Q. What is the meaning of Peter's exhortation to his penitent hearers on the day of Pentecost, "Save yourselves from this untoward (crooked, perverse, wicked) generation" (Acts 2:40)?
A. The verb here rendered "save yourselves" is not in the middle voice with the reflexive sense, as this translation implies, but it is the passive voice, and literally means "be ye saved," that is, "be willing for God to save you from the character and doom of this wicked generation," which was soon to perish in the unparalleled suffering of the siege and capture of Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus. And being divinely wrought upon, his penitent hearers gladly received his word, and were baptized, and were thus added by the Lord to the church (Acts 2:41,47).
