Why was there wind and fire at Pentecost?

A:The story of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 closely parallels the Jewish Pentecost account of the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, fifty days after Passover. Numbers 11:25 tells us that on that occasion, the spirit of God came down on the seventy elders and they began to prophesy in ecstasy. Wind has always been associated with the Holy Spirit, if only because the same Hebrew Word can mean either wind or spirit. The translation here is 'spirit' because the spirit of God came down, but elsewhere the text could also be interpreted as 'wind'.

The Christian Pentecost story so closely parallels the Jewish Pentecost that it was arguably inspired by the earlier account. Acts of the Apostles was written in Greek, so the author could speak of the Holy Spirit and of a rushing mighty wind without ambiguity. When writing the story of Pentecost, he wanted to demonstrate awesome power and leave no doubt that something special really occurred, so used the physical symbols of a rushing mighty wind and fire. Of course, if the Holy Spirit really came upon the apostles, he had no need of these symbols - after all, the modern Church teaches that the Holy Spirit can come down on Christians without wind or fire.