Acts 2:41

Gladly. Important textual evidence may be cited (cf. p. 10) for the omission of this word.

Added. To those who already confessed Christ (see on ch. 1:15).

Three thousand. Because of the largeness of this number it has been urged that the baptism was by pouring or sprinkling, not immersion. Such an assumption is not necessary (see on Matt. 3:6). There were adequate supplies of water in and near Jerusalem to provide for the baptism of large numbers of persons, such as the pools at Bethesda (see on John 5:2) and Siloam (see on John 9:7), and the pools of Solomon. Furthermore, it need not be thought that the administration of the rite was necessarily confined to the Twelve. Succeeding chapters show that many converts were made from among the Hellenistic Jews who were present at the feast (Acts 6:1) and that few if any of the converts were yet of the local ailing class (ch. 4:1). Some of these converts went back to the cities whence they had come, and may have been the now unknown founders of the churches in such places as Damascus, Alexandria, or Rome itself.

Souls. Gr. psuchai, “souls,” used here in the sense of “persons,” as in Acts 2:43; 3:23; Rom. 13:1; etc.; see on Matt. 10:28.