Forgiveness or Remission?

[good samaritan]

Originally Posted by Barb

I found your post interesting; however, this is what I found a couple of years ago re eis that I kept on file. Nothing has been copied here other than the sources cited; all other comments are my own…

The Greek word eis is a preposition that looks forward to an object. There are those who take eis and teach that in English, in addition to for it can also mean because of, but the problem with that is, I have not been able to find one Greek scholar who translates eis any other way than for the remission of sins...

“The authorities, all of them, bear witness to the fact that eis never looks backward but always forward; that is, it is never rendered ‘because of’ or on ‘account of’ in all the New Testament, and it never had that meaning in any New Testament passage-not one” (Foy E. Wallace Jr., Bullwarks of the Faith, Vol. 2; pg. 50; Public Domain.).

“‘Eis aphesin hamartion,’ to obtain the remission of sins” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon. Public Domain).

“The truth will never suffer by giving to ‘eis’ it’s true significance. When the Campbellites translate ‘in order to’ in Acts 2:38, they translate correctly. ‘In order to declare’ or ‘symbolize’ would be a monstrous translation of ‘eis.’” (J.W. Wilmarth, Baptist scholar. Public Domain).

“I would say the preposition ‘eis’ is to be translated ‘unto,’ that is, ‘in order to secure.’ The preposition indicates the remission of sins is the end to be aimed at in the actions expressed by the predicates ‘repent & be baptized.’” (William R. Harper, President of Chicago University Baptist. Public Domain).

It is worth noting that the above references were made by men who were not Apostolic in doctrine, yet understood the meaning of the Greek word.

To conclude, the word eis can be found 1,750 times in Scripture, and it is never translated because of, certainly not in the Greek NT or any Greek lexicon that I have found.

AMP
Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.