blood of His own."  Heb. 9: 12 and 13: 12 give us what the normal form of the

expression should be, dia tou idiou haimatos.  In Acts 20: 28 the form is dia tou

haimatos tou idiou. Whatever the true rendering may be, we may learn, for the time

being at least, that the blood of Christ purchased or acquired the church of God.

The word "purchase" is peripoieõ, and literally means, "to make over and above; to

acquire." The word comes in Gen. 31: 18, "The cattle of his getting"; 36: 6,

"which he had got in the land of Canaan." It occurs in only one other place in the N.T.,

viz., I Tim. 3: 13, "purchase to themselves a good degree." Peripoiesis, meaning an

acquiring or an obtaining, occurs in a few passages. I Thess. 5: 9, "Obtain salvation,"

II Thess. 2: 14, "Obtaining the glory"; I Pet. 2: 9, "A peculiar people." This last

reference, "a people for an acquisition," is an echo of Mal. 3: 17, esontai moi, legei

Kurios Pantokrator EIS PERIPOIESIN "They shall be to Me, saith the Lord Almighty,

for an acquisition."

The Hebrew word of this passage is segullah, something peculiarly precious and of

private rather than general interest. Here in Mal. 3: 17 it is rendered "jewels." In

Ex. 19: 15, Ps. 135: 4, and Eccles. 2: 8 it is rendered "a peculiar treasure." In

Deut. 14: 2 and 26: 18, "peculiar people." In I Chron. 29: 3 David uses the word

to indicate his own private possessions as distinct from the national offerings, "mine own

proper good."

Whatever differences of opinion there may be regarding the translation of the last

clause of Acts 20: 28, there can be no uncertainty as to the fact that the church of God

there said to be an acquisition, a peculiar possession, purchased by the blood of Christ, is

to be considered as distinct from the world of mankind generally who died in Adam and

must live again. The blood of the covenant was shed for many, the blood also made a

purchase of a peculiar and special people, the church of God. This is the sustained

testimony of the Scriptures, and is one of "The things that differ" that it is necessary for

us to take to heart, that while the death is spoken of as of universal application, the

shedding of blood is within the bounds of a covenant, is for the many, and acquires an

election from among the great mass of men.