[MHGinTN]

ACTS 22:16 And now why tarriest thou arise, and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord ...that is the way the text would read in the original Greek, no commas, no punctuation to 'confuse'; the 'and' connects the calling on the name of the Lord to the 'wash away thy sins'. Paul later teaches in Romans and Hebrews that the 'washing' is the blood of Christ, not water, so we know he understood this 'washing' differently than you seem to wish to portray it by running the meaning past the 'and' in the Greek. Being baptised and washing away your sins are TWO distinct and different things. ONLY the blood of Christ can wash away your sins.

[sevenbak]

I simply cannot accept that a comma changes the meaning of this. There are too many other references to the need for baptism.

And you are absolutely right! Only the blood of Christ can was away our sins. That happens through baptism. It also happens through communion, where we renew out convenants we made with God when we took upon us His name at Baptism.

All the best.