Baptism According to ScriptureHoare, E. H. (Edward Hatch)
Religion
Baptism According to Scripture
Hoare, E. H. (Edward Hatch)
Baptism; Baptism -- Biblical teaching; Baptism -- Church of England; Baptism -- History
There only remains, in this Book of The Acts of the Apostles, another
instance of baptism to be noticed; and this occurred at Ephesus. It is
related in the beginning of the nineteenth Chapter. “Paul came to
Ephesus, and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, have ye
received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We
have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” We are
reminded here of that passage in the Seventh Chapter of St. John, (v.
39.) where the Evangelist, referring to some words of the Lord Jesus,
says, “This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him
should”—that is, afterwards—“receive;”—adding, “for the Holy Ghost was
not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” The literal
translation of the latter part of this text is, “for the Holy Ghost was
not yet:”—from which it would appear, that at that time there was no Holy
Ghost; and therefore that the ignorance of His existence, of which the
disciples at Ephesus seem to speak, was not so much to be wondered at.
But the solution of the difficulty is probably the same in both cases.
When St. John says, “For the Holy Ghost was not yet, because that Jesus
was not yet glorified,” his meaning is made plain by the very proper
introduction into our translation of the word “given;”—“for the Holy
Ghost was not yet given.” This evidently refers to the extraordinary and
abundant pouring out of the Holy Spirit, which was reserved until Jesus
had ascended up on high, and (according to the prophecy in the lxviiith
Psalm) had “received gifts for men;” and when He received them, He shed
them forth, first upon His Apostles on the day of Pentecost, and
afterwards upon multitudes of believers, generally by the laying on of
their hands. But the disciples at Ephesus had not heard of these things.
They had had no communication with any Christian Church or people; and
thus, though they had been baptized with the baptism of John, as they
tell the Apostle Paul in answer to his next question, “Unto what then
were ye baptized?”—and _must_ therefore have heard of the existence of
the Holy Ghost, yet they had not heard of His having been given; and they
express their ignorance in language very like to that which the
Evangelist uses, when he is describing the period before the gift of the
Spirit on the day of Pentecost. This seems a reasonable account of the
matter. And if the same course had been pursued in the translation of
both texts, the likeness between them would have been very evident. In
the passage in St. John the explanatory word “given” is introduced. In
the Chapter before us, not only is this or any such word omitted, but the
word “any” is added,—“_any_ Holy Ghost,” without a word in the Original
to justify it. The literal rendering would be; “We have not even heard
whether the Holy Ghost is.” Now if the word “given,” or “come,” were
added, as in St. John, the two passages would exactly correspond:—“The
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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