Passage

Acts 2.38

Book: Acts · NASB95

Verse

"Peter said to them, 'Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" (Acts 2:38, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

NASB95 (NASB95)

"36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. 37. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Brethren, what shall we do?'"

"38. Peter said to them, 'Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'"

"39. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself. 40. And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation!'" (Acts 2:36-40, NASB95)

Setting

Speaker: Peter the Apostle, in his Pentecost sermon.
Audience: "Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven" present in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost (Acts 2:5). Peter's sermon prompted his hearers to ask "what shall we do?", the verse is his answer.
Location: Jerusalem, immediately after the Pentecost outpouring of the Spirit (Acts 2:1-13).
Time period: Pentecost (50 days after Passover), c. AD 30, about 50 days after the crucifixion and resurrection.

Theological reading

The verse is the first explicit gospel-call in the post-Pentecost church, and one of the most-disputed verses in NT soteriology. Four claims:

Repent. Metanoēsate, second-person plural aorist imperative of metanoeō (change of mind / heart). The first response demanded.
Be baptized, each of you. Baptisthētō hekastos hymōn, singular imperative emphasizing personal participation; each one of you.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Epi tō onomati Iēsou Christou, see G3686 - onoma. The baptism is Christological, incorporated into the name (and thus the reality) of Jesus.
For the forgiveness of your sins. Eis aphesin tōn hamartiōn hymōn, the disputed phrase. Two main readings (see below).
You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Lēmpsesthe tēn dōrean tou hagiou pneumatos, the divine response.

The "for forgiveness" dispute, eis

The Greek preposition eis in eis aphesin tōn hamartiōn generates a major theological dispute:

Reading 1: Causal eis, "be baptized in order to obtain forgiveness." Baptism causes / obtains forgiveness. This is the baptismal regeneration reading, held by Catholics, Lutherans (in modified form), Churches of Christ, and especially the Oneness Pentecostal movement.

Reading 2: Result-oriented eis, "be baptized with reference to / on the ground of the forgiveness already granted." Baptism is the outward sign of inward repentance-and-faith that has already produced forgiveness. This is the Reformed / Baptist / mainstream evangelical reading.

Reading 3: Causal-but-only-symbolic, eis is causal but baptism is the public sign of the gospel; God grants forgiveness through baptism not because water saves but because confession-of-faith-via-baptism is the divinely ordained occasion.

Lexical case for Reading 2. Daniel Wallace (Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, 1996) shows that eis with a result/causal meaning has parallels, Matthew 12:41 (the Ninevites repented eis to kērygma "at the preaching", because of, not in order to); Romans 4:20 eis tēn epangelian tou theou "with respect to the promise of God."

Theological case against baptismal regeneration. Three arguments:

Romans 4:1-12, Abraham was justified by faith before circumcision (the OT ceremonial sign analogous to NT baptism). Justification precedes the sign.
Acts 10:44-48, Cornelius and his household received the Holy Spirit before baptism, clearly indicating God's salvific work preceded the rite.
The thief on the cross (Luke 23:42-43), promised paradise without baptism. If baptism caused forgiveness, his salvation would be impossible.

The Reformed and most evangelical reading: baptism is a sign of the inward reality (faith + repentance) that itself receives forgiveness through Christ's atonement.

The Oneness Pentecostal / "Jesus' Name" reading

A different dispute: the verse says baptism "in the name of Jesus Christ", epi tō onomati Iēsou Christou. Compare Matthew 28.19 which prescribes baptism "in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."

Oneness Pentecostal theology (Sabellian-modalist) reads this as a conflict:

Acts 2:38 commands baptism in Jesus's name only.
Matthew 28:19's Trinitarian formula, on the Oneness reading, names the persons of the one God, and "the name" of all three is Jesus.
Therefore baptism should be in Jesus's name only.

Trinitarian counter-reading (mainstream Christianity):

Acts 2:38 is shorthand, not the full liturgical formula. The phrase "in the name of Jesus Christ" identifies whose baptism this is, Christian baptism, not John's water-baptism, not Jewish proselyte baptism, distinguished by Christological identity.
The Didache (c. AD 100), earliest extra-canonical Christian document, prescribes the Trinitarian formula explicitly (Did. 7).
Matthew 28:19 is the dominical command; Acts 2:38 is descriptive shorthand. The formula in Matthew 28.19 is the normative pattern; Acts 2:38 captures its Christological essence.
The patristic tradition uniformly uses the Trinitarian formula. There is no historical-liturgical precedent for Oneness baptism prior to early-20th-century Pentecostalism.

The verse is part of the standard Oneness-vs-Trinitarian dispute. The mainstream reading harmonizes Acts 2:38 with Matthew 28:19 by treating the Acts formula as Christological-distinguishing-shorthand within the Trinitarian normative practice.

The Pentecost context

The verse occurs at a unique moment in salvation-history:

First-day-of-the-church event, the Spirit's outpouring fulfilling Joel 2:28-32 (Peter cites Joel in his sermon, Acts 2:16-21)
First post-resurrection gospel-call, Peter's sermon (Acts 2:14-36) lays out: David prophesied Christ; God raised Him; we are witnesses; therefore Israel must respond
3,000 converts that day (Acts 2:41), a massive response

The verse is the paradigm for early-Christian evangelistic call: repent + believe (in the name of Jesus Christ; faith implicit in the call) + be baptized → receive the Spirit.

Patristic / scholarly note

The patristic tradition uniformly affirms Trinitarian baptism (Didache 7; Justin First Apology 61, c. AD 155; Tertullian On Baptism, c. AD 200) while reading Acts 2:38 as Christological-distinguishing-formula. The medieval and Reformation traditions debate the eis question, Catholic and Lutheran readings tilt toward baptismal-regeneration; Reformed and Baptist readings tilt toward sign-of-faith.

Modern conservative scholarship: F. F. Bruce (Acts NICNT); Darrell Bock (Acts BECNT); Eckhard Schnabel (Acts ZECNT, 2012); Daniel Wallace (Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics) for the eis analysis. The Oneness-Trinitarian dispute is engaged in detail in James White (The Forgotten Trinity, 1998) and Edward Dalcour (A Definitive Look at Oneness Theology, 2005).

Apologetic significance

The verse is the centerpiece of:

Baptism / regeneration debate, Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Baptist, Pentecostal positions all invoke this verse with different exegesis.
Oneness vs Trinitarian Pentecostal dispute, Acts 2:38 vs Matthew 28:19.
Romans Road extension, Acts 2:38 is paralleled to Romans 10.9; both are paradigm gospel-call passages with similar structure (repent / believe + confess / baptize).

Key words

G3340 - metanoeo, metanoeō (repent / change mind)
G3341 - metanoia, metanoia (repentance, the noun)
G0907 - baptizo, baptizō (baptize)
G3686 - onoma, onoma (name)
G0859 - aphesis, aphesis (forgiveness / release)
G0266 - hamartia, hamartia (sin)
G4151 - pneuma, pneuma (Spirit), the gift received

Connection to other passages

Matthew 28.19, the Trinitarian baptismal formula
Romans 10.9, paralleled gospel-call structure
Romans 10.13, universal "calling on the name"
Acts 8:16; 10:48; 19:5, other "in the name of Jesus" baptisms in Acts
1 Peter 3:21, baptism "an appeal to God for a good conscience"
Acts 2:1-13, the Pentecost context