In the Greek there is an evident contrast between John who baptized with water and the disciples who will be baptized with the Holy Spirit; this is brought out in the Good News Translation by John … but.

The verb baptize may require a direct object, that is, “John baptized people with water.”

The Greek negative-positive expression “not many” is often rendered as few, since this is much easier to understand.

The term water should be treated as the instrument, in the same way that Holy Spirit is an instrument. To force a distinction here between the dative with “water” and Greek en plus dative with “Spirit” is artificial.

In languages which require a shift from passive to active, the last clause can be rendered as “God will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Some translators have objected to using the same term for “baptism of the Holy Spirit” and “baptism with water.” For “baptism with water” they may have some such expression as “to enter the water” or “to receive water on the head”; while for “baptism of the Holy Spirit” they have “for the Holy Spirit to enter people.” Not to employ parallelism in these two expressions is, however, unfortunate. One can usually employ some sort of related structure, for example, “to cause water to come upon” and “to cause the Holy Spirit to come upon.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .