{Baptized with water} (ebaptisen hudati) {and with the Holy
Ghost} (en pneumati baptisth(8873)esthe hagi(9369)). The margin has "in
the Holy Ghost" (Spirit, it should be). The American Standard
Version renders "in" both with "water" and "Holy Spirit" as do
Goodspeed (American Translation) and Mrs. Montgomery (Centenary
Translation). John's own words ( Mt 3:11 ) to which Jesus
apparently refers use en (in) both with water and Spirit. There
is a so-called instrumental use of en where we in English have
to say "with" ( Re 13:10  en machair(8869), like machair(8869),  Ac
12:2 ). That is to say en with the locative presents the act as
located in a certain instrument like a sword (Robertson,
_Grammar_, pp. 589f.). But the instrumental case is more common
without en (the locative and instrumental cases having the same
form). So it is often a matter of indifference which idiom is
used as in  Joh 21:8  we have 	(9369) ploiari(9369) (locative without
en). They came {in} (locative case without en) the boat. So
in  Joh 1:31  en hudati baptiz(936e) baptizing in water. No
distinction therefore can be insisted on here between the
construction hudati and en pneumati (both being in the
locative case, one without, one with en). Note unusual position
of the verb aptisth(8873)esthe (future passive indicative) between
pneumati and hagi(9369). This baptism of the Holy Spirit was
predicted by John ( Mt 3:11 ) as the characteristic of the
Messiah's work. Now the Messiah himself in his last message
before his Ascension proclaims that in a few days the fulfilment
of that prophecy will come to pass. The Codex Bezae adds here
"which ye are about to receive" and "until the Pentecost" to
verse  5 . {Not many days hence} (ou meta pollas tautas
h(886d)eras). A neat Greek idiom difficult to render smoothly into
English: "Not after many days these." The litotes (not many=few)
is common in Luke ( Lu 7:6  15:13  Ac 17:27  19:11  20:12  21:39  28:14  28:2 ). The predicate use of 	autas (without article) is
to be noted. "These" really means as a starting point, "from
these" (Robertson, _Grammar_, p. 702). It was ten days hence.
This idiom occurs several times in Luke ( Lu 24:21  Ac 24:21 ),
as elsewhere ( Joh 4:18  2Pe 3:1 ). In  Lu 2:12  the copula is
easily supplied as it exists in  Lu 1:36  2:2 .