Church Dictionary Definition Vs. NT Ecclesia
THE MODERN DEFINITION OF CHURCH DOES NOT MATCH ECCLESIA’S USE IN NT
The sentences including their context which contain the word ecclesia in the New Testament or Old Testament NEVER use the word in the way we define church today. This shows us that the word church was simply made up and inserted everywhere we see ecclesia by the simple whim of the author of the English translation. Let me show you what I mean.
DICTIONARY DEFINITION OF CHURCH
Webster’s 1913 Revised Dictionary
“Church (chûrch), n. [OE. chirche, chireche, cherche, Scot. kirk, from AS. circe, cyrice; akin to D. kerk, Icel. kirkja, Sw. kyrka, Dan. kirke, G. kirche, OHG. chirihha; all fr. Gr. κυριακόν the Lord's house, fr. κυριακόσ concerning a master or lord, fr. κύριοσ master, lord, fr. κυ̑ροσ power, might; akin to Skr. çūra hero, Zend. çura strong, OIr. caur, cur, hero. Cf. Kirk.]
1. A building set apart for Christian worship.
2. A Jewish or heathen temple. Acts xix. 37.
3. A formally organized body of Christian believers worshiping together. “When they had ordained them elders in every church.” Acts xiv. 23.
4. A body of Christian believers, holding the same creed, observing the same rites, and acknowledging the same ecclesiastical authority; a denomination; as, the Roman Catholic church; the Presbyterian church.
5. The collective body of Christians.
6. Any body of worshipers; as, the Jewish church; the church of Brahm.
7. The aggregate of religious influences in a community; ecclesiastical influence, authority, etc.; as, to array the power of the church against some moral evil. Remember that both church and state are properly the rulers of the people, only because they are their benefactors. Bulwer.
8. Apostolic church. See under Apostolic.
9. Broad church. See Broad Church.
10. Catholic or Universal church, the whole body of believers in Christ throughout the world.
11. Church of England, or English church, the Episcopal church established and endowed in England by law.
12. Church living, a benefice in an established church.
13. Church militant. See under Militant.
14. Church owl (Zoöl.), the white owl. See Barn owl.
15. Church rate, a tax levied on parishioners for the maintenance of the church and its services.
15. Church session. See under Session.
16. Church triumphant. See under Triumphant.
17. Church work, work on, or in behalf of, a church; the work of a particular church for the spread of religion.
18. Established church, the church maintained by the civil authority; a state church. “
COMPARE DEFINITION TO SCRIPTURE
Let’s go down the list shall we:
1. There is no scripture that uses the word ecclesia to refer to a building for worship. The scriptures in fact state the opposite. (2 Cor 16:6, Acts 17:24 etc.) How can a building give thanks as in “Romans 16:4 who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all THE foreign MULTITUDES (ecclesias), give thanks as well.”
2. Webster cites “Acts 14:23 And when they had, IN A MULTITUDE, elected elders for them, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they believe.” The Greek is kat ekklhsian with no definite article. The word kat shows the means that something happens as in Mat 1:20 kat onar “in a dream/ by manner of a dream” or Mat 17:19 kat idian “privately or BY themselves in a private manner” kat is used to show the manner that something is or occurs. In Acts 14:23 the author is simply telling us the manner that the elders were elected, by multitude vote, and you can see that is exactly the context. They elected elders kat ekklesian. If they wanted to say “in each multitude” they should have said in Greek “en pasais twn ekklhsiwn”. Not to mention that Acts 14:23 says nothing about group worship. It is just talking about electing seniors. No worship happens in song or meeting in that verse or its surroundings. The idea that ecclesia refers to some kind of worship service is just not in scripture.
3. Webster cites Acts 19:37 “For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess.” from the King James. Look under any other translation and you will see that it says “temple robbers” and the greek word is not ecclesia it is ierosulous which means temple robber. The word ecclesia has never meant temple but I agree with the King James version. Church is a good definition for temple or place of worship but the word ecclesia is never used this way in any verse in the Bible. Church can not be the definition of ecclesia at point 3 of Webster’s dictionary either.
4. “Roman Catholic Church” “Presbyterian Church” The New Testament contains no verses at all where ecclesia is used this way. Find me just one. The closest thing you will find is a reference to the Old Testament Ha Qahall Y’H'Vah or in Greek Hh ekklhsia tou Theou which is God’s Multitude the one He promised to Abraham and the one Isaac talks about when he blesses Jacob in Genesis 28. Again Webster gives a good definition of church but it is in no way related to ecclesia in Scripture.
5. Sometimes qahal and ecclesia can refer to all believers from all time as a whole as the people of God. This is one point where church and ecclesia meet but there are many better words to use which get the same idea across for example multitude or masses etc. To take one point where the words meet and say that justifies using church to define ecclesia is so wrong. That is the same as me saying snow is cold and Canada is cold so let’s define snow as Canada. No one says, “Look mommy the Canada is falling.” But that is what you do when you take two different words and because they are the same in one sense use one to define the other.
I would also like to mention that the word ecclesia does not refer to the whole mass of believers who ever lived , by itself. You can find the word ecclesia in the Bible where it does not refer to believers universally. For example , “15:4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed in BY THE MULTITUDE, and the messengers and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.”
This just means that everyone welcomed them and is not referring to all believers universal.
The cases that refer to universal believers are usually qualified by “tou Theou” meaning “of God” For example, “1 Corinthians 11:16 If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor any of THE MULTITUDES (who belong to God)” This is saying that universally believers do not have this practice. But the word multitude or ecclesia by itself does not mean “believers universally”. I can say “the church” and you know I am talking about believers universally but saying Hh ekklhsia would never cause an ancient Greek man to think of christian believers universally, he would first think of the Great Ecclesia of Greece where laws are legislated.
So to conclude, point 5 of Webster’s dictionary is a great definition of church in our time but it has nothing to do with the word ecclesia in scripture.
6. “the Jewish church, the church of Brahm” Where I am in Japan we have “the church of Buddha” as well. This is a great way to use the word church in our day but unfortunately ecclesia in Scripture is never used this way. Not once. There is “Acts 20:28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you care-takers, to care for THE MULTITUDE who belong to God, which he obtained with his own blood.” This verse refers to the ecclesia of God but you can see by the context that it’s not talking about a title of a religion. It is just referring to all the people who belong to God.
Again Webster gives us a great definition of church which is totally unrelated to the word ecclesia.
7. No use of the word ecclesia in the New Testament is used this way to refer to the power of the church or church authority etc. Ecclesia has no power except that it is a lot of people who may not be Christian some times. In “Acts 19:32 Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the MULTITUDE was in confusion, and most of THEM did not know why they had come together.” The word ecclesia is used to refer to a mob of people who are not Christian. I can not imagine ecclesia ever being used in reference to some kind of authority unless you are talking about mob authority. “Multitude vs. State”
Again Webster gives a great definition of church which is completely unrelated to the word ecclesia.
8 – 9 Unrelated to ecclesia in Scripture.
10. See #5
11. If you are referring to the Church of England as the Episcopal Church of England then church is just referring to a denomination and for that please see #4
12 – 16 Unrelated to ecclesia in Scripture.
17. “church work” In this phrase the word church is used as an adjective. Ecclesia can not and has never been used this way in scripture. I suggest we still use the word church in this way but remember that church is not ecclesia and should not be used to define it in scripture. This is a great definition of church but completely unrelated to ecclesia.
18. No such thing as state church in scripture referring to the word ecclesia.
A PROPER LEXICON DEFINITION OF ECCLESIA
So to conclude point 2 concerning how the ancient Greek definition of ecclesia and the modern definition of church are unrelated I will have to supply my own definition of ecclesia for you as it is used in Scripture. To see my scripture references for my definition please check out the links on the menu at the right “Qahal Scriptures” and or “Ecclesia Scriptures” and you will see every case where these words are used in Old and New Testament Scripture.
This is something like what we should see in a lexicon concerning the word ecclesia. While this is hardly perfect it will give you something of an idea of what I am suggesting.
ecclesia:
I. Ancient Greek and New Testament usage.
A. Multitude/Mass/Mob/Swarm/[Ton/Lot] (Webster’s 1913 Revised Dictionary “multitude”)
1. A great number of persons collected together; a numerous collection of persons; a crowd; an assembly. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them. Matt. ix. 36. ["Acts 19:32 Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the MULTITUDE was in confusion, and most of THEM did not know why they had come together."]
2. A great number of persons or things, regarded collectively; as, the book will be read by a multitude of people; the multitude of stars; a multitude of cares. It is a fault in a multitude of preachers, that they utterly neglect method in their harangues. I. Watts. A multitude of flowers As countless as the stars on high. Longfellow. [Proverbs 26:26 Though his hatred may be concealed by trickery, his wickedness will be uncovered IN A MULTITUDE. Jeremiah 50:9 For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon A MULTITUDE of mighty nations from the land of the north. They will set up their battle lines against her. They will come from the north and capture her. Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier who does not return from the battle empty-handed.]
3. The state of being many; numerousness. They came as grasshoppers for multitude. Judg. vi. 5. The multitude, the populace; the mass of men. Syn. — Throng; crowd; assembly; assemblage; commonalty; swarm; populace; vulgar. See Throng. [Judges 20:2 And there stood, the chiefs of the whole nation, all the tribes of Israel, IN THE MULTITUDE of the people of God, 400,000 men on foot that drew the sword.]
[4. As a kind of personal pronoun; everyone; all of us; 1 Corinthians 14:4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up THE MULTITUDE.; 2 Chronicles 30:2 The king, his officials, and THE whole MULTITUDE (everyone) in Jerusalem decided to observe the Passover in the second month.]
B. The Great Ecclesia of Greece
1. The Ecclesia – The principal assembly of the democracy of ancient Athens during its Golden Age (480–404 BCE) – Wikipedia 2009. (Gr. Antiq.) The public legislative assembly of the Athenians. – Webster 1913
II Present modern day usage
A. …
