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Whose Blood?
Acts 20:28

Many of trinitarian neighbors would have us believe that this text means that the Almighty God himself died for the church. If so, then, the Almighty God himself died, which of course, scripturally is totally impossible. If God Almighty had flesh and blood, this would make him lower than the angels. -- Psalm 8:5; Hebrews 2:7.

We might note that the Alexandrine manuscript as well as some other manuscripts read as "to shepherd the church of the Lord which..." Thus the *New English Bible* renders this verse: "Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has given you charge, as shepherds of the church of the Lord, which we won for himself by his own blood." The Antigua Version de Casidoro De Reina, Revisada por Cipriano de Valera (1602), Revision de 1960, reads "iglesia del Senior", that is, "church of the Lord" instead of "iglesia de Dios" (Church of God).

However, let us look at how several other translations render this verse:

Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son. -- New Revised Standard Version

Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with the blood of his own Son. -- Revised Standard

So keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock which the Holy Spirit has placed in your care. Be shepherds of the church of God, F32 which he made his own through the blood of his Son. F33 -- Today's English
===
FOOTNOTES:
F32: God; [some manuscripts have] the Lord.
F33: through the blood of his Son; [or] through the sacrificial death of his Son; [or] through his own blood.
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Be careful for yourselves and for all the people the Holy Spirit has given to you to care for. You must be like shepherds to the church of God, which he bought with the death of his own son. -- New Century Version

Take heed, therefore, to yourselves and to all the flock, in which you the Spirit Holy placed overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased through the own blood. -- Jay Green's Interlinear.

Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased F184 with the blood of his own. F185
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FOOTNOTES:
F184: Middle voice; reflexive: see Note e, Heb. 1.3.
F185: I am fully satisfied that this is the right translation of ver. 28. To make it a question of the divinity of Christ (which I hold to be of the foundation of Christianity) is absurd. It has been questioned whether 'of his own' can be used thus absolutely in the singular. But we have it in John 15.19, and in the neuter singular for material things, Acts 4.32. The torturing of the passage by copyists arose, I believe, from not seeing, the real sense of it; a touching expression of the love of God.
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Thus Darby, although believing that Jesus is God Almighty, realizes that it is "absurd" to look to this scripture as proof of the trinity doctrine, although we know many do so.

Regarding this, Mark Miller states on his website:
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The Greek words tou i·di'ou follow the phrase "with the blood." The entire expression could be translated "with the blood of his own." A noun in the singular number would be understood after "his own," most likely God's closest relative, his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ. On this point J. H. Moulton in A Grammar of New Testament Greek, Vol. 1 (Prolegomena), 1930 ed., p. 90, says: "Before leaving [i'di·os] something should be said about the use of [ho i'di·os] without a noun expressed. This occurs in Jn 1.11; 13.1; Ac 4.23; 24.23. In the papyri we find the singular used thus as a term of endearment to near relations . . . . In Expos. VI. iii. 277 I ventured to cite this as a possible encouragement to those (including B. Weiss) who would translate Acts 2028 'the blood of one who was his own.'"

Alternately, in The New Testament in the Original Greek, by Westcott and Hort, Vol., 2, London, 1881, pp. 99, 100 of the Appendix, Hort stated: "it is by no means impossible that [hui·ou', "of the Son"] dropped out after tou i·di'ou, "of his own"] at some very early transcription affecting all existing documents. Its insertion leaves the whole passage free from difficulty of any kind."

***

Regarding the above choices which would agree with 1 John 1.7: ‘The blood of Jesus (God’s) Son cleanses us from all sin.’ (See Re 1.4-6l Jn 3.16)
==========End of quote
http://www.nazarene-friends.org/pubs/trinity/trinity4.html

If it were actually the blood of God rather than the blood of the man Jesus Christ, then there has been no ransom, for it is the blood of one lower than the angels -- a human -- that was needed to make satisfaction for the sin of Adam. (Of course, I realize the trinitarians claim that Jesus was both a spirit being in nature and a human being in nature at the same time, but no scripture says such a thing.) Jesus, being our high priest appointed by the only true Supreme Being, offers his own blood to the only true Supreme Being; he is not the the only true Supreme Being who receives the sacrifice. -- Psalm 8:5; John 17:1,3; Hebrews 2:9; 3:1,2; 9:14.
http://reslight.net/l-atone.html

Of course, in reality, God Almighty is a spiritual being and does not have flesh and blood. (John 3:24; 2 Corinthians 3:17) Jesus was made a spiritual being in his resurrection. (1 Corinthians 15:45) He was not a spiritual being while he was a human being. -- 1 Corinthians 15:38.

Nothing in the verse says that Jesus is God Almighty. There is definitely nothing in the verse about three persons in one being or three persons in God Almighty.

Updated July 19, RRD

The following links provide more information concerning John 10:30. We do not necessarily agree with all statements or conclusions reached by the authors.

HOW DID JESUS ANSWER THE QUESTION REGARDING EQUALITY WITH GOD?
(Nazarene Saints) Discussion of John 10:30 and other scriptures.

John 10:30 - Hear O Israel! Jehovah Our God is One -- Jehovah." (Zion's Watch Tower, July 1882)

John 10:30 - The Atonement Between God and Man

John 10:30

The Lord Our God, The Lord is One"
Hartford Bible Students

The Trinity - Satan's False Doctrine
Adrian Bible Students

God is One Person
Church of God General Conference

Who Is Jesus?
By Juan Baixeras -- Some good quotes; however, Mr. Baixeras evidently does not accept the prehuman existence of Jesus.

Related Books
The following books are recommended for reference; our recommendation does not mean that we endorse everything presented in the books.

Concepts of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by Matthew Alfs
Subtitled "A Classification and Description of the Trinitarian and Non-Trinitarian Theologies Existent Within Christendom," this is a theological and historical handbook of how the variety of Christian denominations have defined and viewed God the Father, Christ the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit. Detailed and penetrating, it demonstrates how Christendom's many denominations and sects have differed and even powerfully clashed in explicating this so-called "central doctrine of the Christian faith," often with heated verbal sparring and sometimes by inflicting physical violence on opposers. Objective in tone, which is rare for a work of this sort, this careful study encourages the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. Unlike apologetic works, which often quote what critics say about variant denominational theologies, this work allows the plethora of denominations to speak for themselves. The author further solicited comments from many denominational headquarters to clarify and expand upon material from their available published works. It can truly be said that no stone has been left unturned in order to provide the reader with full and complete coverage of the subject. Includes 355 references and a detailed index. Sturdy libary binding, brown cloth with gold-embossed ccover illustration. 104pp.


The Great Debate Regarding The Father, Son & Holy Spirit
An exhaustive verse-by-verse, side-by-side comparison of four historical paradigms. The four views compared are Oneness, Trinitarian, Arian, and Unitarian. The first section compares answers to interview questions such as: "What are the consequences for others not believing as you do?". This is followed by several hundred passages of Scripture and a comment on each verse by each view. Finally the book has a variety of notes: John 1:1 is compared by various scholars. Notes showing the progression of the creeds, quotations from early church fathers, notes from Adolph Harnack's History of Dogma, notes from Hans Kung's Christianity: Essence, History and Future, and a couple of articles dealing with the origins and reasonableness of the Trinity finish up the 120 page 8.5 X 11 book (plastic comb binding).
Jesus - God or Son of God? by Brian Holt

An analysis of the most common arguments used to both prove and disprove the notion that Jesus is God. Beginning with the book of Matthew and continuing through Revelation, it tallies and discusses every scripture that implies Jesus is God and every scripture that implies he is not. Not to be left out of the discussion is a comparison of the arguments from the Hebrew scriptures.

This work discusses the common arguments used by both sides and provides the response given by the opposing view. It concludes by asking the reader to review the arguments from both sides and determine for himself what he believes. If you want to know what evidence there is that Jesus is God (or what evidence there is that he is not), this is the book that presents a fair and balanced discussion of the matter.

Before you discuss this subject with a Trinitarian or a non-Trinitarian, make sure you know why he believes what he believes. A comparison of the arguments is in order.


Two Babylons or the Papal Worship by Alexander Hislop
This book is written by a trinitarian, but it does offer some good historical background of the trinity.


The Role of Theology and Bias in Bible Translation
Hardcover
Paperback edition
by Rolf Furuli
In the natural sciences, a basic principle is to break everything down to the smallest possible units and then study each unit. In linguistics and in the study of the biblical languages, a similar principle was followed with the word as the basic unit, but from the middle of this century the view has developed that the smallest units which were meaningful for translation had to be the sentence or even the paragraph. The author believes that the pendulum has swung too far in one direction, and that it still is meaningful to work with the word as the fundamental unit of translation. The book therefore suggests that for a particular target group - those who, by the help of their mother tongue, want to come as close as possible to the original languages - a literal translation will be better than an idiomatic one. In the course of discussion it is shown that the principles on which such a translation is based accords fully with modern linguistic principles."


History of Dogma - by Adolf Harnack
See Quotes

Paul S. L. Johnson's books, including the book GOD, referenced above, may be obtained from The Bible Standard


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