ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Acts 2.21

Book: Acts · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

19. And I will show wonders in the heaven above, And signs on the earth beneath; Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: 20. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the day of the Lord come, That great and notable day.

21. And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

  1. Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as ye yourselves know; 23. him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay: (Acts 2:19-23, ASV)
WEB

19. I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and billows of smoke. 20. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.

21. It will be that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

  1. “Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you, even as you yourselves know, 23. him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed; (Acts 2:19-23, WEB)
KJV

19. And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: 20. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:

21. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

  1. Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23. Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: (Acts 2:19-23, KJV)
YLT

19. and I will give wonders in the heaven above, and signs upon the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke, 20. the sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the day of the Lord, the great and illustrious;

21. and it shall be, every one, whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, he shall be saved.

  1. 'Men, Israelites! hear these words, Jesus the Nazarene, a man approved of God among you by mighty works, and wonders, and signs, that God did through him in the midst of you, according as also ye yourselves have known; 23. this one, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, being given out, having taken by lawless hands, having crucified, ye did slay; (Acts 2:19-23, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Peter, completing the Joel citation
  • Audience: the Pentecost crowd
  • Location: Jerusalem
  • Time period: c. AD 30

Theological reading

Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Peter ends the quotation on the universal note, and the choice of stopping point is itself an argument.

The Hebrew of Joel 2:32 has the name of YHWH. Peter is preaching in a monotheistic setting to devout Jews, and by the end of the same sermon, at verse 36, he will say that God has made this Jesus both Lord and Christ. Paul then quotes the same Joel line at Romans 10:13 with Jesus unmistakably as its referent. The chain is short and its implication is direct: a text about calling on the covenant name of God is applied to calling on Jesus, by Jewish monotheists, within weeks of the crucifixion. See Cumulative Case for the Deity of Christ and Pre-Pauline Creeds.

Whosoever is doing the other half of the work. In a sermon addressed to Jews from fifteen named regions, standing under an accusation of having crucified the Messiah, Peter's citation supplies the opening: the offer is not restricted, and verse 39 will extend it explicitly to those afar off.

The verb epikaleomai, to call upon, is the vocabulary of invocation and appeal, not of intellectual assent. What is asked for is the act of calling, which is why the sermon can end in a command to repent and be baptised rather than in a proposition to accept.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.