"And after saying this, He breathed^ into |them to begin new life|. And He says to them, "Certainly soon receive^^ Holy Spirit! Whose ever sins you* forgive~, they are being forgiven to them. Whose ever sins you* retain~, they stand retained**" (Jn. 20:22-23 APT)
Key:
^ = see Septuagint: Gen. 2:7; Ezek. 37:9 for the use of this Gk. verb εμφυσάω (emphusaoh)
| . . . | = understood from the meaning of εμφυσάω (emphusaoh)
* = second person plural; that is, corporately (not an individual determination)
~ = subjunctive
** = constative perfect
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I won't try here to expand on this, but this operation was not one of conferring the indwelt Holy Spirit as anticipating that operation that occurred on the day of Pentecost.
The translation is that from "The Gospels: A Precise Translation" which is freely available at Happy Heralds, Inc. home page (click here) where you may request a copy of the translation.
I don’t think there is any more need to parse out Jesus’ breathing on them and saying “Receive ye the Holy Ghost”, than there is to parse out “And God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul”, from Genesis.
The two events are innately parallel, in my view. In the first event, man was born from below; in the second, from above. In the first event, man was born, of the earth, earthy; in the second, born again, of the Spirit, spiritually.
In other words, I believe the beginning of a new category of mankind (we call them Christian, born-again, believers) began then and there. Pentecost was a second sovereign work of additional grace, and added a transcendent dimension of empowerment to accomplish the sustained increase of the Body of Christ.
This is my best sense of it, and I base my life on it. I like the parallels and symmetries of it.
Thanks for the effort spent in the linguistic rendering of these words, by the way.