During the last Century, theologians who believe that salvation is attained only by belief in Christ have made the assertion that the Greek preposition eis translated in Acts 2:38 as “for” should be translated “because of”. They assert that the Greek would suggest that one must repent and be baptized “because” their sins are forgiven rather than they should repent and be baptized “in order to attain” the forgiveness of sins.
Those who are experts in the Greek language dispel the validity of these assertions.
First, it must be understood that the preposition eis is used to indicate that the motion of the verb(s) are toward the object following the preposition. As a preposition, it is always prospective - forward looking. There is not a reputable Greek expert in the world that will assert that the preposition eis is casual or retrospective - looks backward - in meaning. In other words, never does the motion of the verb(s) flow away from the object as if the motion is a result of the object having already been reached or attained.
Let us hear from the Greek experts -
Harvard University’s Professor of Greek Literature, William W. Goodwin, has said, “I must say that I cannot conceive of any expression in which eis would be properly translated ‘because of‘. I should say that I do not see how eis can ever be retrospective.” Professor Goodwin is the author of Goodwin’s Greek Grammer which is used to teach Greek in the leading colleges and universities in the Nation.
Thomas D. Seymour LL.D., Professor of Greek at Yale University says, “I do not remember any passage in which eis could properly be translated ‘because of’. Eis is never retrospective. It always implies that the person or thing or act concerned is turned toward the thing which follows eis.”
University of Edinburgh’s Professor of Greek, Samuel Henry Butcher (who is a Presbyterian) states that eis “expresses the end toward which the action tends.”
Doctor George Benedict Winer, author of the highly esteemed Winer’s New Testament Grammar, states that eis points to “the purpose and end in view.”
Charles B. Williams (Baptist), who has been Dean of Southwestern Seminary, President of Samford University, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Mercer University and Professor of Greek and Ethics at Union University unequivocally states that “eis is always prospective”.
Daniel Allen Penick, PhD (a Presbyterian), Professor of Classical Languages at the University of Texas, says “eis looks forward and I know of no case in the New Testament where it looks back.”
Albert Harkness, Professor of the Greek Language and Literature at Brown University, another eminent Baptist, says eis “denotes purpose, in order to, for the purpose of receiving”
George Ricker Berry, PhD., Professor of Semitic Languages at both the University of Chicago & Colgate University and author of A New Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, instructs that “eis [is a] preposition governing accusative, into, to (the interior). In composition, it implies motion into or towards.”
W.R. Harper, Ph.D, who served as Greek Professor at both Yale and Chicago Universities and authored An Introductory New Testament Greek Method, says that eis means “‘unto’, i.e., ‘in order to secure.’”
C.H. Morgan, Dean of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary “I do not know of any recognized Greek lexicon which gives to eis the meaning of ‘because of’.”
Professor of Greek Language and Literature, A. C. Axtell (Baptist), in speaking of eis gives the following: “unto, for, in order to, with a view to, denotes the object or end toward which the action expressed by the predicate verb(s) is to be directed.”
The Greek experts testify that there is not a single instance in all of the Greek ancient secular or sacred literature in which preposition eis is used where the context indicates that it means “because of.” Eis is always prospective (looking forward to that which is to be obtained, reached, etc) and never retrospective (looking backward to that which has already been obtained, reached, etc).
When Greek authorities analyze the Greek text and ignore theology, they are bound to admit that Acts 2:38 teaches repentance and baptism looks forward to attaining the remittance or forgiveness of sins. Greek grammar will not allow the text to mean that one repents and is baptized because of their having had their sins remitted or forgiven.
Again, let’s hear the Greek authorities on interpreting and translating Acts 2:38 -
William Seymour Tyler, DD, LL.D., Professor of Greek at Amherst College for sixty years: “I shall translate Acts 2:38 literally thus: ‘Repent and let every one of you be baptized in (or on) the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of sins.’ The preposition eis seems to denote the object and end of the two verbs which precede in the imperative. In other words, remission of sins is the object and end result of repentance and baptism. The meaning may perhaps be more definitely and unequivocally expressed thus: Repent and let every one of you be baptized to the end that your sins may be forgiven.”
Lewis Richard Packard, Professor of the Greek Language and Literature at Yale College, said “My own impression (to give it for what it is worth) is that I should translate it, if these words occurred in Plato, for instance, ‘to the end of remission of sins.’ It would then make aphesis halation [remission of sins] an object aimed at, or a result attained by the acts denoted by the verbs.”
Isaac Flagg, Professor of Greek at Cornell University, said, “In answer to your inquiry about the force of the preposition eis in the passage of the New Testament to which you refer (Acts 2:38), I should say that it denoted intention or purpose, ‘with a view to,’ much as if he had been written, ‘so as to obtain remission of sins.’”
William W. Goodwin, Professor of Greek Literature at Harvard University, said, "I think eis in Acts 2:38 expresses purpose or tendency and is rightly translated for or unto (in the sense of ‘for’)".
John H. Wheeler, Professor of Greek at the University of Virginia, said, “It seems to me in either language (Greek or English) the remission of sins is something to which the one who is baptized is to look forward - he is to be baptized as a means of procuring that remission.”
Professor Charles Forster Smith, Professor of Greek and Latin at Vanderbilt, said, “I do not doubt that eis in Acts 2:38 means unto and is prospective.”
Professor Albert Harkness, Professor of Greek at Brown University has said, “In my opinion eis in Acts 2:38 denotes purpose, and may be rendered ‘in order to’, or ‘for the purpose of securing;’ or, as in our English version, ‘for’.”
Horatio B. Hackett DD, Professor at the Newton Theological Institution and author of A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, has said in referring to Acts 22:16 “states a result of baptism, answers ‘for the remission of sins’ in Acts 2:38, i.e., submit to the rite in order to receive forgiveness.”
Doctor Hermann Olshausen, Professor of NT Exegesis at the Universities of Berlin, Erlanden and Konigsberg, and author of Commentary on the New Testament, says that the Greek shows that “baptism is accompanied with the remission of sins.”
Professor H.C. Cameron, Professor of Greek at Princeton, has said, “The preposition eis in Acts 2:38 is evidently used in its final sense; and the phrase is clearly connected with metanoeesate kai baptistheeti (repent and be baptized), as the end to which repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ led.”
Professor John Carroll Proctor, Professor of Greek Language and Literature at Dartmouth College, said, “It is my opinion that eis is to be connected with both the predicates, and that it denotes an object or end in view.”
Ingram Bywater, Professor of Greek at Oxford University, says eis in Acts 2:38 “expresses the end or purpose to be attained: to the end that your sins may be remitted.”
Professor Martin L. D’Ooge, Professor of Greek Language and Literature at Ann Arbor University, said, “In reply to your inquiry, I would say that in my judgment the preposition eis, in the verse referred to, expresses the relation of aim or end in view, answering the question eis ti (for what?), and to be translated by ‘unto,’ ‘in order to,’ ‘for.’”
Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer DD, author of a Greek Grammar and a Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the New Testament, wrote, "eis denotes the object of the baptism, which is the remission of the guilt contracted in the state before metanoia [repentance]."
Consulting the most commonly used Greek Lexicons, we find:
Joseph Henry Thayer, Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation at the Divinity School of Harvard University and author of Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament, stated in a personal letter to J.W. Shepherd, May 5, 1893: “I accept the rendering of the revised version “unto the remission of sins” (the eis expressing the end aimed at and secured by ‘repentance and baptism’ just previously enjoined).”
In his Lexicon, Joseph Henry Thayer says that the meaning of eis in Acts 2:38 is "to obtain the forgiveness of sins" (p. 94).
Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, and Frederick Danker, authors of A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, wrote that the meaning of eis in Acts 2:38 is "so that sins might be forgiven" (p. 229).
In Carl W. Grimm’s Greek-English Lexicon, he states that baptizo is used with the preposition eis "to mark the end" in such passages as Acts 2:38. Specifically writing about Acts 2:38 he has, "eis aphesin hamartion, "to obtain the forgiveness of sins, Acts ii.38" (page 94). Eis aphesin hamartion is the phrase rendered in the NKJV as "for the remission of sins," and Grimm says it means "to obtain the forgiveness of sins."
Ceslas Spicq, Professor of New Testament at Fribourg University, states concerning Acts 2:38 in his Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, “Water baptism is a means of realizing this conversion, and its goal—something altogether new—is a washing, ‘the remission of sins’.”
Dr. John McClintock, Professor of Latin and Greek in Dickinson College and editor of many elementary Greek Grammars, with Dr James Strong, Professor of Biblical Literature at Troy University and Professor of Exegetical Theology in the Drew Theological Seminary and author of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, wrote “In these cases [Matt. xxviii.19; Rom. vi.3; 1 Cor. x.2; xii.13; Acts ii.38] eis retains its proper significancy, as indicating the terminus ad quem, and tropically, that for which, or with a view to which the thing is done…to be baptized for the remission of sins means to be baptized with a view to receiving this.” McClintock & Strong’s Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological & Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. I, p. 640.
Thus, we see that even Greek lexicographers testify that eis in Acts 2:38 should not be interpreted as being “because of” but, rather, “in order to obtain”.
The last source of testimony as to how we are to understand the meaning of eis in Acts 2:38 is the multitude of Bible translations that exist. If eis can and should be translated as “because of”, why do not the scholars who produce translations of the Bible do so? All of the translations of which I am aware reject that understanding. Consider the following -
King James Version - "for the remission of sins.
American Standard Version - "unto the remission of sins.
New King James Version - "for the remission of sins;"
New International Version - "for the forgiveness of your sins."
Revised Standard Version - "for the forgiveness of your sins;"
New Revised Standard Version - "so that your sins may be forgiven;"
New American Standard Bible - " for the forgiveness of your sins;"
World English Bible - "for the forgiveness of sins,"
Bible in Basic English - "for the forgiveness of your sins;"
Contemporary English Version - "so that your sins will be forgiven."
Good News Bible - "so that your sins will be forgiven;"
God’s Word - "so that your sins will be forgiven."
Young’s Literal Translation - "to remission of sins,"
Modern King James Version - "to remission of sins,"
International Standard Version - "for the forgiveness of your sins."
English Standard Version - "for the forgiveness of your sins,"
Literal Translation of the Holy Bible - "to remission of sins."
New English Translation - "for the forgiveness of your sins."
New Living Translation - "for the forgiveness of your sins"
Today’s English Version - "so that your sins will be forgiven"
The Douay-Rheims Bible - "for the remission of your sins."
Hebrew Names Version - "for the forgiveness of sins"
The Webster Bible - "for the remission of sins"
Wesley’s New Testament - "to the remission of sins"
Third Millennium Bible - "for the remission of sins"
The Darby Translation - "for the remission of sins"
J. B. Philips Translation - "so that you may have your sins forgiven"
New American Bible - "for the forgiveness of your sins;"
Amplified Bible - "for the forgiveness of and release from your sins;"
Worldwide English Bible - "Your wrong ways will be forgiven you"
Weymouth Bible - "with a view to the remission of your sins,"
Revised King James New Testament - "for the remission of sins"
Modern Literal Version - "for the forgiveness of your sins"
Common Version New Testament - "for the forgiveness of your sins;"
Interlinear Greek New Testament - "for remission of sins"
Living Oracles - "in order to the remission of sins"
Montgomery New Testament - "for the remission of your sins"
The Emphasized Bible - "into the remission of your sins"
Covenant Edition New Testament - "to cancel your sins"
Christian Standard Bible - "for the forgiveness of your sins"
Goodspeed Bible - “in order to have your sins forgiven”
The William’s New Testament - “that you may have your sins forgiven”
I have not found one translation that translates the Greek word eis as "because of" in Acts 2:38. After reading the above translations there can be no doubt that scholarship agrees with what has been set forth in this study. Even those translations which are translated by people who take the personal view that baptism is not for the remission of sins render Acts 2:38 to show that it is. I wonder why? Could it be because the translators understand that it cannot be accurately translated by that phrase?
In closing, the person who declares that the Greek eis can be translated “because of” contradicts what is commonly known by Greek authorities to be its meaning. In all of Greek literature, at no time has eis been used retrospectively. It is always prospective or forward looking. To suggest that Acts 2:38 should be translated to say that an individual should repent and be baptized because their sins have already been forgiven is to defy all of the Greek scholarship available of the last 400 years.
