Who in the world subscribes to the notion that one repents of sin because his transgressions are forgiven already? That makes no sense at all. Theologically speaking, the construction of the compound verbs - “repent and be baptized” - connected with the prepositional phrase - “for the forgiveness of sins” - demonstrates that the sense of eis cannot possibly be “because of,” thus conveying the sense, “on account of the forgiveness of your sins." And why is that?īecause it would equally affirm that one is required to “repent” because of the forgiveness of his sins. Thus eis generally is translated by such terms as in, into, unto, to, toward, etc.
The preposition is used with the accusative case, meaning it points to the object of verbal action. It is “an indicator of direction toward a goal, not as an indicator of location without direction” (Balz, 398). While it has a variety of meaning shades, it always is prospective (forward looking), and is never retrospective (backward looking) in its direction. The Greek term eis is found about 1,750 times in the New Testament. Just because the English “for” has some elasticity, and thus may point to a precedent circumstance, such does not mean that the Greek preposition eis has similar properties. There are several things to be said in response to this ploy. The English term “for” is very flexible it may indicate a goal that is yet not reached, e.g., “Go to the pharmacy for medicine.” Or it may be used to refer to a circumstance that has transpired already, e.g., “He went to prison for burglary.”īecause of this flexibility with reference to “for,” some have assumed that the Greek word eis has the same flexibility, and therefore baptism is not to obtain the forgiveness of one’s sins rather, it is engaged because of pardon received already (presumably at the point of faith). “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” For several generations God’s people have conducted debates with our denominational neighbors as to the meaning of the word “for” (Greek, eis) in Acts 2:38.
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