What Does Acts 20:28 Mean?
So watch yourselves, and the whole flock, in which the Set-Apart Breath has set you as watchers over, to feed the assembly of God, which he made his own through his own blood.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.THE KEY
The word translated “feed” means “shepherd,” so the flock and the work entrusted to its overseers share the same root-family.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you as someone entrusted with careful attention: to yourself and to the whole flock. The Spirit appoints overseers to shepherd God’s assembly, which belongs to him and is valued in the verse through the cost of his own blood.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that spiritual authority makes people the leader’s possession: the flock belongs to God, and oversight is accountable tending.
THE ROOT
ποιμαίνειν
poimainein
GROWS FROM
ποιμ-
poim-
The Greek shepherd-and-flock word family; ποιμαίνω means to shepherd or tend.
The word translated “feed” is ποιμαίνω, “to shepherd”: it names the full work of tending a flock, not simply supplying food. The verse has already called the people a “flock,” then uses a verb from the same word-family for the care of God’s assembly, an echo the English translation obscures.
ALSO GROWS
poimēn: shepherd
ποιμήν
The related noun reveals the shepherding image inside the verb translated “feed.”
poimnion: flock
ποίμνιον
This related noun is the word translated “flock” earlier in the verse, linking the people and their care through the same word-family.
THE PATTERN
The care entrusted to a shepherd is measured by whether the flock is tended and protected rather than consumed.
Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD, Woe to those who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his living soul for the sheep.Shepherd the flock of God among you, watching over it, not by force but willingly, according to God; and not for shameful gain but eagerly.THE THREAD
He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I hold you dear." He said to him, "Shepherd my sheep."“Feed” here translates ποιμαίνω, the same Greek verb behind “to feed” in Acts 20:28. The shared word reveals that the charge reaches beyond providing food: it is the work of shepherding the flock.
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