Have you had someone call you peculiar? Perhaps they didn’t use that particular word because it has degenerated in our vocabulary to words like queer, strange, odd, or erratic. Well, if someone calls you peculiar you shouldn’t necessarily be offended; even if they don’t know the true meaning of the word you should. On the other hand, how we get to that meaning may be a strange path.
We get many of our words from the Greek and the Latin and in this case, the Latin derivative of peculiar means “cattle.” But that’s not bad!
In those days there was no such thing as money as we know it today; coins or paper. Almost everything was priced in a value of “cows.” If something in the Latin world had a high value it was worth a lot of cows; the word was pecus. It had a cow value or a “pecuniary” value. Now, take that root and look how it’s used in the Bible.
1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: KJV
When the Bible tells us that we are a “peculiar” people, the word in the Greek is periscopes, and it’s the same word Paul used in hi letter to the Ephesians:
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. KJV
Are you peculiar? If you are a part of the bride of Christ you can rightfully claim that distinction. You are the direct object of Jesus’ redemptive work on the Cross. And when you couple that thought with the concept of redemption as it is used in the Bible, it’s a very important distinction indeed, for cattle weren’t all that were valuable and sold in the market.
The Greek word used for “redemption” is agorazo and it is usually found as the common meaning of “marketing.” It is used with the words agora for market and agorazo for buying.
Hang with me, there is a real blessing here!
In the New Testament the word is applied to the purchase of souls.
1 Peter 1:18-19 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: KJV
In the old world this term was readily understood to mean the slave market. The idea that Jesus went into the slave market and purchased or redeemed those who were slaves of sin was an idea that was completely understood by the general population. But here is what makes you “peculiar.”
Jesus would have purchased slaves in the market… exagorazo. People bought things then, as they do today, with plans to resell them later for a profit; slaves. But when a museum purchases a fine piece of art today, it does so exagorazo; a purchase made “once and for all”- taken permanently out of circulation, not to be resold. That’s what Jesus meant when He said:
John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. KJV
Jesus went into the slave market and purchased you and me exagorazo. Never again will we be returned to slavery because He purchased us “once for all” and He will never resell us. We are His peculiar people! He paid a ransom that can never be required again… it is finished. He took us out of the market, and that is why we can rejoice along with Paul:
Rom 8:38-39 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. KJV
Why? Because you are not queer, strange, odd, or erratic, you are “special,” you are “off the market,” you are “redeemed”… you are peculiar!