Acts 20:28, the church of God, purchased with whose blood?
Acts 20:28 reads church of God in Nestle-Aland 28 and church of the Lord in Tregelles. The difference affects how the following reference to his own blood is understood.
The APB text at this verse
The manuscripts, editions, and versions
The committee record at this verse
The APB is translated by a committee of language models that works blind. The translators are never told they are translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and never shown the witnesses listed above. Where the manuscripts disagree, the choice between readings is made before translation by the same kind of translator working the same way: it sees the competing readings and the witnesses by age and class, but never a reference or a manuscript name. There are 14,877 such places. For APB 4.0 every one was decided again in October 2026. GPT-6.1 Sol decided every one first. Claude Fable 5.1, from another model family, decided 2,483 of them second, including every place where the first translator left the base text. A departure from the base text needs both translators to agree and the first to be at least 0.8 confident. There is no third translator, so the base text stands when the two disagree. APB 4.0 is translated over those decisions. Whatever was done at this verse was done on the language and the evidence alone, and the record is public.
“The base text reads προσέχετε. The copies also carry προσέχετε οὖν [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Early support and the explanatory addition strongly favor the default.”
“The base text reads (nothing). The copies also carry οὖν [greek majuscule; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The earlier support and natural motive for addition strongly favor the default.”
“The base text reads θεοῦ. The copies also carry κυρίου [greek majuscule; early greek manuscript tradition], κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The harder wording and its early support favor the default.”
“The base text reads θεοῦ. The copies also carry κυρίου [greek majuscule; early greek manuscript tradition], κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The harder wording and its early support favor the default, with assimilation remaining a plausible alternative explanation.”
“The base text reads αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου. The copies also carry ἰδίου αἵματος [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The earlier evidence and plausible smoothing strongly favor the default.”
The APB 4.0 committee retained θεοῦ, of God. Its note states: "The harder wording and its early support favor the default, with assimilation remaining a plausible alternative explanation." GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI), the first translator, kept the base text; the unit did not go to a second translator. The committee's printed text consequently reads "the assembly of God, which he gained for himself through his own blood."
The argument for each reading
If “of God”
Nestle-Aland 28 and WH read θεοῦ, giving the phrase the church of God. This reading places God beside the statement that the assembly was purchased through his own blood. That difficult connection gives a possible reason for a copyist to substitute Lord: the change could ease the wording. The committee's textual decision cites the harder wording and its early support as reasons for retaining God.
The difficulty also defines the interpretive stakes. With God in the phrase, the reference to blood requires particular care. The wording brings the identity of the assembly's possessor into close relation with the person whose blood secured it.
If “of the Lord”
Tregelles reads κυρίου, giving the phrase the church of the Lord. The apparatus records this as an alternative to God, while RP has the combined wording κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ. Lord therefore has a distinct place in the textual comparison, alongside a reading that joins both titles.
With Lord, the statement about his own blood follows a different divine title. This can ease the immediate difficulty created by speaking of God's blood. Ease alone does not establish how the variation arose. The committee's note also acknowledges assimilation as a plausible alternative explanation, leaving room for a different account of the wording's transmission.
The competing readings leave the direction of change uncertain. The abbreviated sacred names ΘΥ and ΚΥ differ by one letter, but that closeness does not establish why the wording changed. The choice affects the title attached to the assembly and its relation to his own blood. The charge to shepherd the assembly and the statement that it was acquired through blood remain. A doctrinal conclusion requires more than choosing between these two titles.
Related entries
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited from the sources linked above.