[B-Greek] 1 Peter 3:20-21

Iver Larsen iver at larsen.dk
Fri Mar 10 01:59:29 EST 2006



> Sorry... I was so focused on the relative pronoun that I neglected to give the complete translation:
>
> 1 Peter 3:20-21 DIESWQHSAN DI hUDATOS.  hO KAI hUMAS ANTITUPON VUN SWZEI BAPTISMA
> I translate as "They were saved through water. That which now saves you as a type, baptism"
>
> I still have the same question: Should hO above be translated "that which". And the relative part of the pronoun 
> "which" is having as its antecedent hUDWR while the demonstrative part of the same pronoun "that" is pointing forward 
> to BAPTISMA?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Rich Lindeman

Since hO is a neuter pronoun I prefer to see it not as referring to the immediately preceding word but to the whole 
preceding sentence, the activity or concept of salvation while passing through water. The problem with water is that 
Noah and his family was not saved by the water, but by the ark through the water and actually in spite of the water that 
killed everybody else.

So this event of being saved by the ark (or by God by means of the ark) passing  through water is a type or example of 
how you, too, are saved nowadays, namely by passing through baptism. It can hardly be the water that saves.

Iver Larsen 




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