Bible Strands
Acts 22:16
And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on His name.’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Ananias addresses Saul in Damascus, urging immediate action following his road encounter. The speaker delivers these words directly to him rather than relaying a vision.
The words — The text commands μέλλεις (melleis), literally "why are you delaying?", and ἀπόλουσαι (apolousai), meaning "wash away." These imperatives frame the immediate sequence of rising, baptism, and cleansing.
The thread — The linkage of baptism and calling on the Lord appears in Acts 2:38 and Acts 2:21, while the washing motif aligns with 1 Corinthians 6:11. These passages collectively tie outward cleansing and invocation to divine forgiveness and justification.
Why it lands — The verse demands immediate obedience to a specific sequence: rise, undergo baptism, and invoke the Lord's name. It frames the cessation of delay as the necessary condition for receiving the stated promise.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
Cross-references
- Acts 2:38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- Acts 2:21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
- 1 Corinthians 6:11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
- Titus 3:5 He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
- Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
- 1 Peter 3:21 And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
- Psalms 119:60 I hurried without hesitating to keep Your commandments.
- 1 Corinthians 12:13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given one Spirit to drink.
- Galatians 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
- Acts 9:14 And now he is here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on Your name.”