Charles Ellicott:
"The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.—Many of the better MSS. omit the words “to the Church,” and connect “together,” which in the Greek is the first word in Act_3:1, with this verse—The Lord added together . . . The verb “added” is in the tense which, like the adverb “daily,” implies a continually recurring act. “The Lord” is probably used here, as in Act_2:39, in its generic Old Testament sense, rather than as definitely applied to Christ. For “such as should be saved”—a meaning which the present participle passive cannot possibly have—read, those that were in the way of salvation; literally, those that were being saved, as in 1Co_1:18; 2Co_2:15. The verse takes its place among the few passages in which the translators have, perhaps, been influenced by a Calvinistic bias; Heb_10:38, “if any man draw back,” instead of “if he draw back,” being another. It should, however, be stated in fairness that all the versions from Tyndale onward, including the Rhemish, give the same rendering. Wiclif alone gives nearly the true meaning, “them that were made safe.”"
Philip Schaff:
"Such as should be saved. The Greek word here, τοὺς σωζομένους, should be rendered simply the saved—that is, those who were escaping day by day from the evil around them, and taking refuge in the Ark of the Church (Wordsworth). The English Version has been charged here with a strong Calvinistic bias, implying that those who were predestined to be saved were being brought gradually into the pale of salvation. It is, however, clear that no doctrinal prejudice was the source of the error here as all the early English versions except that of Wickliffe have it."
Marvin Vincent:
"
Such as should be saved (τοὺς σωζομένους).
Lit., as
Rev., those
that were being saved. The rendering of the
A. V. would require the verb to be in the future, whereas it is the present participle. Compare 1 Cor. 1:18. Salvation is a thing of the
present, as well as of the
past and
future. The verb is used in all these senses in the New Testament. Thus,
we were saved (not
are, as A. V.), Rom. 8:24;
shall or
shalt be saved, Rom. 10:9, 13;
ye are being saved, 1 Cor. 15:2. “Godliness, righteousness, is life, is salvation. And it is hardly necessary to say that the divorce of morality and religion must be fostered and encouraged by failing to note this, and so laying the whole stress either on the past or on the future — on the first call, or on the final change. It is, therefore, important that the idea of salvation as a rescue from sin, through the knowledge of God in Christ, and therefore a
progressive condition, a present state, should not be obscured, and we can but regret such a translation as Acts 2:47, ‘The Lord added to the church daily such
as should be saved, ’ where the Greek implies a different idea” (Lightfoot, “On a Fresh Revision of the New Testament”)."
