How should the end of Acts 20:28 read?
Question:
Dear Jeffrey,
I re-visited the La Vista Church web page on the accuracy of the New World Translation and read the following:
J. Acts 20:28
1. “Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the holy spirit has appointed you overseers, to shepherd the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own [Son].” (NWT)
2. The Greek phrase is periepoiesato dia tou idiou haimatos, which is literally translated “he purchased through the his own blood.” But Jehovah’s Witnesses deny that God, the Son, purchased the church with His own blood, so the word order was changed and “Son” inserted that the Father purchased the church with the blood of his son.
I have to admit that I consider this example one which you ought not use. The reasons being are that other translations do like wise translate. Such as The New Revised Standard Version. The New International Version even though it reads "...which he bought with his own blood" in an explanatory footnote says: "his own blood. Lit. "the blood of his own one", a term of endearment (such as "his own dear one" referring to his own Son.)"
In fact, the NET Bible translates Acts 20.28 the same way as the New World Translation does. In Acts 20.28 it reads: "Watch out for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son."
Now, as the NET's translators are not JW's yet do deny here at Acts 20.28 that, to quote you: "...that God, the Son, purchased the church with His own blood" there must be good grammatical reasons why they so translated and made explicit whose blood, the Son's, God the Father purchased "the church of God" with.
Not only this but many scholars agree. For example, Joseph A. Fitzmyer informs us: "...The obvious meaning of the [Greek] phrase creates a difficulty with the antecedent of the preferred reading, "God." Hence some commentators (e.g. Bruce, Knapp, Pesch, Weiser) have preferred to understand this phrase to mean, "with the blood of his Own," i.e., his own Son. Such an absolute use of ho idios is found in Greek papyri as a term of endearment for relatives. Perhaps, then, it might be used here for Jesus, somewhat like Rom. 8.32 or 1 Tim 5:8. The Anchor Bible, The Acts of the Apostles: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Doubleday 1997, page 680.
Hence I strongly feel your example of an inaccuracy on the part of the New World Translation cannot be sustained with any degree of fairness. What do you think in light of the above? After all, God's Word counsels us not to make false statements but to always be truthful. See II Corinthians 6:7.
Unfortunately, your page has another mistake I would like to kindly point out to you.
It seems clear that when the web page gives the Greek, transliterated, it is the Greek that has few witnesses for it, and few if any modern Bible translations follow. By far the better manuscripts and witnesses have the Greek reading περιεποιήσατο διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου. Hence the claim by the La Vista Church web page is misleading. The above reading is given an (A) level of certainty by the UBS Greek Testament, 4th edition, that is, the Committee decided this reading is "certain."
It is this Greek reading, not the one your Web page gives, the New World Translation followed and translated. Hence your charge the New World Translation changed "the word order" is wholly false.
I am sure in light of this you will affect an alteration on the La Vista Church web page respecting this. Christians, I am sure you'd agree, must never offer a 'false witness'. See Proverbs 12:17.
Please reply, if you so wish, to the above with your thoughts on this matter.
Answer:
As I mentioned before, when there is a variant reading the New World Translation strongly tends to select whichever reading matches more closely to the teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
"Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God,[a] which he obtained with his own blood[b]" (Acts 20:28 ESV). Footnotes: [a] Some manuscripts of the Lord, [b] Or with the blood of his Own.
"Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28 NASB 2020).
"Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28 NKJV).
"Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock that the Holy Spirit has appointed you to as overseers, to shepherd the church of God,[a] which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28 HCSB). Footnote: [a] Other mss read church of the Lord; other mss read church of the Lord and God.
"Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God,[a] which he bought with his own blood[b]" (Acts 20:28 NIV). Footnotes: [a] Many manuscripts of the Lord, [b] Or with the blood of his own Son.
"Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the holy spirit has appointed you overseers, to shepherd the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own Son" (Acts 20:28 NWT).
"Watch out for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son[f]" (Acts 20:28 NET). Footnote: [f] tn Or “with his own blood”; Grk “with the blood of his own.” The genitive construction could be taken in two ways: (1) as an attributive genitive (second attributive position) meaning “his own blood”; or (2) as a possessive genitive, “with the blood of his own.” In this case the referent is the Son, and the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. See further C. F. DeVine, “The Blood of God,” CBQ 9 (1947): 381-408.sn That he obtained with the blood of his own Son. This is one of only two explicit statements in Luke-Acts highlighting the substitutionary nature of Christ’s death (the other is in Luke 22:19).
First, let's note that most of the major English translations are consistent. For the most part, they note that there are variations in the reading. Here I would fault the New World Translation because it gives no such hint even though it took an unusual direction in their translation. The New English Translation gives its reasoning and from the footnote, we learn that their choice was made because they failed to see how the church was purchased with God's blood and not because they said the text demanded their selection.
The problems are due to two textual variations. The first involves whose church is being addressed.
- "the church of God"
- "the church of the Lord"
- "the church of the Lord and God"
By far, the weight of the evidence is for "the church of God." Six manuscripts have "the church of the Lord" and a few have "the Lord and God" which scholars think was a blend by scribes when they ran into the variation. A secondary reason that "the church of God" is favored is that Paul doesn't use the phrase "the church of the Lord" elsewhere in his writings and speeches, but he does use "church of God" eight times.
The second variation is the ending.
- tou idiou haimatos
- haimatos tou idiou
The variation is due to the word order. The first is translated as "his own blood." The second can be translated as either "his own blood" or "the blood of his own." The problem with the second is that what is modified by "own" is left dangling. The translators using the second insert the word "Son" to make the phrase sensible.
The two variations give us six possible reading combinations, though I don't know how many were actually present in the various translations. The manuscripts that used "the blood of his own" with "the church of God" are few (01ℵ, 03B, 044). I do know that a number of the manuscripts that used "the blood of his own" also used "the church of the Lord" (p74, 02A, 04C, 05D, 08E, 33).
The church belongs to Christ (Matthew 16:18; Romans 16:16). Its members were purchased (or redeemed) by the blood of Christ (I Peter 1:18-19). Thus, "the church of God which He purchased with His own blood" matches if you accept that Jesus is God (John 1:1). In other words, all the various variations basically state the same thing, but the combination that has the most supporting evidence also indicates that Jesus is God, which Jehovah's Witnesses cannot accept. They assume all references to "God" must refer to God the Father. Thus, they grasp onto a weaker alternative.
