PURPOSE. I was stricken with interest the other day from someone's comment about the “receiving the gift of the Spirit” in Acts 2:38. The remark was made that it was in the passive tense in the original language.  I probably was be considered an odd ball throughout school including college since I enjoyed English grammar.  I hated literature or I would have majored in English in college.  Once I learned grammar including diagramming, it was just repetitive to me in each grade. Conjugation of verbs was always the same.  This is especially true with Acts 2:38.  It is definitely not passive in the English nor is it in the original Greek. Almost all versions translate it like the KJV “and (you) shall receive the gift.”

SHALL OR WILL?

Since the sixties the traditional rules I learned for English grammar have in some respects been shelved, so to speak.  Even Webster's Unabridged Dictionary changed their “prescriptive” and “authoritative” approach to our language to only a “descriptive” approach. In spite of this, the King James Version consistently follows in Acts 2:38 the traditional rule for the verb “helpers”, shall and will.  Of course the King James was originally translated in 1611 (before the “new English”) but later revisions have been true to the original Acts 2;38.  Using shall as translated in Acts 2:38 is definitely not passive.  “Be baptized” in the verse is passive (you have been washed [passive, i.e., “by someone else”, 1 Corinthians 6:11).  “You shall receive”, I assert, is not passive, even in English.  For the “gift” to be received from another, it would have to be passive and/or future.  Since shall is used, a requirement is placed on the subject to do something.  It is like a command and places an obligation upon the subject audience.

“WILL” AND FUTURE TENSE TRANSLATION.  The traditional rule for shall in English is for it to be used only with the first person pronouns (i.e., I, We) to form the future tense, while will is used only with second person (you) and third person forms (i.e.,he, she, it, they).

E.g., “I shall be late.”  “You will not have enough food.”   

SHALL, A COMMAND WITH DETERMINATION.  On the other hand, when it comes to expressing a strong determination to do something, the roles are reversed:  “will” is used with the first person, and “shall” is used with the second and third person.  “I will not tolerate such behavior.”  “You shall go to the ball!”  “They shall answer for this!”[i]

Acts 2:38 has shall as the “helper verb”: “And you shall receive the gift (offered by the Spirit of God).”

Translating with the traditional rule in English grammar, the translators have Peter requiring the audience to receive (take) something--the Spirit's gift.  The subject for this last clause in verse 38 continues with the second person pronoun (YOU) with “shall.”  For a simple future tense we would expect “you will receive.”  But translators use the traditional rule for second person; i.e., “shall” which translates as a strong determination to do something.  The helper verb “shall” is intentional. It is Peter's third command!  The audience is expected to receive, i.e., take something.  Peter identifies it as “the gift of the Holy Ghost (Spirit).”  Note:  Most “versions” are like KJV and use “shall receive.”

SHALL (determination of doing something) is consistent with the English context.  Acts 2:38 is Peter's answer to the audience's request in verse 37.  "what shall we do?   One expects and anticipates an answer for “doing something.”  And that's what Peter does in verse 38 when he includes the receiving part with "repenting and being baptized".

The Pentecost audience was told that what they were witnessing was the fulfilment of Joel's prophecy: Acts 2:21, “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”   The Holy Spirit will be bringing salvation in the name of the Lord Jesus.  Being convinced by theapostles, the audience asks them in Acts 2:37, “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?”[ii]  They ask the apostles in regular future tense (we shall do what?), "what do they need to do?"  The answer given is for them, their children, to all, and as many as God shall call (v. 39) - which includes us.

Acts 2:38 is not saying that the repentant baptized person is going to be rewarded or receive anything. The message has already indicated that the Spirit was offering salvation at this time: "This is that." . Rather, Peter lists what the audience is required to do to in order to call upon the Lord Jesus to be saved. The convinced audience naturally wants to know how they can do this in order to be saved.

GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.  Peter's instructions were threefold: 1. “repent”, 2. “be baptized” (both modified by “for the forgiveness of sins”), and 3. “you shall receive the gift.”  Neither the question nor the answer have anything to do with the enquirers receiving anything other than their salvation.  Notice that nothing was said about repentant baptized recipients receiving power to speak in tongues LIKE the apostles who had been “baptized by the Holy Spirit” just as Jesus had predicted a few days before (1:2,4,5).  Unfortunately, teachers today concentrate on such fantasy.

We know that repentant and baptized believers do not automatically receive any such power from the Holy Spirit because of what the obedient Samaritans received.  The Samaritans obeyed every requirement of Acts 2:38 (in Acts 8) without receiving any such power.  Acts 8:12, “But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”  Acts 8:14, 15, “Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God.”  They (1) believed (synonym for compliance in this case), (2) they were baptized, and (3) they received something.

“Who, when they (the apostles) were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost.” Receiving the Spirit's Word was different from receiving “the power of” (verse 19) the Holy Spirit.  Acts 8:18, “And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost [Spirit] was given, he offered them money.”  Acts 8:19, “Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive (present active subjunctive, uses in English “may”) the Holy Ghost.”

IN ENGLISH THE “RECEIVE” of Acts 2:38 IS NOT PASSIVE.  It would have to be simple future in order to be passive and it is not.  The second person pronoun DOES NOT take “SHALL” in simple future. “Shall” plus “you” require the interpretation of the subject being commanded or determined to do or make something.  In this case it is for them (and us) to take what is offered as a gift of God's Spirit. It would not be eternal life, etc., since (1) such would require the passive “will” (like the passive baptism, eternal life is an action upon oneself-- not an action by oneself) and (2) such had already been promised by the text, i.e., “calling upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” which Peter was elaborating upon and (3) Peter, I submit, did not repeat himself.  

The Greek will be considered next. One of the first Greek vocabulary that I was taught in 101 was the word “lambano” (λαμβάνω).  It was equivalent in English to words such as “take”, “receive”, and “get” (Thayer's).  In order to be “saved”, Peter says that his audience and everyone including us had to lambano something (Acts 2:38).