The shift from Plural to Singular back to Plural Referents in Acts 2:38

  

Peter said to them (αυτους plural), "Repent (μεταωοησατε plural), and each (εκαστος singular) of you (υμων plural) be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your (υμων plural) sins; and you will receive (λήμψεσθε plural) the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38 NASB)

 

Acts 2:38 is a text that many Reformed Protestants and others who reject baptismal regeneration struggle with. For a discussion, see:

 

Refuting Douglas Wilson on Water Baptism and Salvation

 

Daniel Wallace, a Reformed Baptist and Greek grammarian (who I quote in the above article), in an attempt to try to make sense of this verse in light of his soteriology, offered (and, to be fair, also rejected) this proposal:

 

3) The text should be repunctuated in light of the shift from second person plu­ral to third person singular back to second person plural again. If so, it would read as follows: “Repent, and let each one of you be baptized at the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. . . .” If this is the correct understanding, then εἰς is subordinate to μετανοήσατε alone, rather than to βαπτισθήτω. The idea then would be, “Repent for/with reference to your sins, and let each one of you be baptized. . . .” Such a view is an acceptable way of handling εἰς, but its subtlety and awkwardness are against it. (Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1996], 370)

 

One example of this shift from plural to singular, as with Acts 2:38, is common in the New Testament, and is done for emphasis. To read into this, as Robert Morey and other critics of baptismal regeneration have done over the years, is eisegesis.

 

One example is that of Matt 18:35:

 

"My heavenly Father will also do the same to you (υμιν plural), if each of you (ἕκαστος singular) does not forgive his (αυτου singular) brother from your (υμων plural) heart." (NASB)

 

Morey et al., have to, functionally, reject the perspicuity of Scripture, an essential “building block” of the Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura when they attempt to interpret (read: engage in eisegesis of) Acts 2:38 and many other texts that clearly teach baptismal regeneration. "Exegesis" is not the word to describe such interpretations: "desperate," "sophistry," and even "cultic" are, however.