The one possible exception is Ac 2028; 'to feed the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.' This is the reading of KB and other weighty authorities (followed by AV and RV text), but ACDE read ' the Lord ' instead of ' God.' The balance of authority is in favour of the reading ' God,' and it is decidedly more difficult than the other variant. At first sight, to saj' the least, the word ' God ' (if read) must refer to our Lord, and yet this usage is unlike that of the NT elsewhere, and a scribe finding Oeov would readily alter it to KvpCov because of the strangeness of the expression. Thus both because of superior attestation, and because a difficult reading is ordinarily to be preferred to an easier one, 9eov has usually been accepted here (so WH, ii. [1882] Appendix, p. 98). To get rid of the strangeness of the expression, it has been suggested that the reference is to the Father, and that 'his own blood' means 'the blood which is his own,' i.e. the blood of Christ who is essentially one with the Father ; but this seems to be a rather forced explanation. A somewhat more probable conjecture (that of Hort) is that there is here an early corruption, and that the original had ' with the blood of his own Son.' The best reading of the last words of the verse, supported by over- whelming authority, is Sid toO alVaros tou l&Cov; and this conjecture supposes that vioO has dropped out at the end (cf. Ro 832). However this may be, it would seem that the verse as we have it in KB was so read by Ignatius, and gave rise to his expression ' the blood of God ' (Eph. l)^a very early instance of what later writers called the coinmunicatio idiomatum, by which the properties of one of our Lord's natures are referred to when the other nature is in question, because of the unity of His Person (see 6 (6)). Another early instance is perhaps to be found in Clement of Rome {Cor. ii. 1) : ra 7r<i0ijfiaTa aiiTov (' his sufferings'), flfoO having just preceded; but the reading, though accepted by Lightfoot, is not quite certain. On these two passages see Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, ' S. Ignatius and S. Polycarp2,' 1889, ii. 29 f., ' S. Clement of Rome,' 1890, ii. 13-16. Tertullian uses the expression 'the blood of God' (ad Uxor. ii. 3).
(c) Trinitarian language. — In tlie NT teaching the Son and the Spirit are joined to the Father in a special manner, entirely ditlerent from that in which men or angels are spoken of in relation to God. Perhaps the best example of this is the apostolic benediction of 2 Co la''*, which has no dogmatic purpose, but is a simple, spontaneous prayer, and is therefore more significant than if it was intended to teach some doctrine. The ' grace of our Lord,' the ' love of God,' and the ' com- munion of the Holy Ghost' are grouped together, aiul in this remarkable order. In many passages Fatlier, Son, and Spirit are grouped together, just as the Three are mentioned together in the account of our Lord's Baptism (Mt S^**'-). only in a still more significant way. Thus in Ac 5^"- we read that God exalted Jesus to be a Prince and a Saviour, and gave the Holy Gliost ' to them that obey him.' Stephen, being full of the Holy Ghost, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God (7^). The Holy Ghost is in one breath called by St. Paul the ' Spirit of God ' and the ' Spirit of Christ' (Ro S^). See also 1 Co 123-« {'the Spirit of God . . . Jesus is Lord . . . the same Spirit . . . the same Lord . . . the same God '), Ac 2^3, 1 P 12 ('foreknowledge of God the Father,' ' sanctification of the Spirit,' 'sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ'), Tit S'*"^ (' the kindness of God our Saviour ' [the Father], ' renewing of the Holy Ghost,' ' through Jesus Christ our Saviour'), 1 Jn 4^, and especially Jude ^", where the writer's disciples are bidden to pray in the Holy Spirit, to keep themselves in the love of God, and to look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the greeting of all the Pauline Epistles but one, the Father and Son are joined together as the source of grace and peace ; e.g. ' Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ' (Ro 1^); the only exception being Col 1^ RV, which has ' grace to you and peace from God our Father.' And this Pauline usage is also found in 2 Jn^. It is difficult to conceive the possibility of this zeugma unless our Lord be God. AVith this compare St. James's description of himself as ' a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ ' (Ja P), and many other passages such as ' one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him ; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom
are all things, and we through him ' (1 Co 8^ ; see above, i {b)) ; 'in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus' (2 Ti 4') ; 'fellowship with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ' (1 Jn P) ; 'he that denieth the Father and the Son ' (2~) ; ' the same hath both the Father and the Son' (2 Jn^); 'the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are the temple thereof ' (Rev 21^) ; ' the throne of God and of the Lamb' (22i- s).