Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 0-157 (Theology)

Living Words of the New Testament, by Rev Dr Leon Morris

“Church” is our translation of the Greek word ekklesia. We get our word “ecclesiastical” from it, but as the Greeks used it it was not a religious word at all. It meant any duly convened assembly of the people, and for example it was used of the gathering of the people in a village or town to discuss matters of common interest.

In the New Testament this usage survives in the reference to the gathering of the rioting Ephesians (Acts 19:32, 39, 41). When the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek this word was sometimes used of the congregation of Israel and that whether it was assembled or not. The Christians saw themselves as the true Israel and they took over this word and applied it to themselves.

In doing this they passed over a number of Greek words for religious assemblies. They evidently wanted to avoid giving the impression that they were just another religious group like the many that existed in the first century. They took a word that was not generally associated in people’s minds with religion and put their own meaning into it.

They used it in two main ways. One was for the local congregation. Thus Paul speaks of coming together “in the church” (1 Corinthians 11:18; see also Acts 8:1; 15:3; Romans 16:1, etc.). In this way the word can be used in the plural to denote a number of local gatherings of Christians (see Galatians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:14, etc.). There are some interesting references to “the church in your house” (Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Philippians). The relation of such a house church to the city churches is not known, but clearly it was friendly for greetings to house churches occur in letters to city churches.

The word may also be used for the great church, the fellowship of all the redeemed. Jesus used it this way (Matthew 16:18) and see 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Galatians 1:13. The church was bought by Christ’s blood (Acts 20:28); it is the house of God (1 Timothy 3:15), and Christ is its head (Ephesians 1:22). See also Ephesians 3:10; 5:25-27; Colossians 1:18, 24; Hebrews 12:23.

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Rev Dr Leon Morris is an internationally recognised New Testament scholar, theologian and author, from Melbourne Australia.

This feature series of ‘Living Words of the New Testament’ appeared in ‘Daily Notes’, published by Scripture Union.