbolic gesture, a preview of when the Holy Spirit would come 50 days later on the Day of Pentecost. John Mac Arthur has a note in his Study Bible which says, “Since the disciples did not actually receive the Holy Spirit until the day of Pentecost, some 40 days in the future (
Acts 1:8;2:1-3),this statement must be understood as a pledge on Christ’s part that the Holy Spirit would be coming.” Those who hold to this view believe that the disciples were not born again or did not have New Testament salvation at this time but that they would be saved/born again on the Day of Pentecost.
Others believe that this was the beginning of the New Testament dispensation. The disciples had been saved/born again by faith and this was the actual impartation of the Holy Spirit coming to dwell within them. He had been with them but now He was within them. Later, on the Day of Pentecost, the disciples were baptized in and empowered by the Holy Spirit. David J. DuPlessis said, “The upper room on the resurrection day was a maternity ward. Pentecost was a baptismal service,” Those who hold this view believe that a person is born of the Spirit by faith in Jesus and then as a child of God has a promise of a baptism in the Holy Spirit which is called ”the promise of the Father” as an experience subsequent to salvation/regeneration.
Here is a note from The Spirit Filled Life Bible
“The allusion to
Gen 2:7 is unmistakable. Now, Jesus breathed life into His own. Some interpret this statement, ‘receive the Holy Ghost’ as symbolic and as anticipating Pentecost. Others understand the Greek to denote immediacy, in the sense of ‘receive right now’ and view the day of the Lord’s resurrection as marking the transition from the terms of the old covenant to those of the new covenant. The old creation began with the breath of God; now the new creation begins with the breath of God the Son.” page 1613
Here is a quote from Derek Prince’s Foundation Series, Vol 2 page 60
“...the tense of the imperative form ‘receive’ indicated that the receiving was a single, complete experience which took place as Jesus uttered the word. It is therefore an incontestable, scriptural fact that at that moment the apostles did actually receive the Spirit.
In this first encounter with the resurrected Christ, the apostles passed from ‘Old Testament salvation’ to ‘New Testament salvation.’ Up to that time the believers of the OT had looked forward by faith, through prophecies and types and shadows, to a redemptive act which had not yet taken place. Those who enter into ‘NT salvation,’ on the other hand look back with clear vision to a single historical event: the death and resurrection of Christ. Their salvation is complete.”
A Jay Snell Evangelistic Assoc. Publication dated June/July 1998 says:
“He meant for them to ‘receive’ the Holy Ghost then and there. How do we know this? We know it because ‘receive’ is in the imperative mood in the Greek text. The imperative mood in the Greek had no future. It was the mood a Greek would use to tell someone very strongly that he/she wanted them to do something now. In other words, Jesus meant for them to ‘receive’ the Holy Ghost then and there. He issued the directive of a command to be obeyed at once. There never was a future concerning the Greek imperative. It always meant ‘do it now.’”
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