--- title: Acts 20:28 url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-20-28/ markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-20-28.md type: verse perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching reference: Acts 20:28 testament: NT section: Acts index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt --- # Acts 20:28 ## Text (Berean Standard Bible) > Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. ## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase - NWT (1984 edition): "Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the holy spirit has appointed you overseers, to shepherd the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own [Son]." - NWT (2013 revision): "Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the holy spirit has appointed you overseers, to shepherd the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own Son." ## JW Usage The Watchtower's New World Translation neutralises Acts 20:28 by inserting the word "[Son]" into Paul's charge to the Ephesian elders, so that the verse reads "the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own Son" rather than "the congregation of God, which he purchased with his own blood." The 1984 edition kept the inserted "[Son]" in square brackets (the convention the NWT uses to flag added words); the 2013 revision quietly removed the brackets, hardening the interpretation. The result is to remove a verse where God is said to have shed his own blood — a striking deity-of-Christ text that the NWT cannot allow to stand. Beyond the translation issue, JWs occasionally cite the verse as a generic proof for an organised eldership, typically without engaging the word the Spirit "appointed" them — episkopous, overseers, in the plural and over a single local congregation. ## Protestant Usage Acts 20:28 is doubly weighty: it is one of the cleanest New Testament identifications of Jesus with God, and it is one of the cleanest demonstrations of plural local eldership. On the Christological side, the Greek phrase "tēn ekklēsian tou theou, hēn periepoiēsato dia tou haimatos tou idiou" admits two defensible renderings — "the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood" or "with the blood of his own [one]" — but the NWT forces the second by inserting "Son" into the text. The Watchtower's own Kingdom Interlinear Translation prints "through the blood of the own" in the literal Greek column with no υἱοῦ ("Son") underneath, exposing the insertion. Either way the verse is devastating: the elders are charged to shepherd "the church of God" — and what God obtained at the cost of blood is the church purchased at Calvary by Christ. The Father has no blood; the only blood by which God purchased his church is the blood of the incarnate Son, who is therefore named God in this same sentence. On the polity side, Paul addresses "elders" (presbyterous, v. 17) whom the Holy Spirit has appointed "overseers" (episkopous) over a single local flock — plural elders, one congregation, no super-congregational layer above them. Used in arguments 045 (ransom-chain), 051 (nwt-unidirectional-bias), 093 (ransom-who-can-redeem), 123 (apostles-foundation-eph220), and 125 (plural-eldership). ## NWT Issue NWT inserts "[Son]" into the Greek text where no *huiou* appears, converting "his own blood" (an implicit deity claim about Christ) into "the blood of his own Son" (a colourless filial statement). The 1984 edition retained square brackets around "[Son]" to mark the insertion; the 2013 revision removed the brackets, so an English-only reader has no indication that the word is supplied. The Watchtower's own Kingdom Interlinear Translation prints "through the blood of the own" in the literal Greek column with no "Son" underneath — silently contradicting the NWT rendering printed on the facing page. The effect is Christological: "God's own blood" is converted into "the blood of God's Son," pulling the reader away from the deity implication the standard text carries. ## Arguments Using This Verse - [The Corresponding Ransom Chain](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/ransom-chain.md) — Romans 5 — Not Like the Trespass [Salvation] - [The NWT's One-Way Mirror](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/nwt-unidirectional-bias.md) — Every Change Points the Same Direction [NWT Translation] - [No Man Can Redeem — But Jesus Did](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/ransom-who-can-redeem.md) — Psalm 49:7-9, 15 / Hebrews 9:12-14 / Acts 20:28 [Salvation] - [Foundation Laid Once — Apostles Are Not a Perpetual Office](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/apostles-foundation-eph220.md) — Ephesians 2:20 — A foundation is poured once, and the building stands on it forever [Authority] - [Plural Eldership — The Bible's Distributed Leadership Model](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/plural-eldership.md) — Acts 14:23 / Titus 1:5 / 1 Timothy 5:17 — Elders, never one Elder [Authority] - [Why a Perfect Man Was Not Enough](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/infinite-value-divine-sacrifice.md) — Hebrews 9:14 / Acts 20:28 / 1 Peter 1:18-19 [Salvation] - [If Jesus Is God, Who Raised Him?](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/god-cannot-die-jw-closing.md) — Acts 20:28 / 1 Corinthians 2:8 — the two natures of the one Person [Deity of Christ]