Church of Christ Or Church of God?
By Bro. Nathan
Most often ng mga Inc ay ginagamit ang Acts 20:28 to support daw na church of Christ yung name ng church (even though walang name ang primitive church). To support this, ginagamit nila ang translation made by Dr. George Lamsa that used the Aramaic peshitta that has the reading of church of Christ.
Inc's often argue na ang peshitta daw ang original text ng new testament but we have problems. Apostles would write in the common language of the Roman Empire, which is Koine Greek. Aramaic is only used in Judea. The author of the Book of Acts, Luke, is a Greek, and the person he is addressing to, Theophilus, is also a Greek. Why would Luke write his book in a language they both don't know and understand?
This is how it works :
Greek -> Aramaic/Syriac -> English
(Hindi Aramaic to Greek to English)
Ang ilang INC would also argue na may reading daw sa ilang manuscripts na " church of the Lord" (τοῦ κυριου) and now their argument goes like church of the Lord ang isang variant therefore church of Christ na ang nakasulat sa text ng Acts 20:28 (which is clearly irrationality). if alam lang nila ang tinatawag natin na textual Criticism, they would realize that they were wrong all this time. Ang reading na church of Christ sa peshitta at τοῦ κυριου sa ilang Greek new Testaments (Gaya ng tischendorf) ay wala sa earliest readings ng Acts 20:28. we have evidences na mga changes ito na ginawa sa text. τοῦ θεοῦ ang nasa readings ng earliest manuscripts gaya ng Codex vaticanus at codex sinaiticus. The following manuscripts read as follows :
προϲεχετε εαυτοιϲ και παντι τω ποιμνιω εν ω υμαϲ το π̅ν̅α̅ το αγιον εθετο επιϲκοπουϲ ποιμενιν την εκκληϲιαν του θ̅υ̅ ην περιεποιηϲατο δια του αιματοϲ του ιδιου (Acts 20:28) Codex Sinaiticus
"προϲεχετε εαυτοιϲ και πα̅τι τω ποιμνιω εν ω υμαϲ το πνευμα το αγιον εθετο επιϲκοπουϲ ποιμαινειν την εκκληϲιαν του θ̅υ̅ ην περιεποιηϲατο δια του αιματοϲ του ιδιου" (Acts 20:28) Codex Vaticanus
Ang variant readings ng Acts 20:28 shows na ang earlier readings ng Acts 20:28 ay τοῦ θεοῦ which is showed as follows :
κυριου 𝔓74 A C* D E Ψ 33. 36. 453. 945. 1739. 1891 al gig p syhmg co; Irlat Lcf ¦ κυ. και (του pm) θεου C3 𝔐 ¦ txt ℵ B 614. 1175. 1505 al vg sy boms; Cyr
The Nestle-Aland 28/UBS5 reads as follows :
προσέχετε ἑαυτοῖς καὶ παντὶ τῷ ποιμνίῳ, ἐν ᾧ ὑμᾶς τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἔθετο ἐπισκόπους ποιμαίνειν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ θεοῦ, ἣν περιεποιήσατο διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου. (Acts 20:28) Nestle-Aland 28
Clearly this has nothing to do with the claim ng mga Inc ng "church of Christ."
