Saturday, April 23, 2022

Stanley K. Fowler on the Exegetical Weakness to Objections of Acts 2:38 teaching Baptismal Regeneration based on Grammar

  

While Matthew 10:41 may mean something like “receive a prophet because he is a prophet,” it may also mean “receive a prophet into the treatment appropriate to a prophet” or “receive a prophet in the name of a prophet” (the latter if εις is equivalent to εν as it often is). Similarly, Matthew 12:41 may mean “repented because of the preaching of Jonah,” but it may also mean “changed their mind in the direction of what Jonah preached” or “repented when Jonah preached” (again if εις is equivalent to εν). (Stanley K. Fowler, More than a Symbol: The British Baptist Recovery of Baptismal Sacramentalism [Studies in Baptist History and Thought 2; Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2002], 167)

 

There is no unanimity among interpreters concerning the precise use of εις in these texts, and there is doubt about the causal use of εις in Hellenistic literature, which indicates the doubtful character of this major premise of Robertson’s argument. (Ibid., 167)

 

A more profitable study of εις would consider other occurrences of the preposition in connection with the forgiveness of sins. There are only four occurrences of εις αφεσιν αμαρτιων in the New Testament apart from Acts 2:38. Matthew 26:28 uses the phrase to modify Christ’s blood of the covenant, indicating that it is poured out “for the forgiveness of sins,” clearly denoting purpose. Luke 24:47 (in a variant reading) refers to the preaching of the gospel to all nations “for the forgiveness of sins,” and this forgiveness is clearly the result (not the condition) of the preaching. Both Mark 1:4 and Luke 3:3 describe John’s baptism as a βαπτισμα μετανοιας εις αφεσιν αμαρτιων, and given Luke’s statement that the baptizands are seeking deliverance from eschatological wrath, the forgiveness of sins here is something experienced through baptism rather than a condition of baptism.

 

In the end, then, Robertson’s construction of Peter’s comments is flawed in several ways: (1) The causal use of εις is very rare at best and perhaps unsubstantiated. (2) When the phrase εις αφεσιν αμαρτιων occurs elsewhere in the New Testament, it indicates purpose, not cause. (3) Robertson himself admitted that his conclusion was determined by theology and not grammar, and his theology failed to note that other baptismal texts are in fact very similar to Acts 2:38 and demand a similarly strained explanation if they are to fit his system. (4) Even if the causal use of εις be granted in Acts 2:38, the text would still appear to say that the gift of the Spirit occurs through both repentance and baptism, and this would create just as much difficulty for anti-sacramentalists as the phrase concerning forgiveness of sins. (Ibid., 168-69)

 

The second way to minimize the force of Acts 2:38 recognizes the improbability of a causal εις but still sees in the text a threat to the idea of salvation by grace through faith alone. The proposed solution is to connect the purposive εις to repentance (μετανοησατε) rather than baptism, thus making the baptismal clause a parenthesis. Support is found within the text in the shift from the plural μεταωοησατε to the singular βαπτισθητω εκαστος υμων and outside the text in Acts 3:19 where relief from sins is promised on the basis of repentance without reference to baptism. One form of this argument focuses on the plural υμων which modifies the sins which are to be forgiven, inferring that, “The concord between verb and pronoun requires that the remission of sins be connected with repentance, not with baptism.”

 

Although this exegesis may be possible, there are several weaknesses in the argument: (1) the shift from plural to singular is explicable without disconnecting baptism from forgiveness. The plural imperative for repentance is appropriate in view of the fact that all the members of the crowd could change their mind about Jesus simultaneously, but their baptisms could only occur individually and sequentially. In any case, the exhortation to be baptized is coextensive with the exhortation to repent (each addressed to all persons in the group listening to Peter), and this explains why the pronoun modifying “sins” is plural rather than singular.

(2) As the narrative continues, it is baptism which is noted in describing the conversion of 3,000 persons (vs 41), thus indicating its crucial character.

(3) Even if this parenthetical interpretation be accepted, repentance and baptism are coordinated in a way that seems to view both as means to the reception of the Spirit, thus supporting the sacramental nature of baptism. (Ibid., 169-70)