Acts 2:38-47

2:38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each one of you be baptized ¹  in the name of Jesus Christ ²  for ³  the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ⁴  2:39 For the promise ⁵  is for you and your children, and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.” 2:40 With many other words he testified ⁶  and exhorted them saying, “Save yourselves from this perverse ⁷  generation!” 2:41 So those who accepted ⁸  his message ⁹  were baptized, and that day about three thousand people ¹⁰  were added. ¹¹ 

The Fellowship of the Early Believers

2:42 They were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, ¹²  to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ¹³  2:43 Reverential awe ¹⁴  came over everyone, ¹⁵  and many wonders and miraculous signs ¹⁶  came about by the apostles. 2:44 All who believed were together and held ¹⁷  everything in common, 2:45 and they began selling ¹⁸  their property ¹⁹  and possessions and distributing the proceeds ²⁰  to everyone, as anyone had need. 2:46 Every day ²¹  they continued to gather together by common consent in the temple courts, ²²  breaking bread from ²³  house to house, sharing their food with glad ²⁴  and humble hearts, ²⁵  2:47 praising God and having the good will ²⁶  of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day ²⁷  those who were being saved.

[2:38]  ¹ tn The verb is a third person imperative, but the common translation “let each of you be baptized” obscures the imperative force in English, since it sounds more like a permissive (“each of you may be baptized”) to the average English reader.

[2:38]  ² tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[2:38]  ³ tn There is debate over the meaning of εἰς in the prepositional phrase εἰς ἄφεσιν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ὑμῶν (eis afesin twn Jamartiwn Jumwn, “for/because of/with reference to the forgiveness of your sins”). Although a causal sense has been argued, it is difficult to maintain here. ExSyn 369-71 discusses at least four other ways of dealing with the passage: (1) The baptism referred to here is physical only, and εἰς has the meaning of “for” or “unto.” Such a view suggests that salvation is based on works – an idea that runs counter to the theology of Acts, namely: (a) repentance often precedes baptism (cf. Acts 3:19; 26:20), and (b) salvation is entirely a gift of God, not procured via water baptism (Acts 10:43 [cf. v. 47]; 13:38-39, 48; 15:11; 16:30-31; 20:21; 26:18); (2) The baptism referred to here is spiritual only. Although such a view fits well with the theology of Acts, it does not fit well with the obvious meaning of “baptism” in Acts – especially in this text (cf. 2:41); (3) The text should be repunctuated in light of the shift from second person plural to third person singular back to second person plural again. The idea then would be, “Repent for/with reference to your sins, and let each one of you be baptized…” Such a view is an acceptable way of handling εἰς, but its subtlety and awkwardness count against it; (4) Finally, it is possible that to a first-century Jewish audience (as well as to Peter), the idea of baptism might incorporate both the spiritual reality and the physical symbol. That Peter connects both closely in his thinking is clear from other passages such as Acts 10:47 and 11:15-16. If this interpretation is correct, then Acts 2:38 is saying very little about the specific theological relationship between the symbol and the reality, only that historically they were viewed together. One must look in other places for a theological analysis. For further discussion see R. N. Longenecker, “Acts,” EBC 9:283-85; B. Witherington, Acts, 154-55; F. F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles: The Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary, 129-30; BDAG 290 s.v. εἰς 4.f.

[2:38]  ⁴ tn Here the genitive τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος (tou Jagiou pneumato") is a genitive of apposition; the gift consists of the Holy Spirit.

[2:39]  ⁵ sn The promise refers to the promise of the Holy Spirit that Jesus received from the Father in 2:33 and which he now pours out on others. The promise consists of the Holy Spirit (see note in 2:33). Jesus is the active mediator of God’s blessing.

[2:40]  ⁶ tn Or “warned.”

[2:40]  ⁷ tn Or “crooked” (in a moral or ethical sense). See Luke 3:5.

[2:41]  ⁸ tn Or “who acknowledged the truth of.”

[2:41]  ⁹ tn Grk “word.”

[2:41]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “souls” (here an idiom for the whole person).

[2:41]  ¹¹ tn Or “were won over.”

[2:42]  ¹² sn Fellowship refers here to close association involving mutual involvement and relationships.

[2:42]  ¹³ tn Grk “prayers.” This word was translated as a collective singular in keeping with English style.

[2:43]  ¹⁴ tn Or “Fear.”

[2:43]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “on every soul” (here “soul” is an idiom for the whole person).

[2:43]  ¹⁶ tn In this context the miraculous nature of these signs is implied. Cf. BDAG 920 s.v. σημεῖον 2.a.

[2:44]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “had.”

[2:45]  ¹⁸ tn The imperfect verb has been translated as an ingressive (“began…”). Since in context this is a description of the beginning of the community of believers, it is more likely that these statements refer to the start of various activities and practices that the early church continued for some time.

[2:45]  ¹⁹ tn It is possible that the first term for property (κτήματα, kthmata) refers to real estate (as later usage seems to indicate) while the second term (ὑπάρξεις, Juparxeis) refers to possessions in general, but it may also be that the two terms are used together for emphasis, simply indicating that all kinds of possessions were being sold. However, if the first term is more specifically a reference to real estate, it foreshadows the incident with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11.

[2:45]  ²⁰ tn Grk “distributing them” (αὐτά, auta). The referent (the proceeds of the sales) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:46]  ²¹ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase.

[2:46]  ²² tn Grk “in the temple.” This is actually a reference to the courts surrounding the temple proper, and has been translated accordingly.

[2:46]  ²³ tn Here κατά (kata) is used as a distributive (BDAG 512 s.v. B.1.d).

[2:46]  ²⁴ sn The term glad (Grk “gladness”) often refers to joy brought about by God’s saving acts (Luke 1:14, 44; also the related verb in 1:47; 10:21).

[2:46]  ²⁵ tn Grk “with gladness and humbleness of hearts.” It is best to understand καρδίας (kardias) as an attributed genitive, with the two nouns it modifies actually listing attributes of the genitive noun which is related to them.

[2:47]  ²⁶ tn Or “the favor.”

[2:47]  ²⁷ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase.