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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Acts 19:4 - 19:4
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With the baptism of repentance (baptisma metanoias). Cognate accusative with ebaptisen and the genitive metanoias describing the baptism as marked by (case of species or genus), not as conveying, repentance just as in Mar 1:4 and that was the work of the Holy Spirit. But John preached also the baptism of the Holy Spirit which the Messiah was to bring (Mar 1:7.; Mat 3:11.; Luk 3:16). If they did not know of the Holy Spirit, they had missed the point of John’s baptism.
That they should believe on him that should come after him, that is on Jesus (eis ton erchomenon met' auton hina pisteus ōsin, tout' estin eis ton Iēsoun). Note the emphatic prolepsis of eis ton erchomenon met' auton before hina pisteusōsin with which it is construed. This is John’s identical phrase, “the one coming after me” as seen in Mar 1:7; Mat 3:11; Luk 3:16; Joh 1:15. It is not clear that these “disciples” believed in a Messiah, least of all in Jesus. They were wholly unprepared for the baptism of John. Paul does not mean to say that John’s baptism was inadequate, but he simply explains what John really taught and so what his baptism signified.