Re: Acts 2:38 Sentence Structure

From: Christopher Hutson (crhutson@salisbury.net)
Date: Mon Apr 19 1999 - 12:40:10 EDT


 Lee Deavers wrote:
>>In regards to the greek text from Acts 2:38--
>>
>>METANOHSATE, [FHSIN,] KAI BAPTISQHTW hEKASTOS hUMWN EPI TWi ONOMATI
IHSOU
>>XRISTOU EIS AFESIN TWN hAMARTIWN hUMWN
>>
>>Why do you think the King James editors put a comma after the word
repent?
>>What effect does it have on the sentence if the sentence was
diagramed?
>>Here it is in the KJV:

Carl replied:

>The most basic reason, I think, is that the two imperatives are of
>different kinds and seem to refer to processes enjoined as related
but
>distinct from each other: METANOHSATE is a general command address to
all
>those present as a group--and in the second plural, while BAPTISQHTW
>hEKASTOS hUMWN points to a baptism that ritualizes, whether one
understands
>that ritual as a symbol or as a concrete event, the repentance that
each
>has made; and here the imperative is in the 3d person aorist passive
and,
>although addressed to the whole group, points to each one
individually as
>one who by then will have repented: NOW that he/she has repented,
each
>individual is to be baptized.

Are we talking here about the punctuation in the KJV or the
punctuation in the underlying Greek text? Assuming the latter (and
recognizing that commas are added by modern editors), one possibility
might turn on FHSIN. Since this is a parenthetical element which
interrupts the quotation, it makes sense to set it between commas:
"...repent, he said, and let each of you be baptized..." Notice that
some manuscripts omit FHSIN or substitute EFH and/or rearrange the
word order. But the presence of FHSIN in most mss (accepted in the
modern critical editions) might be sufficient to explain the commas.
Wouldn't that render moot the question of whether METANOHSATE and
BAPTISQHTW should be separated by a comma?

XPIC

------------------------------------
Christopher R. Hutson
          Hood Theological Seminary
          Salisbury, NC 28144
crhutson@salisbury.net
------------------------------------

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