Subject: Unforgivable sin |
Bible Note: Greetings Teacher! Newspapers! I remember them well! :-) I had a route during the blizzard of 78 and I was the only one who delievered all of his papers that day! Acts 2:38 literally reads: "And Peter to them, 'Repent (plural verb) and let each of you be baptized (singular verb) in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your (plural pronoun) sins and you will receive (plural verb) the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" I am assuming that your interest is based upon the relationship between this verse and the salvation/baptism question. There is a grammatical anomaly in this verse. The command to repent is a second person plural imperative - in other words a plural you. Unfortunately, there is no way in English to distinguish between a 2nd person plural and a 2nd person singular. To use the King James method of ?you? and ?ye,? the command here is ?Repent Ye!? The phrase ?for the remission of your sins? is also a 2nd person plural as indicated by both the definite article and the personal pronoun. So, obviously, the command to repent and the phrase concerning the forgiveness of sins belong together. However, the command to "be baptized" is a 3rd person singular imperative. This simply means that the phrase "for the remission of sins" does not go with the command to be baptized at all, rather it belongs with the command to repent. If I phrased this verse in modern English, it might go something like this: "Peter replied, 'Repent (and by the way let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ) for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" In effect, the command 'to be baptized' is an added thought which does not grammatically go with the rest of the sentence. It would be like me telling a room of kindergarteners: "Everyone pick you your toys - Timmy, stopping hitting your sister - and after you pick up your toys you will get a snack." Do you see the significance of this? The command to Timmy interrupted the flow of my sentence. His stopping hitting his sister was not a condition for receiving a snack, only picking up the toys was a condition. In the same way, failure to acount for the grammar of Acts 2:38 has caused much misunderstanding. The forgiveness of sins and reception of the 'gift of the Holy Spirit' are a result of repentance, not baptism. This also makes sense of Acts 10, where individuals are said to have received 'the gift of the Holy Spirit' (the same exact phrase as in Acts 2:38) before they were baptized in water. I hope this helps my friend! Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |