The Apostles Preaching the Gospel
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Acts 2:32
The passage
This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Acts 2:32
About this plate
A rocky height with a wide sky. At the top left a small group of apostles stands together, one with an arm raised. Below them the ground falls away and is scattered with listeners — seated, kneeling, lying propped on an elbow, some in family groups, spread out rather than massed.
Doré draws a crowd that has not formed properly yet. In the preaching plates of the gospels the listeners are packed; here they are dispersed across the slope in ones and twos, and there is a lot of bare rock between them.
The verse is the whole of the apostolic claim in fifteen words: This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. No argument, no scripture, no miracle — just testimony, and the word witnesses doing all the load-bearing.
That is why the group at the top is drawn as a group. Not one man on a rock but several standing together, which is what the sentence requires: we all are witnesses. The plural is the point, and Doré obeys it.
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