pur'-chats: In modern English, "to acquire by payment," in Elizabethan English, "to acquire" by any means. In the Old Testament, the King James Version has used "purchase" to represent qanah, and its derivatives (verb and noun), except in Leviticus 25:33, where the word is ga'al (the Revised Version (British and American) "redeem"). In the New Testament the noun does not occur and the verb is used for ktaomai, in Acts 1:18; 8:20, and peripoieo, in Acts 20:28; 1 Timothy 3:13. But none of these words connotes the payment of a price, so that the Revised Version (British and American) has kept the word only in Acts 20:28 (margin "acquired"), changing it into "obtain" in Acts 1:18; 8:20, and "gain" in 1 Timothy 3:13. In the Old Testament, the Revised Version margin has "gotten" in Exodus 15:16 and the American Standard Revised Version has (very properly) introduced the same word into the text of Psalms 74:2; 78:54.

Burton Scott Easton

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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