Acts 20:28

κυρίου for θεοῦ with ACDE. Vulg. has ‘Dei.’

28. προσέχετε ἑαυτοῖς, take heed to yourselves. On the construction see on chap. Acts 5:35; Acts 8:6. The Apostle now resigns into their hands a charge which before had been his own, and the form of his language would remind them that the discharge of their duty after his example would be the means of saving both themselves and those over whom they were placed.

καὶ παντὶ τῷ ποιμνίῳ, and to all the flock. The Apostle commits to them, as Christ had at first done to St Peter, the charge to feed both lambs and sheep. This must be in the name and with the word of the ‘Good Shepherd’ Himself.

ἐπισκόπους, overseers. Above they are called πρεσβύτεροι (Acts 20:17), and here the R.V. renders ‘bishops.’ We have no information how these ‘elders’ had been chosen or appointed, but we can see from this verse that there had been some solemn setting apart of the men for their office. The Church, as in Acts 13:2, had recognised some indication that they were to be placed over the Church. By reminding them from whence their appointment came, St Paul would enforce on them the solemnity of their position. Though they be ‘in the flock’ they are not as others, more has been given unto them, and so more will be required. Cf. ‘Teaching of the Twelve Apostles’ § 15.

ποιμαίνειν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ κυρίου, to feed the Church of the Lord Perhaps no text in the N.T. has been so much discussed as this Many ancient authorities read θεοῦ instead of κυρίου, and this has been claimed as a direct testimony to the Divinity of our Lord. That doctrine does not stand or fall by this verse. The whole subject has been discussed fully by the late Dr Ezra Abbott of Harvard University who decides in favour of κυρίου (see Bibliotheca Sacra for 1876). Westcott and Hort on the contrary think θεοῦ assuredly genuine. One difficulty which arises if θεοῦ be read is that from what follows there must be implied the use of some phrase like ‘the blood of God’ which is only found in the Epistles of Ignatius, and is unlike N.T. language. Some have found support for θεοῦ in the peculiar collocation of the words which follow, διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίον. Some special force is thought to lie in ἰδίου thus placed, and that it must be taken in the sense of ‘through the blood that was His own,’ i.e. because it was His Son’s. Another suggestion which would make all easy, is that after τοῦ ἰδίου the word υἱοῦ fell out in very early times anterior to all our MSS. Lachmann, Tischendorf and Tregelles declare in favour of κυρίου.

ἣν περιεποιήσατο, which He purchased. The verb conveys the idea of making anything peculiarly one’s own.