Acts 20:28 Lamsa
Version—Is the name of the Truth Church, the “Church of Christ”?
Acts 20:28 Lamsa. Take heed
therefore to yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has
appointed you overseers, the feed the Church of Christ which He has purchased
with His blood.
|
Acts
20:28 |
|
|
Nestle-Aland 28 |
προσέχετε ἑαυτοῖς καὶ παντὶ τῷ ποιμνίῳ, ἐν
ᾧ ὑμᾶς τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἔθετο ἐπισκόπους ποιμαίνειν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ θεοῦ,
ἣν περιεποιήσατο διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου |
|
Transliteration |
prosechete heautois kai panti tō
poimniō, en hō hymas to pneuma to hagion etheto episkopous poimainein tēn
ekklēsian tou theou, hēn periepoiēsato
dia tou haimatos tou idiou |
|
Literal |
Take heed to yourselves and to all the
flock among which you the Spirit Holy has set overseers, to shepherd the church
of God, which he purchased with blood the own. |
|
Paraphrase |
Be watchful over yourselves and over the flock that the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers. You are to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. |
https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/acts%2020:28
The Iglesia Ni Cristo
tries to increase the occurrence of the “Church of Christ” by citing Lamsa
Version’s Acts 20:28 which mentions the “Church of Christ” instead of the “Church
of God.”
However, the original
Greek text of Acts 20:28 says, ten ekklesian tou Theou” (την εκκλησιαν του Θεου) which in English is
“Church of God.” No matter how the INC denies it for this verse, “Theou
[θεου] means “God” not “Christ.” Not one of the over 50000 early Greek NT
manuscripts, including the two earliest versions, the Codex Sinaiticus,
and the Codex Vaticanus, has “Christou” [χριστου] or “Christ”
in Acts 20:28. They are all “Church of God” while some post 4th-century
versions say, “Church of the Lord.”
Why would George
Lamsa substituted “God” with “Christ” in Acts 20:28 when the Greek text doesn’t
support it? Because like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, he was an ideologist who put ideology
before accuracy [such as the insistence that the NT was originally written in
Aramaic (Jesus’ native language) whereas it was actually written in Greek]. As
a faithful Nestorian, he believed “Jesus” and “Christ are two separate persons
temporarily united, with the “Christ” portion being divine and the “Jesus”
portion being wholly human. Since the context of Acts 20:28 mentions “purchased
with his own blood,” he couldn’t bring himself to accept the notion that “God”
had blood and thus substituted it with “Christ.”
Lamsa’s tendency to
put ideology before accuracy is why he has been repeatedly condemned by
biblical scholars for sloppy scholarship and for modifying the wording of
numerous passages (such as Gen 1:3; Gen 2:9; Gen 3:24; Gen 5:24; Ex 2:3, 5;
Micah 5:2; John 1:18; 10:36; Acts 20:28; Heb 7:3; etc., to name just a few)
just because the Hebrew and Greek texts conflicted with his Nestorian beliefs
and mistaken view that the most accurate Bible was the Aramaic version. His strong
anti-Greek bias and insistence on limiting his source materials to the late
Peshitta and other Syriac texts resulted in the Lamsa Version having a skewered
portrayal of biblical teachings. (Edward K. Watson, The Iglesia Ni Cristo
Under a Microscope: Helping INC Members Keep More of Their Money, Survive
Shunning, and Discover the Truth About Their Church and God [Brainy Press,
2019] 224-26)