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Did you know that the King James Version (KJV) was not the first English translation of the Bible? The Tyndale Bible was translated in 1526, and Wycliffe's adaptation of the Bible even earlier. Interestingly, Tyndale never translated the Greek word "ecclesia" as church, but as assembly (congregacion). He does use the word “church” twice, but only in reference to pagan temples (Acts 14:13, 19:37). "Ecclesia" is not used in any of these verses. According to Tyndale, "congregation" meant People who were Saints , and "church" meant a Building for religious purposes , including pagan temples.
Churches are buildings
The Greek word for church, kyriakos, appears only once in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 11:20). This is the first part of the phrase of the Last Supper. It is an adjective (not a noun) meaning “belonging to the Lord.” Only in the fourth century AD. people began to refer to buildings where believers gathered as kyriakos or churches (around the same time that the anti-Semitic Roman Emperor Constantine began building buildings for Christians). And then, the bulk of believers began to call themselves “church.” Of course, in modern terms, most of the world associates the word “church” with buildings.
It is the fact that the word "church" (kyriakos) does not appear in the New Testament (in connection with the body of believers) that must be the reason why Tyndale refused to use it. Young's Literal Translation (1862) correctly translates "ecclesia" as congregation, but not as church. However, when King James registered the new translation (1611), one of the conditions was that "ecclesia" would not be translated as assembly, but as church. Why? Perhaps it was because they wanted to conform to common practice, or perhaps there was something more sinister —maybe “community” sounded too Jewish? It's also worth remembering that they translated the name of Yeshua's brother, Jacob, as James. However, Tyndale also translated James as James (Iames).
Ecclesia (the word that is translated church in your Bible) is not religious. In Acts 19 it refers to a city meeting. In verses 32, 39, and 41 the KJV correctly translates the word as meeting, referring to a council meeting. However, "ecclesia" appears over 100 more times in the New Testament, but the translators simply replaced the word with kyriakos or church. Likewise, believers were part of the Path. The path is an ordinary word, but for some reason it becomes a special word - a proper name.
Ecclesia simply means “those who are called to the regular meeting.” For many years, believers have used this word to mean “called out”—as in, called out of the world. While I like this option, in truth it means called for any reason, as we read in Acts 19. Is it possible that the New Testament is trying to enhance the meaning of the word “ecclesia” by giving it a spiritual meaning? Yes, in the same sense that a house can be white without it being a White House, and yet we do not find the word church anywhere in the texts.
How did the word Church come about?
A place of prayer, a community, the people of God... - the word Church has many meanings. How did the word Church come about? Every language has its own history. For example, did you know that Luther's German translation of the Bible does not contain the word "Church"? The German word Die Kirche is not there. When talking about the temple, Luther used the word Tempel, and in other cases - the word Gemeine, which means “community” or “parish” in German.
What is the reason for this very strange circumstance? The fact is that, having rejected the Roman Catholic Church and not recognizing the Orthodox Church, Luther began to relate all New Testament statements about the Church as a pillar and affirmation of the truth, about its steadfastness, etc. only to the community of the laity, in which, in fact, there is no hierarchy and hierarchy.
However, this Lutheran innovation still did not survive in German, and the word Die Kirche remained in full use as a designation for the Church. By the way, it is this German word that is related to the Old Slavic tsrky and the Russian word “church”. Their common ancestor is the Greek word το κυριακόν (kyriakon). So the Greeks of the 4th and 5th centuries. denoted a church in the sense of a building or temple. Derived from the Greek word for “Lord” (Kύριος), it literally meant “House of the Lord.” By the way, many peoples began to call the Church a word that denoted a place of worship. Thus, the Romanian word for “Church” biserica was formed from basilica. And among the Hungarians, the word egyhäza (church) means house, building. Or the Polish kos'ciol, from the Latin castellum (fortress, walls), also refers to the building or architecture of a church.
But actually in the New Testament, another ancient Greek word is used for the Church as God’s people and the body of Christ (which is translated into German as Die Kirche). Moreover, it has an interesting semantic resonance with the Greek word denoting pagans.
So, we have already written before about how the pagans were called in the New Testament in ancient Greek. Literally, “pagans” are translated from ancient Greek as “peoples”, “tribes”. This word is τὰ ἔθνη (ethnē) - the plural of τό ἔθνος (ethnos) - “people”, “tribe”, “society” (hence, for example, in Russian the adjective “ethnic”). Therefore, in the Holy Scriptures in Church Slavonic, “tongues” mean both peoples and pagans.
And the pagans, as a collection of different peoples unenlightened by the light of Christ, are opposed by a people consisting of those whom God called to Himself from different “tongues” or tribes - that is, the Church. After all, the ancient Greek word taken to designate the Church - ἡ ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia) - is derived from the verb ἐκκαλέω (ekkaleō), which means “to call”, “to call”.
In general, the word ἡ ἐκκλησία in ancient Greek has a long and venerable history. Initially it meant the general or People's Assembly of all citizens, which decided the most important matters in the life of the polis - the ancient Greek city-state. All men who had the right to participate and vote in it were summoned (ἐκκαλέω) at the established hours by the heralds, so the People's Assembly was called ἡ ἐκκλησία. Then in the New Testament this word was used to call the Church. It turns out, if we follow the ancient Greek etymology, that the Church is those who are called from different “tongues” or peoples, a collection of “called”. Moreover, Christians also began to be called that way—called ones. Called in Greek κλητός (klētos). So the first disciples of Christ, the apostles, recognized themselves as called by God. The Apostle Paul, at the very beginning of his Epistle to the Romans, addresses Christians as “κλητός απόστολος κλητοΐς άγίοις,” that is, “called an apostle to the called saints” (Rom. I. 1, 7).
Members of the Church are those called not only from Jews, but also from pagans (ἐθνικοί), that is, from different nations who should form a new united people, one body in Christ. Belonging to the Church in Christianity does not depend on the ethnic factor. It is open to all peoples or "languages", as well as to people of all ages, social status and education. For in Christ “there is no longer Jew nor Gentile; there is neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28-29).
Those who enter the Church must become members of the One Body of Christ, “brothers” and “sisters.” They responded to God’s call to change their lives, to abandon their selfish and autonomous existence. Now, under the leadership of the Lord Jesus Christ, they must be united by faith and love, the Sacraments and the hierarchy.
Members of the Church participate in the Eucharistic meal, the reception of the Flesh and Blood of Christ under the guise of bread and wine. The second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles describes the original principles that united a variety of people into the Church. The believers were constantly “in the teaching of the apostles, in fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayer” (Acts 2:42). “And all the believers were together and had everything in common; and they sold estates and all property, and distributed it to everyone, depending on the need of each; and every day they continued with one accord in the temple and, breaking bread from house to house, ate their food with joy and simplicity of heart” (Acts 2:44-46).
By the way, these lines of the New Testament were popular among some communist ideologists and commentators. They saw a special closeness of early Christianity to communist teachings, which was expressed in the fact that in the first Christian communities there was also a community of property. Meanwhile, community of property as a sign of Christian life turned out to be a historically transitory phenomenon. Much more significant was something else: “taking bread” and “eating with joy and simplicity of heart.” The Eucharistic Meal and participation in It is the central meaning of church life, in comparison with this the question of whether, for example, property in the state is public or private, looks in the Christian tradition as completely secondary. On the other hand, from the unification around the Cup of Thanksgiving and Christian love flow works of mercy and what is now commonly called social work. Let us remember that in the early Church deacons were just such ministers in Christian communities, one of whose main callings was to help the sick, orphans, the poor and other people in need.
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Community – Kehila
The Hebrew word used for "ecclesia" in my Hebrew New Testament is kehila or fellowship/community. This, in my opinion, is a better word, because community is people, no matter where they are gathered. A community in the New Testament is a spiritual house made up of people, as Simon Peter said: “You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5). Also, as pointed out by one of my readers, the book of the Old Testament we call Ecclesiastes (from ecclesia) is called Qohelet in Hebrew. Kohelet comes from kehila or kahal (assembly, audience).
Community is a more Jewish-friendly term. Most Jews would not go to church, but they would likely go to your congregation or meeting (especially if the meeting is in a non-religious building, such as a home).
I'm not saying that this was a conspiracy (although it could be), but most likely, since ecclesia was not a religious word, and the new word church had a religious meaning, that is why it became dominant. However, I think the word ecclesia (assembly) is the ideal word because, after all, the body of believers is a living community of people, not a building, and because that is the word used in the New Testament, not the word church.
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The era of Russian religious degeneration gave us several definitions of what a church is, and here among them:
- Long Catechism: “The Church is an established society of people from God, united by the Orthodox faith, the Law of God, the hierarchy and the Sacraments.”
- Metropolitan Macarius: “The Church is a community of Orthodox believers and those baptized into Jesus Christ.”
- Archbishop Filaret of Chernigov: “The Church is a society of believers in Christ, established by the Lord, united by the Word of God, the Sacraments, and the hierarchy.”
- Metropolitan Platon Levshin: “This is a meeting of people who believe in Jesus Christ and is called a church.”
Unfortunately, these definitions relate to the external side of the issue and do little to reflect the internal essence. For example, any Protestant will happily subscribe to the last formulation, so it is necessary to get as close to the truth as humanly possible.
First of all, it is striking that the Church is an object of faith. “...I believe in the only holy, catholic and apostolic Church...” And faith is confidence in the invisible.
As explained by the Apostle Paul: faith is... the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). That is: confidence in the invisible, as if in the visible, and confidence in the desired and expected, as in the present.
CHURCH
“The Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15)
The Church of God is the collection of all the faithful of God, who hold the unshakable Orthodox faith, and abide in love, and embrace the unshakable teaching of the Gospel.
The Church is a society of people who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, regenerated by Him and the Holy Spirit, united in love and achieving perfection under the constant influence of the Holy Spirit [1].
Created in the image and likeness of the Creator, man is destined for full communion with God, for life in God - in Christ and in the Holy Spirit. Genuine communion with God is possible only in the Church of Christ, and therefore, as St. Maximus the Confessor, the only goal of spiritual life is to transform man into the Church, into the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Without the Church there is no Christianity. “The Church is Christ’s Kingdom into which He introduces those whom He has chosen as His children and who have chosen Him as their Father.” The first community of Christ's disciples is known in history under the name of the Church. There were no Christians outside of connection with this community, and therefore “to believe in Christ meant to join the Church.”
The Church, existing on earth, is at the same time heavenly. It is visible and invisible, embracing all Orthodox Christians living on earth and all those who died in true faith and holiness, headed by Christ.
Etymology of the word "Church"
Ekklesia (Greek) - “convocation.”
The basic biblical word for Church. The word ekklesia , used by classical Greek writers, means “a properly assembled (as opposed to an unauthorized and disorderly assembly of people) assembly or society of persons with certain rights.”
In the New Testament the word ekklesia appears 110 times, but in the Gospel itself only twice, both in Matthew.
Ekklisia is the society of the called. Christ's Kingdom consists of "those who are called" ( klitos ). Here a parallel can be drawn with Roman state life.
The Roman people were collectively called Populus Romanus Quiritum ("the called people of Rome"). The concept quirit (called) was applied to a Roman only when he performed political duties; in other cases he was treated as an ordinary citizen. Christ founded a Church that never diverges, and therefore klitos must always fulfill its duties.
Christians are a “called” people, gathered by God to perform a specific mission. The first Christians were united by loyalty to the call of Christ. As can be seen from the meaning of the term ekklisia, the Church is understood as a single “assembly of persons called into the society of the Lord, who heard the Lord’s call to salvation and followed this call, and therefore constitute the ‘chosen generation’ (1 Pet. 2:9).”
Nowadays Greek (“εκκλησια”), most Romance languages (Latin “ecclesia”; French “église”; Italian “chiesa”; Spanish “iglesia”), Albanian (“kisha” - via Italian) and other languages are used this word and its derivatives.
Derived from West Germanic kirika from Ancient Greek). The source of the Germanic word is the Greek κυρικόν from κυριακόν.
to kiriakon (Greek) - “house of the Lord.” The Greeks used this word to describe the church as a building where believers gather, a temple. This word was adopted by the majority of Slavic (Slavic “tsrakv”, “tsrky”; Russian “church”) and Germanic (German “Kirche”; English “church”; Swedish, Finnish, Estonian, etc. “ Kirka") languages.
Is it really that important?
As long as we know to whom we, as the people of God, are turning, then maybe not. But the confusion that remains today as to whether the church is a building or a group of people stems from the fact that kyriakos are buildings, not congregations, while ecclesia are people. Moreover, since the building of church buildings (which the New Testament never encouraged us to build) is closely associated with Christian hostility towards Jews, the less negative history-laden word, community, is more acceptable*.
Now tell me, do you think this is important? Share your opinion in the comments!
Note: William Tyndale died for his faith as he was executed in 1536, while the KJV enjoyed the protectorate of King James... who do you think was more truthful in their translation?
*I have nothing against buildings; I mean the huge monumental churches of Europe.
Author - Ron Kantor / messiahsmandate.org Translation - Taras Lysenko for
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