[B-Greek] "EIS" in Ac. 2:38

Harold R. Holmyard III hholmyard at ont.com
Mon Jan 10 08:26:14 EST 2005


Dear Doug,

>  But I was considering
>the plural imperative (METANOHSATE) and singular
>distributive imperative (BAPTISQHTW) and wondered if
>perhaps it should be translated, punctuated, and
>understood thusly:
>
>"Repent (and each one of you be baptized in the name
>of Jesus Christ) for the forgiveness of sins (or
>perhaps the deep structure is 'Repent...so that your
>sins may be forgiven')..."
>
>So my suggestion is that the change between the plural
>and distributive singular is because the distributive
>singular thought is somewhat parenthetical. I would
>suggest this because the first prepositional phrase
>(EPI TWi ONOMATI IHSOU CRISTOU) most definitely
>adverbially modifies BAPTISQHTW and *not* METANOHSATE;
>and the second prepositional phrase (EIS AFESIN TWN
>hAMARTIWN hUMWN) adverbially modifies METANOHSATE and
>not BAPTISQHTW (or both METANOHSATE and BAPTISQHTW).
>Does this seem plausible? Are there any objections to
>this other than what Wallace brings against it ("its
>subtlety and awkwardness are against it" pg 370)?

HH: It seems unnecessary, too. It is by identification with Christ 
that forgiveness of sins comes. So there seems to be no reason 
grammatically or theologically why the words "for the forgiveness of 
sins" cannot go with the words BAPTISQHTW hEKASTOS hUMWN EPI TWi 
ONOMATI IHSOU CRISTOU. Such a baptism would  presume an accompanying 
or preceding repentance.

					Yours,
					Harold Holmyard



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