Luther's Bible on 1 Peter 3:21— "answer", "appeal", "pledge" — or "covenant" in Baptism

     While reviewing Pieper's volume 3 of his Christliche Dogmatik, I ran across another example to add to the list of passages for the superiority of Luther's Bible over most English translations. On the passage 1 Peter 3:21, the major English translations render it as follows:

• KJV: The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
• RSV: Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
• NIV: and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
• ESV: Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,"

The Greek reads as follows:

"ὃ ἀντίτυπον νῦν καὶ ἡμᾶς σῴζει βάπτισμα, οὐ σαρκὸς ἀπόθεσις ῥύπου, ἀλλὰ συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς ἐπερώτημα εἰς Θεόν, δι᾽ ἀναστάσεως ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ"

So we see the various renderings in the bulk of English Bibles, including the translation that the LC-MS uses, the ESV.  

      But Dr. Franz Pieper gives the best explanation of not only the word in question, but also the definitive answer to the question of the meaning of that word (Christliche Dogmatik 3, p. 323, fn 1096, or Christian Dogmatics 3, p. 275, fn 32)]: 

The meaning of έπερώτημα is in dispute. In the New Testament the word occurs only here [in 1 Peter 3:21]. Profane Greek furnishes two meanings. Its first and original meaning is “question, inquiry, interrogatio.” From this its forensic use in later Greek for “covenant, stipulatio is derived. … Those who here render έπερώτημα as “interrogation” understand the passage to say, with some shadings of the thought, that in Baptism the baptized appeal to God or pray for a good conscience. This meaning is excluded here, since according to the context the statement here concerns what Baptism itself is, and not what the candidates for Baptism or the baptized do in Baptism. For this reason one has to retain Luther’s rendering: Baptism is the covenant of a good conscience toward God or over against God (είς θεόν). 

 

One may read this passage in Luther's Bible in English with the LED Bible published at this page:

"Which therefore also makes us blessed in baptism, which is signified by that, not the putting away of filthiness from the flesh, but the covenant of a good conscience with God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

It is a great tragedy that American Lutheran Christians have been deprived of Luther's Bible by the loss of the German language after World War I. May Pieper's spiritual explanation of yet another benefit of Luther's Bible encourage more to make use of Luther's Bible in an English translation. Every Lutheran, like me, should take this verse to heart. and stand firm against the Reformed errors on the Sacrament of Baptism.