15. PECULIAR (PEOPLE), PURCHASED POSSESSION
15. PECULIAR (PEOPLE), PURCHASED POSSESSION
The word ‘peculiar’ in the phrase a “peculiar people” occurs twice in the New Testament: Tit 2:14 and 1Pe 2:9, as the rendering of two Greek words, (from and , ‘being beyond, abundant’), which only occurs in Titus, and (from , ‘to acquire, gain’), of more general application in 1 Peter. There is an intimate link between these two texts in that they are but different renderings, as adopted by the LXX, for the same Hebrew word, being in fact unknown outside Biblical Greek. We must turn then to the Old Testament to enter into its force here. It is to be found at Exo 19:5; Exo 23:22; Deu 7:6; Deu 14:2; Deu 26:18; and what is but another form of the word () is employed for the same Hebrew in Psa 135:4 (Psa 134) and Ecc 2:8, which last passage is the only one without reference to the chosen people of Israel. These are apparently the only places in the LXX where , – occur. But for the same Hebrew word they have used (at least the verb of it) in 1Ch 29:3 (in the A.V. “of mine own proper good” and in Mal 3:17, where we may more accurately translate “They shall be unto me for a peculiar treasure, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day that I prepare.” Peter’s use of the word may be compared with the rendering of the LXX in Isa 43:21, which may have been in his mind, where for ‘formed’ they have the verb of , that is, ‘acquired’ or ‘possessed,’ “to tell forth my praises.”
The Hebrew word signifies ‘to surround on all sides,’ hence ‘to gather together, set apart, reserve, appropriate.’ Applied to property, it would be the private treasure acquired or possessed by the person himself, as distinguished from what is shared with others: with kings (cf. the passages in Ecc. and 1 Chr.) it would be the private purse as distinct from the public treasury. Now the word ‘peculiar’ comes from the Latin peculium, which has very much this force, being used of the private purse which a member of a household was allowed to accumulate and possess for himself, distinct from what must be applied to the good of the family generally. The Greek also has the meaning of ‘existing, or possessed over and above,’ with the same exception from the common laws of distribution. The Latin word has been used in these passages by more than one translator of the O.T., and hence passed in an English form into our version in all but Deu 7:6, where ‘special’ is put for ‘peculiar;’ and in Malachi ‘jewels’ (with ‘special treasure’ in the margin .) Thus the force of these interesting passages in Titus and 1 Peter will be clear – a “people for his own possession.”
occurs elsewhere. In Eph 1:14 it is rendered “purchased possession,” referring to Eph 1:10-11; the inheritance, of all things in heaven and earth which are to be headed up in Christ, and of which in Christ we have been made heirs (not, as in the R.V., “made a heritage,” confounding the church with the place of Israel). Till that day of glory the Holy Spirit is given us as the earnest of the inheritance; then redemption will be applied in power to the acquired possession, and Christ and the heavenly saints will formally take the inheritance according to God’s purpose (comp. Dan 7:13-14; Dan 7:18): hence the expression in Eph 1:18 “the riches of the glory of his [that is, God’s] inheritance in the saints.” In three other passages the word is found much more in its primary meaning of what remains over, is saved, reserved for oneself, and acquired and preserved. We have it thus applied to salvation in 1Th 5:9, and glory in 2Th 2:14; and in Heb 10:39 to the contrast between those who are “of faith to the saving of the soul” and “the drawers back to perdition.”