Acts 20:28–31

Footnotes

1. 109 Or “Be on your guard for” (cf. v. 29). Paul completed his responsibility to the Ephesians with this warning.
2. 110 Grk “in which.”
3. 111 Or “guardians.” ἐπίσκοπος 2 states, “The term was taken over in Christian communities in ref. to one who served as overseer or supervisor, with special interest in guarding the apostolic tradition … Ac 20:28.” This functional term describes the role of the elders (see v. 17). They were to guard and shepherd the congregation.
4. 112 The reading “of God” (τοῦ θεοῦ, tou theou) is found in א B 614 1175 1505 vg sy; other witnesses have “of the Lord” (τοῦ κυρίου, tou kuriou) here (so 𝔓74 A C* D E Ψ 33 1739 co), while the majority of the later minuscule conflate these two into “of the Lord and God” (τοῦ κυρίου καὶ [τοῦ] θεοῦ, tou kuriou kai [tou] theou). Although the evidence is evenly balanced between the first two readings, τοῦ θεοῦ is decidedly superior on internal grounds. The final prepositional phrase of this verse, διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου (dia tou haimatos tou idiou), could be rendered “through his own blood” or “through the blood of his own.” In the latter translation, the object that “own” modifies must be supplied (see below for discussion). But this would not be entirely clear to scribes; those who supposed that ἰδίου modified αἵματος would be prone to alter “God” to “Lord” to avoid the inference that God had blood. In a similar way, later scribes would be prone to conflate the two titles, thereby affirming the deity (with the construction τοῦ κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ following the Granville Sharp rule and referring to a single person [see , , ]) and substitutionary atonement of Christ. For these reasons, τοῦ θεοῦ best explains the rise of the other readings and should be considered authentic.
5. 113 Or “acquired.”
6. 114 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,” 9 (1947): 381–408. 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).
7. 115 Grk “after my departure.”
8. 116 That is, people like fierce wolves. See βαρύς 4 on the term translated “fierce.” The battle that will follow would be a savage one.
9. 117 Grk “from among yourselves.”
10. 118 The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anēr), which only rarely is used in a generic sense to refer to both males and females. Since Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders at this point and there is nothing in the context to suggest women were included in that group (“from among your own group”), it is most likely Paul was not predicting that these false teachers would include women.
11. 119 Grk “speaking crooked things”; BDAG 237 διαστρέφω 2 has “λαλεῖν διεστραμμένα teach perversions (of the truth) Ac 20:30.” These perversions of the truth refer to the kinds of threats that would undermine repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. v. 21). Instead these false teachers would arise from within the Ephesian congregation (cf. 1 John 2:18–19) and would seek to draw the disciples away after them.
12. 120 Or “be watchful.”
13. 121 Or “admonishing.”