Peculiar

Peculiar - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

As used in the phrase "peculiar people" in 1 Pet. 2:9, is derived from the Lat. peculium, and denotes, as rendered in the Revised Version ("a people for God's own possession"), a special possession or property. The church is the "property" of God, his "purchased possession" (Eph. 1:14; R.V., "God's own possession").

Peculiar - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

PECU'LIAR, a. [L. peculiaris, from peculium, one's own property, from pecus, cattle.]

1. Appropriate; belonging to a person and to him only. Almost every writer has a peculiar style. Most men have manners peculiar to themselves.

2. Singular; particular. The man has something peculiar in his deportment.

3. Particular; special.

My fate is Juno's most peculiar care.

[Most cannot, in strict propriety, be prefixed to peculiar, but it is used to give emphasis to the word.]

4. Belonging to a nation,system or other thing, and not to others.

PECU'LIAR, n. Exclusive property; that which belongs to a person in exclusion of others.

1. In the canon law, a particular parish or church which has the probate of wills within itself, exempt from the jurisdiction of the ordinary or bishop's court.

Court of peculiars, in England, is a branch of the court of arches. It has jurisdiction over all the parishes dispersed through the province of Canterbury, in the midst of other dioceses, which are exempt from the ordinary jurisdiction, and subject to the metropolitan only.

pe-kul'-yar: The Latin peculium means "private property," so that "peculiar" properly equals "pertaining to the individual." In modern English the word has usually degenerated into a half-colloquial form for "extraordinary," but in Biblical English it is a thoroughly dignified term for "esp. one's own"; compare the "peculiar treasure" of the king in Ec 2:8 (the King James Version). Hence, "peculiar people" (the King James Version De 14:2, etc.) means a people especially possessed by God and particularly prized by Him. The word in the Old Testament (the King James Version Ex 19:5; De 14:2; 26:18; Ps 135:4; Ec 2:8) invariably represents ceghullah, "property," an obscure word which Septuagint usually rendered by the equally obscure periousios (apparently meaning "superabundant"), which in turn is quoted in Tit 2:14. In Mal 3:17, however, Septuagint has peripoiesis, quoted in 1Pe 2:9. the English Revised Version in the New Testament substituted "own possession" in the two occurrences, but in the Old Testament kept "peculiar" and even extended its use (De 7:6; Mal 3:17) to cover every occurrence of ceghullah except in 1Ch 29:3 ("treasure"). the American Standard Revised Version, on the contrary, has dropped "peculiar" altogether, using "treasure" in 1Ch 29:3; Ec 2:8, and "own possession" elsewhere. the King James Version also has "peculiar commandments" (idios, "particular," the Revised Version (British and American) "several") in The Wisdom of Solomon 19:6, and the Revised Version (British and American) has "peculiar" where the King James Version has "special" in The Wisdom of Solomon 3:14 for eklekte, "chosen out."

Burton Scott Easton