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Originally Posted by eternally-gratefull
Thanks for your response. But Peter did not think any such thing. The interpretors who interpreted his words just got the wording mixed up.
Repent is 2rd person plural. It is a command given to everyone who he is speaking to. Gift of the HS is also 2nd person plural. It is what everyone who repents will recieve for repenting.
Baptize is a 3rd person singular. Meaning Peter is no longer talking to everyone who is listening to him. But only certain people individually (A third person command is general to everyone, a 2nd person command is an individual command given to certain listeners. not all) to find out who he is talking to, we must find the third person command is we look for the third person singular command. It just happens to be "baptize", in other words he is only telling specific people, not all, to be baptized. Now to find out who? What is the "thing" which is 3rd person singular? Remission of sin is third person singular.
In other words. Peter is telling them all to repent, and if they repent, they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then he continues by telling those who have received remission of sin because of their repentance to be baptized.
Remember in Acts 10: 43 the same author writes this;
Acts 10:43
To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
If baptism was essential to receive remission. and not just faith. then Peter would have said so here in acts 10. But he does not, beczause he understands it is not a requirement, but happens after, proven by his next words.
Peter then continues by saying this,
47 “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days.
so we see, the gift comes first. Remission comes through faith and repentance. then comes water baptism.
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Interesting to say the least. But I feel you ran off the tracks, Latin for example has almost identical grammar to Greek (and does not differ in the forms you mentioned), but it has the passage translated (not so much translated as Jerome spoke Greek and Latin practically from birth) as:
Vulgate: Acts Chapter 2
[38] Petrus vero ad illos paenitentiam inquit agite et baptizetur (3rd person subjunctive) unusquisque vestrum in nomine Iesu Christi in remissionem peccatorum vestrorum et accipietis (2nd person plural future) donum Sancti Spiritus.
Normally Latin would use a 3rd person plural form of "baptizo" instead of a 3rd person singular subjunctive form but since "unusquisque" is used (speaking to each person individually) it makes the change necessary. Additionally while the command to "be baptized" is in the present while the verb "to receive (the Holy Spirit)" is in 2nd person (speaking to only some people) future tense; Simply put he's saying to all of them "Repent and be baptized" and then to the ones that will repent and be baptized "and then you will receive the Holy Spirit", hence the change from 3rd person to 2nd person.
In fact you contradicted yourself in this sentence by saying because baptize is in the 3rd person Peter is not speaking to everyone, and then you said that a 3rd person command is speaking to everyone. As you said:
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Baptize is a 3rd person singular. Meaning Peter is no longer talking to everyone who is listening to him. But only certain people individually (A third person command is general to everyone
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Now if you plan to ask why "to baptize" is in the singular form in Greek it's because the verb has to agree grammatically with who or what is being commanded. In this case the who is "each of you" or "hekastos humon" which is singular, therefore "to baptize" has to agree with it. Honestly I don't know where you got this but it goes to great lengths to twist verb constructs into saying something they're not, and it doesn't appear to have too solid a grasp on grammar.
The passage is translated perfectly well into English with the tenses maintained perfectly as I just showed above. With receiving the Holy Spirit in the future and repenting and being baptized in the present.