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NASB | Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and 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. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, "Repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. |
Bible Question: When his listeners asked Peter, "What shall we do? (v37) Why didn't he tell them to "believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" see Acts 16:30--31. Why didn't they need to believe to be saved? Also, "If Peter's hearers were not baptised, were they still saved? Jesus commanded His disciples to be baptised, see Matt 28:19 |
Bible Answer: Acts 2:38 Grammar Corrected It has been stated several times on this forum that the Greek construction found in Acts 2:38 wrongly leaves the impression that 'repentance' and 'baptism' are necessary for salvation. ________ Morant61 has said, "Greek pronouns and verbs must match in both person and number. While it sounds nice to say that Peter is simply going from the group to the individual, doing so seperates the command to 'be baptized' from the promise of 'forgiveness of sins'. One cannot say in Greek, "Be baptized (singular) for the forgiveness of your (plural) sins!" "Ignore the rest of the sentence for the moment. The above sentence in Greek would be impossible. The only imperative that can go with the promise of forgiveness of sins in the plural 'repent'." ________ Acts 2:38 reads: Repent ye (2nd person, plural) and be baptized (3rd singular) each one (HEKASTOS, see Thayer's notes) of ye (plural pronoun).... unto the remission of sins of ye (plural pronoun)... Morant61 says it is not proper to say, "be baptized (singular) for the forgiveness of your (plural) sins." Thayer disagrees and offers several places where this is done when HEKASTOS (each, every) is used. "HEKASTOS, when it denotes individuality, every one of many, is often added appositively to nouns and pronouns and verbs in the plural number: Jn16:32; Acts 2:8; Lk2:3; Acts3:26; 1Pt4:10; Rev5:8; Rev20:13. (Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon, 1889, p.192) Here is a perfect example in Acts 2:3, "and appeared (3rd PLURAL) to them (autois, dative PLURAL) tongues as of fire distributing themselves (nominative PLURAL) and they rested (literal, 'it rested' 3rd SINGULAR) on each one (HEKASTOS, each, every) of them (genetive PLURAL). The "them/autois" of "there appeared unto THEM" in this Greek text is PLURAL. "EACH" is from the same word translated "EVERY ONE" in Acts 2:38. Did the tongues of fire sit on exactly the same ones to whom the fiery tongues appeared? The obvious answer is, 'yes!' In Acts 2:38, the group that is commanded to 'repent ye' is not more or less than the ones who are commanded to 'be baptized individually every one of ye (plural)...for the forgiveness of the sins of ye. Other examples of this construction are seen in John 6:7; Lk 4:40 "We ask: "How many more repented than were baptized?" "Every one of you" is added appositively to "Repent ye" and they both refer to the same ones."1 Good day, Disciplerami 1www_bearvalleycofc_orgZarticlesZbaptismEssential_html _ is for a dot Z is for a forward slash |