Saturday, July 31, 2021

Edward K. Watson on Acts 20:28, the Iglesia Ni Cristo's Appeal to the Lamsa Version, and the Name of the Church

  

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)