20:28 του αιματος του ιδιου (the blood of his own Son) {A}
The majority of Greek manuscripts read του ιδιου αιματος (‘his own blood’; 614 1409 1642 etc.).
The rest of the tradition has του αιματος του ιδιου (𝔓41 𝔓74 01 02 03 04 05 etc.), whose attestation
strongly suggests that this is the earliest form. This can be translated either
as ‘his own blood’ too (with ιδιος as an adjective, ‘his blood, his very own’), or ‘the blood of his own’
(with ιδιος as a noun). It has
been suggested that ιδιος (‘his
Own’) may have been an early Chrisitan term for Christ, which was later
misunderstood and simply read as an adjective, hence the change to the
corresponding standard word order in Byzantine tradition (cf. Heb. 9:12). If it
is taken as a noun, translations may need to supply another noun for
clarification, such as ‘Son.’ The choice of reading in the previous variation
unit (as to whether ‘his’ refers to ‘God’ or ‘the Lord’) may also affect the
choice of interpretation here: taking this phrase to mean ‘[God’s] own blood’
could have prompted the introduction of κυριος in the previous variation unit. (H. A. G. Houghton, A
Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament: A Companion to the Sixth Edition
of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament [Stuttgart: Deutsche
Bibelgesellschaft, 2025], 321)
