3:19a
Repent, then: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as then is literally “therefore.” It introduces a conclusion. Peter concluded that on the basis of what he told them in 3:17–18 they should repent and turn to God. For example:
Therefore repent (NET Bible)
Repent: This word indicates that a person “changes his mind, heart, or will.” In the Bible, it refers specifically to changing the mind and heart about sin and about God. When a person repents, he is sorry for his past sins. He decides to stop sinning and begins to obey God.
Here are some ways to translate Repent here:
Change your thinking/mind/heart
-or-
Reject your sins
In some languages, you may have an idiom for this type of change. For example:
Turn from sin
-or-
Leave your sinning behind
See how you translated Repent in 2:38a.
and turn back: Here the word “repent” refers to stop sinning. So then, the phrase turn back refers to changing allegiance/loyalty to the one who would help. Many English versions add the phrase “to God” to make that clear.
The Jews were following bad teachings, but Peter wanted them to change to following God and his Christ. In some languages a literal translation will not have the correct meaning. If so, translate the meaning the correct meaning. For example:
change to following God ⌊and his Christ⌋
-or-
begin to ally yourselves to God
-or-
submit ⌊yourselves⌋ to God
3:19b
so that your sins may be wiped away: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. For example:
so that ⌊he/God⌋ will wipe away your sins
wiped away: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as wiped away is literally “completely removed.” It often refers to erasing words off a written page so well that it is not possible to see any evidence that those words were ever there. Here it refers to completely forgiving sins.
In some languages the phrase wiped away or the word “removed” cannot be used when referring to sins. If that is true in your language, translate the correct meaning. For example:
forgive (New Century Version)
-or-
forget
© 2001, 2021 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.