REFUTING ANOTHER UNITARIAN CANARD

I arrive at the final installment in the series: JESUS’ GOD PT. 2.

PAUL

In this part I will discuss Paul’s Christology in order to show that this holy servant of the risen Christ affirmed that Jesus is YHWH Incarnate, much like John did so.

For starters, we know that Paul did make it clear that Jesus is still a Man in heaven, albeit a glorified one at that:

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself.” Philippians 3:20-21 NABRE

“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the MAN Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the witness for this proper time.” 1 Timothy 2:5-6

At the same time, however, he also affirmed that the risen Christ is God in an absolute sense, i.e., he isn’t merely a divine Being but is the great God and Savior of all believers.

I share some of the verses where this holy servant of Christ identifies the Son as God in an absolute sense.

TITUS 2:13-14

“looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (tou megalou theou kai soteros hemon ‘Iesou Christou), who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works.”

The Greek employs a particular grammatical construction, which makes it absolutely certain that Christ is being called the great God, as the following textual note explains:

tn The terms “God and Savior” both refer to the same person, Jesus Christ. This is one of the clearest statements in the NT concerning the deity of Christ. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. The only issue is whether terms such as “God” and “Savior” could be considered common nouns as opposed to proper names. Sharp and others who followed (such as T. F. Middleton in his masterful The Doctrine of the Greek Article) demonstrated that a proper name in Greek was one that could not be pluralized. Since both “God” (θεός, theos) and “savior” (σωτήρ, sōtēr) were occasionally found in the plural, they did not constitute proper names, and hence, do fit Sharp’s rule. Although there have been 200 years of attempts to dislodge Sharp’s rule, all attempts have been futile. Sharp’s rule stands vindicated after all the dust has settled. For more information on Sharp’s rule see ExSyn 270-78, esp. 276. See also 2 Pet 1:1 and Jude 4. (NET Bible https://netbible.org/bible/Titus+2; emphasis mine)

Noted Evangelical scholar and author Robert M. Bowman Jr. concurs:

7. Titus 2:13. Grammatically and contextually, this is one of the strongest proof texts for the deity of Christ. Sharp’s first rule, properly understood, proves that the text should be translated “our great God and Savior” (cf. same construction in Luke 20:37; Rev. 1:6; and many other passages). Note also that Paul always uses the word “manifestation” (“appearing”) of Christ: 2 Thess. 2:8; 1 Tim. 6:14; 2. Tim. 1:10; 4:1, 8. The view that Paul means that Jesus Christ is “the glory of our great God and Savior” has several difficulties. For example, construing “Savior” as someone other than “Jesus Christ” in this context is awkward and implausible. Such alternate explanations would never have been entertained had Paul written “the appearing of the glory of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Thus, the root problem is the assumption that Paul could not have called Jesus God. (Bowman, The Biblical Basis of the Doctrine of the Trinity, IV. The Son, Jesus Christ, is God.; emphasis mine)

The Hebrew Bible is explicitly clear that there is no other great God besides the one true God YHWH:

“For Yahweh your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great (ho megas), the mighty, and the fearsome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.” Deuteronomy 10:17

“So now, our God, the great (ho megas), the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness, Do not let all the hardship seem insignificant before You, Which has found us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all Your people, From the days of the kings of Assyria to this day.” Nehemiah 9:32

“who shows lovingkindness to thousands, but repays the iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their children after them, O great (ho megas) and mighty God. Yahweh of hosts is His name,” Jeremiah 32:18

“There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord, Nor are there any works like Yours. All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And they shall glorify Your name. For You are great and do wondrous deeds; You alone are God.” Psalm 86:8-10

Compare the Greek rendering of the aforementioned text:

“For thou art great (megas), and doest wonders: thou art the only [and] the great God (ho theos monos ho megas).” Psalm 85:10 LXX

ACTS 20:28

“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God (ten ekklesian tou theou) which He purchased with His own blood.”

Amazingly, the majority of the Greek witnesses actually read the church of the Lord and the God:

“Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God (ten ekklesian tou kyriou kai tou theou) which he purchased with his own blood.” WEB

Paul’s words are remarkably similar to Thomas’ confession when the latter saw the risen Christ appear before him in his glorified physical body:

“Thomas responded to Jesus, ‘My Lord and my God (ho kyrios mou kai ho theos mou)!’ Jesus replied, ‘Do you believe because you see me? Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe.’” Common English Bible (CEB)

That Paul is describing Jesus as the God who shed his blood to ransom a people to be his own possession is made clear by the variants themselves, as Rob Bowman explains:

5. Acts 20:28: “the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.” The variant readings (e.g. “the church of the Lord”) show that the original wording was understood to mean “his own blood,” not “the blood of his own [Son]” (since otherwise no one would have thought to change it). (No one seems to have thought to understand the text to mean “the blood of his own” until about a hundred years ago.) Thus all other renderings are attempts to evade the startling clarity and meaning of this passage. (Bowman, The Biblical Basis of the Doctrine of the Trinity; emphasis mine)

Bowman further shows that “his own blood” was how the Church writers and biblical scholars read it for the first eighteen centuries:

“Although most contemporary English versions render the last part of the verse in the same way as the NASB (ESV, NIV, NKJV, HCSB, and others), many scholars and commentators in recent decades have preferred the rendering found in the NRSV (and also in REB). There is no doubt as to the reason for this preference: those who dispute the conventional translation find the language, which expresses the idea of God’s having ‘blood,’ difficult if not impossible to entertain.

“A little lesson in grammar is unavoidable in order to understand the problem with the NRSV interpretation. The disputed words usually translated “his own blood” but translated ‘the blood of his own Son’ in the NRSV are tou haimatos tou idiou (word for word, ‘the blood, the his-own’). The word idiou (‘his own’) is an adjective, which normally we would understand as modifying the noun haimatos (‘blood’). The word order here, with the adjective following the noun with a second article between them, is perfectly normal and common in Greek. Another example of this construction appears in the very same verse: ‘the Holy Spirit’ (to pneuma to hagion, word for word, ‘the Spirit, the Holy’). It was not until the latter half of the nineteenth century, that anyone proposed that the words here in question did not mean ‘his own blood.’

“The basis for the alternate translation ‘the blood of his own Son’ is that Greek can use adjectives as if they were nouns (the technical term is substantivally). Many modern scholars argue that tou idiou is such a substantival use of the adjective, and therefore means ‘of his Own,’ comparable to the use of the adjective ‘the Beloved’ (Eph. 1:6) as a kind of term of endearment.

“This reinterpretation of the text is grammatically possible and difficult to disprove absolutely, but it is hardly the most natural understanding. As we mentioned, eighteen centuries went by before anyone came up with it. The New Testament nowhere calls Jesus ‘his Own’ (ho idios), nor was this term ever picked up in the early church as a designation for Jesus. The substantival use of ho idios (or any grammatical variation, such as ton idion) is, in fact, rare in the New Testament, and in the singular occurs only once–and even then not in reference to a specific person (John 15:19). On the other hand, ho idios functions as an adjective following the noun–just as in Acts 20:28–in several New Testament texts (John 1:41; 5:43; 7:18; Acts 1:25).

“We are inclined to agree with Nigel Turner, a twentieth-century scholar of Greek grammar, who called the alternate translation of Acts 20:28 ‘a theological expedient, foisting imaginary distinctions into a spontaneous affirmation, and is not the natural way to take the Greek.’ As the Catholic scholar Charles DeVine commented sixty years ago, it is nothing more than an attempt ‘to avoid at all costs the full force of the expression “God’s own blood.”’” (Bowman & J. Ed Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case For The Deity of Christ [Kregel Publications, 2007], Part 3: Name Above All Names: Jesus Shares the Names of God, Chapter 12. Immanuel: God With Us, pp. 145-146; emphasis mine)⁽¹⁾

And:

30. The first scholars to propose the alternate translation “the blood of his own” appear to have been J. A. Bengel and F. J. A. Hort; see Harris, Jesus as God, 139; and Charles F. DeVine, “The ‘Blood of God’ in Acts 20:28,” CBQ 9 (1947): 405. (Ibid., pp. 330-331)

ROMANS 9:5

The following verse is another case of the blessed Apostle glorifying the risen Christ as God in an absolute sense:

“of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.” NKJV

Both the grammar and the context decidedly point to Jesus being described as the God that reigns supreme over all, and who is eternally blessed or praised.

The following Evangelical translators and scholars sum up the reasons why the majority of biblical exegetes and grammarians are convinced that this is another verse magnifying Christ as God:

tn Or “the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever,” or “the Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever!” or “the Messiah who is over all. God be blessed forever!” The translational difficulty here is not text-critical in nature, but is a problem of punctuation. Since the genre of these opening verses of Romans 9 is a lament, it is probably best to take this as an affirmation of Christ’s deity (as the text renders it). Although the other renderings are possible, to see a note of praise to God at the end of this section seems strangely out of place. But for Paul to bring his lament to a crescendo (that is to say, his kinsmen had rejected God come in the flesh), thereby deepening his anguish, is wholly appropriate. This is also supported grammatically and stylistically: The phrase ὁ ὢν (ho ōn, “the one who is”) is most naturally taken as a phrase which modifies something in the preceding context, and Paul’s doxologies are always closely tied to the preceding context. For a detailed examination of this verse, see B. M. Metzger, “The Punctuation of Rom. 9:5,” Christ and the Spirit in the New Testament, 95-112; and M. J. Harris, Jesus as God, 144-72. (NET Bible https://netbible.org/bible/Romans+9; emphasis mine)

And:

Romans 9:5 is another apparent affirmation of Jesus as God that can be translated in different ways. Consider the following translations:

. . . whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. (NASB)

. . . to whom the forefathers belong and from whom the Christ [sprang] according to the flesh: God, who is over all, [be] blessed forever. Amen. (NWT)

According to the NASB and most recent major English versions, Paul refers to the Christ as “God,” whereas in the NWT and some other (mostly older) translations, he does not. In other texts that apparently call Jesus “God,” we have encountered various textual and translation disputes. Here, the difference comes down to punctuation.

If we break up the verse into lines and translate it word for word in order without punctuation, it will help us see what the issues are:

a. whose [are] the fathers

b. and from whom [is] the Christ according to the flesh

c. the one who is over all

d. God blessed unto the ages amen

Put very simply, the main options³⁵ for punctuating the verse boil down to three: (1) Put a period at the end of line b, so that lines c and d are a separate sentence. This would mean that the verse does not say that Christ is “over all” or that he is God.³⁶ (2) Put a period at the end of line c, so that line d is a separate sentence. This would mean that the verse says that Christ is “over all” but does not call him God.³⁷ (3) Treat all four lines as part of the same sentence (which may start in verse 3). This would mean that the verse says that Christ is “over all” and also calls him God.³⁸

Two considerations lead most translators to choose the third option. First, grammatically, “who is over all” most naturally modifies “the Christ” in the preceding part of the verse: “and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, the one who is over all” (translating literally). In addition, “who is” or “the one who is” (ho on) agrees grammatically with “the Christ” (ho Christos), leading the reader to understand that “who is over all” is continuing to say something about the Christ. Paul’s wording here closely parallels a similar outburst of praise directed to God the Father in another of Paul’s epistles: “The God and Father of the Lord Jesus knows, the one who is [ho on] blessed forever, that I am not lying” (2 Cor. 11:31, authors’ translation). This means that the third line of Romans 9:5 most likely is part of the sentence that begins in verse 3. The thought that the Messiah is “over all” is certainly consistent with Paul’s teaching; in fact, the idea is repeated just one chapter later (Rom. 10:12).

The second consideration is the position of the word for “blessed” (eulogetos), which in Greek follows the word for “God” (theos). In biblical doxologies that stand as separate sentences and that use blessed, it always precedes the divine name or title (God, YHWH, etc.) in the sentence. Here are some typical examples.

Blessed be God . . . (Pss. 66:20; 68:35)

Blessed be the Lord . . . (Exod. 18:10; Ruth 4:14; Pss. 28:6; 31:21)

Blessed be the Lord forever. (Ps. 89:52)

Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel . . . (1 Sam. 25:32; Pss. 41:13; 106:48; cf. Luke 1:68)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . (2 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 1:3; 1 Peter 1:3)

The fact that Romans 9:5 does not follow this standard biblical pattern for a doxology that stands as a separate sentence (which Paul himself uses elsewhere) makes it reasonably certain that “God blessed forever” is part of the same sentence as the preceding lines. Paul uses this sentence structure in other places in his writings, including earlier in the same epistle.

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is [hos estin] blessed forever! Amen. (Rom. 1:25).

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is [ho on] blessed forever. . . . (2 Cor. 11:31 NASB)

For these reasons, we can be quite confident that Romans 9:5 does, indeed, call Jesus “God.”³⁹ This text is all the more significant when we consider that it is the earliest New Testament writing that calls Jesus “God” (dating to about A.D. 57, about a quarter-century after Jesus’ death and resurrection).⁴⁰  Moreover, in Romans 9:5 we see three of the five elements we are discussing in this book pertaining to the deity of Jesus: he receives the divine honor of eternal praise; he has the divine name “God”; he shares God’s seat, holding the highest position of ruling over all creation. (Bowman & Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place, pp. 146-148; emphasis mine)

As Bowman & alluded to, the very next chapter further substantiates that Paul was describing Christ as God:

“that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes upon Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him, for ‘Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” Romans 10:9-13

Astonishingly, the Apostle ascribes to Christ the following OT text which speaks of calling upon the name of YHWH in order to be saved:

“And it will be afterwards That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; Your old men will dream dreams; Your young men will see visions. Even on the male slaves and female slaves I will in those days pour out My Spirit… And it will be that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As Yahweh has said, Even among the survivors whom Yahweh calls.” Joel 2:28-29, 32

The only way that the inspired Apostle could describe Christ as that very YHWH whose name a person must confess for salvation is if he actually believed that Jesus is YHWH Incarnate!

Paul even identifies YHWH’s Spirit as the Spirit of both God the Father and Jesus Christ!

“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:9-11

“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” Galatians 4:4-6 

“for I know that this will turn out for my salvation through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,” Philippians 1:19

Once again, the only way that a monotheistic Jew like Paul could refer to the Holy Spirit as being the very Spirit of Christ the Son is if he was convinced that Jesus is indeed YHWH Almighty who became a Man!

This brings me to my final example.

PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11

The following passage is believed to be a poem or hymn which the Apostle incorporated into his inspired letter. Scholars have dated this poem/hymn circa. 40s AD, within a decade of Jesus’ resurrection:

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” New International Version (NIV)

Not only does this poem/hymn celebrate the prehuman, divine existence and incarnation of Christ, it also proclaims his exaltation to the status and worship, which the OT attributes to YHWH Almighty.

In fact, the poem/hymn even alludes to this fiercely monotheistic text from Isaiah:   

“Declare and draw near with your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has made this heard from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, Yahweh? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.” Isaiah 45:21-23

Isaiah prophesied of a time wherein all nations will worship and confess YHWH in recognition of his being the only righteous God and Savior. And yet, here in Philippians 2 the Christians were ascribing this worship to Jesus!

What this means is that within less than a decade the first Christians (the majority of whom would have been Jews) were already proclaiming that Jesus is that YHWH God whom Isaiah predicted would be confessed and worshiped by all the nations, in fact by the entire creation!

“… But the most striking example of this is surely Philippians 2:10-11, which appropriates Isaiah 45:23-25 (originally proclaiming submission to God) to portray the eschatological acclamation of Jesus as Kyrios ‘the glory of God the Father.’

As the late renowned NT scholar Larry W. Hurtado put it:

“These applications of Old Testament Kyrios passages to Jesus connote and presuppose the conviction that in some profound way he is directly and uniquely associated with God. For example, in Philippians 2:9-11 Jesus’ status is bestowed by God, who has exalted Jesus and given him ‘the name above every name.’ The creative understanding of Isaiah 45:23 in these verses as predicting a universal acknowledgment of Jesus as Kyrios shows that being given this title must be the Greek equivalent of bearing the Old Testament name of God. We must note that Philippians 2:6-11 is widely thought to be Paul’s adaptation of a christological hymn that likely originated much earlier than the epistle in which it is preserved, and that Paul shows no need to explain or justify it. Once again, this means that Paul here IS NO CHRISTOLOGICAL INNOVATOR, at least as far as the contents of this passage and the devotional practice it reflects are concerned. Instead the passage gives us valuable historical evidence of devotion to Jesus that was so familiar that Paul could use this fascinating christological recitation as a basis for making his real point here, which is to call for appropriate Christian ethical behavior.” (Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity [William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge U.K. 2003], 2. Early Pauline Christianity, pp. 112-113; emphasis mine)

And:

“That emphasis upon Jesus’ high status has been struck already in v. 9, which relates the actions that represent God’s response to Jesus’ self-humbling. Following upon and responding to Jesus’ humble obedience, even to death by crucifixion, God ‘highly exalted’ Jesus. ‘Highly exalted’ here translates the same Greek verb used in Psalm 96:9 (LXX; Psalm 97:9 in the Hebrew) to praise God’s supremacy ‘far above all gods.’ God also gave to Jesus ‘the name above every name.’ Although we have no explicit reference to Jesus’ resurrection here, it is most likely that God’s exaltation of Jesus in Philippians 2:9 is implicitly linked to that event. In the New Testament, Jesus’ resurrection was not simply a revivification of him; it also involved God’s vindication and exaltation of him to a unique status–for example, ‘at the right hand’ of God (the imagery and phrasing drawn from Psalm 110:1 [LXX 109:1], a key biblical text in earliest articulation of Jesus’ status)…

“To come back to our Philippians passage, in v. 9, particularly, the reference to Jesus being given ‘the name above every name’ practically requires us to think of the traditional, devout Jewish estimation of the sacred name of God. Moreover, we probably have here another echo of Isaiah 45:18-25. In the LXX of the Isaiah passage, YHWH is the Kyrios whose supremacy is to be manifest to all. So the acclamation in Philippians 2:11, ‘Kyrios Iesous Christos’ (‘Jesus Christ/Messiah is [the] Lord’), specifies the exalted name now borne by Jesus. As astonishing as it may be, Philippians 2:9 must be seen as claiming that in some way God has given to Jesus (to share?) the divine name that was represented in Greek by Kyrios and represented in Hebrew by the tetragrammaton. As Nagata put it, ‘Vv. 10-11 make the exalted Jesus virtually God.’ As we will see shortly, however, this does not mean that Jesus eclipses the God of biblical tradition. The exalted claims made about Jesus represent a distinctive ‘mutation’ in traditional Jewish monotheism, but certainly not an outright rejection of it.” (Hurtado, How on Earth Did Jesus Became a God? – Historical Questions about Earliest to Jesus [William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, U.K. 2005], Part I: Issues and Approaches, 4. A “Case Study” in Early Christian Devotion to Jesus: Philippians 2:6-11, pp. 93, 94-95; emphasis mine)

In light of the foregoing, the evidence from both John and Paul (in fact, the NT writings as a whole) prove beyond any reasonable doubt the first Christians did not think that Jesus was a mere human creature, nor did they think that Christ could not be God in light of the Father being his God.

Rather, these Spirit-filled preachers and writers taught and proclaimed that Jesus is God Almighty who became a Man, being both personally distinct from and essentially one with both the Father and the Spirit. Moreover, since he had become human by nature, and forever remains a Man, they saw no problem with him honoring the Father as his God while also being God in nature.

And neither should any true Bible-believing Christian!

FURTHER READING

Acts 20:28: The Blood of God

The Blood of God

Jesus: The God That Came to Purchase His Church

The Apostles’ inspired proclamation concerning the risen Christ in the book of Acts Pt. 1

JESUS AS GOD IN ROMANS 9:5

Jesus who is over all, God blessed forever! (Romans 9:5) [Part 1], [Part 2]

Carmen Christi: Worshiping Christ as God

Revisiting the Deity of Christ in Light of the Carmen Christi Pt. 1, Pt. 2

Bart D. Ehrman Proves Muhammad is a false prophet Pt. 2a, Pt. 2b

Paul’s Divine Christology Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3

ENDNOTES

(1) There is another early attested variant, which reads “the church of the Lord”:

“Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you guardians, to feed the church of the Lord (ten ekklesian tou kyriou) which he obtained with his own blood.” Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

What makes this reading so intriguing is that actually confirms the absolute Deity of Christ since the Greek phrase ekklesia [ho] Kyrios was used to translate the Hebrew expression qahal YHWH, meaning the church/congregation/assembly of Jehovah: 

“He that is fractured or mutilated in his private parts shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord (ten ekklesian Kyriou [qahal YHWH]). [One born] of a harlot shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord (ekklesian Kyriou [qahal YHWH]). The Ammanite and Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord (ekklesian Kyriou [qahal YHWH]), even until the tenth generation he shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord (ten ekklesian Kyriou [qahal YHWH]), even for ever… If sons be born to them, in the third generation they shall enter into the assembly of the Lord (ekklesian Kyriou [qahal YHWH]).” Deuteronomy 23:2-4, 9 LXX

“And now [I charge you] before the whole assembly of the Lord (pases ekklesias Kyriou [qahal YHWH]), and in the audience of our God, keep and seek all the commandments of the Lord our God, that ye may inherit the good land, and leave it for your sons to inherit after you for ever.” 1 Chronicles 28:8 LXX

“Weep not with tears in the assembly of the Lord (ekklesia Kyriou [qahal YHWH]), neither let [any] weep for these things; for he shall not remove the reproaches,” Micah 2:5 LXX

Hence to speak of the Lord purchasing his church by his own blood is to identify Jesus Christ as YHWH God Almighty who became a human being!

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