1 Peter 2:9

2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues ¹  of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Deuteronomy 32:9

32:9 For the Lord’s allotment is his people,

Jacob is his special possession. ² 

Psalms 33:12

33:12 How blessed ³  is the nation whose God is the Lord,

the people whom he has chosen to be his special possession. ⁴ 

Psalms 74:2

74:2 Remember your people ⁵  whom you acquired in ancient times,

whom you rescued ⁶  so they could be your very own nation, ⁷ 

as well as Mount Zion, where you dwell!

Micah 7:14

7:14 Shepherd your people with your shepherd’s rod, ⁸ 

the flock that belongs to you, ⁹ 

the one that lives alone in a thicket,

in the midst of a pastureland. ¹⁰ 

Allow them to graze in Bashan and Gilead, ¹¹ 

as they did in the old days. ¹² 

Acts 20:28

20:28 Watch out for ¹³  yourselves and for all the flock of which ¹⁴  the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, ¹⁵  to shepherd the church of God ¹⁶  that he obtained ¹⁷  with the blood of his own Son. ¹⁸ 

[2:9]  ¹ sn This verse contains various allusions and quotations from Exod 19:5-6; 23:22 (LXX); Isa 43:20-21; and Mal 3:17.

[32:9]  ² tc Heb “the portion of his inheritance.” The LXX and Smr add “Israel” and BHS suggests the reconstruction: “The Lord’s allotment is Jacob, the portion of his inheritance is Israel” (cf. NAB). While providing good parallelism, it destroys a fine chiastic structure: “allotment” (a), “his people” (b), “Jacob (b’), and “inheritance” (a’).

[33:12]  ³ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[33:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “inheritance.”

[74:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “your assembly,” which pictures God’s people as an assembled community.

[74:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “redeemed.” The verb “redeem” casts God in the role of a leader who protects members of his extended family in times of need and crisis (see Ps 19:14).

[74:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “the tribe of your inheritance” (see Jer 10:16; 51:19).

[7:14]  ⁸ tn Or “with your scepter” (the Hebrew term can mean either “rod” or “scepter”).

[7:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “the flock of your inheritance.”

[7:14]  ¹⁰ tn Or “in the midst of Carmel.” The Hebrew term translated “pastureland” may be a place name.

[7:14]  ¹¹ sn The regions of Bashan and Gilead, located in Transjordan, were noted for their rich grazing lands.

[7:14]  ¹² tn Heb “as in the days of antiquity.”

[20:28]  ¹³ tn Or “Be on your guard for” (cf. v. 29). Paul completed his responsibility to the Ephesians with this warning.

[20:28]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “in which.”

[20:28]  ¹⁵ tn Or “guardians.” BDAG 379-80 s.v. ἐπίσκοπος 2 states, “The term was taken over in Christian communities in ref. to one who served as overseer or supervisor, with special interest in guarding the apostolic tradition…Ac 20:28.” This functional term describes the role of the elders (see v. 17). They were to guard and shepherd the congregation.

[20:28]  ¹⁶ tc The reading “of God” (τοῦ θεοῦ, tou qeou) is found in א B 614 1175 1505 al vg sy; other witnesses have “of the Lord” (τοῦ κυρίου, tou kuriou) here (so Ì⁷⁴ A C* D E Ψ 33 1739 al co), while the majority of the later minuscule mss conflate these two into “of the Lord and God” (τοῦ κυρίου καὶ [τοῦ] θεοῦ, tou kuriou kai [tou] qeou). Although the evidence is evenly balanced between the first two readings, τοῦ θεοῦ is decidedly superior on internal grounds. The final prepositional phrase of this verse, διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου (dia tou {aimato" tou idiou), could be rendered “through his own blood” or “through the blood of his own.” In the latter translation, the object that “own” modifies must be supplied (see tn below for discussion). But this would not be entirely clear to scribes; those who supposed that ἰδίου modified αἵματος would be prone to alter “God” to “Lord” to avoid the inference that God had blood. In a similar way, later scribes would be prone to conflate the two titles, thereby affirming the deity (with the construction τοῦ κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ following the Granville Sharp rule and referring to a single person [see ExSyn 272, 276-77, 290]) and substitutionary atonement of Christ. For these reasons, τοῦ θεοῦ best explains the rise of the other readings and should be considered authentic.

[20:28]  ¹⁷ tn Or “acquired.”

[20:28]  ¹⁸ tn Or “with his own blood”; Grk “with the blood of his own.” The genitive construction could be taken in two ways: (1) as an attributive genitive (second attributive position) meaning “his own blood”; or (2) as a possessive genitive, “with the blood of his own.” In this case the referent is the Son, and the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. See further C. F. DeVine, “The Blood of God,” CBQ 9 (1947): 381-408.