Ekklesia

Juan Stam jstam at una.ac.cr
Sun May 9 22:23:24 EDT 1999


Greetings from Costa Rica after a long silence! I was off the list for some time because of computer problems.

My impression is that in the early Pauline epistles "ekklesía" referred to the act or event of gathering in assembly (1 Cor 14), which I understand was the basic meaning of the term in Greek political life: a herald convoked the people to a "town meeting".

In his book THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE CHURCH, Emil Brunner insisted on this meaning of the term and argued that our modern word  "Church"  is so radically different from the original sense, that when we wish to refer to the original meaning we should not say "church" but "ekklesia" and save "church" only for its modern meaning.

Thanks for a good question, Tony, and best wishes! Juan Stam, Costa Rica





    -----Original Message-----
    From: Tony Calman <tcalman at optusnet.com.au>
    To: Biblical Greek <b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu>
    Date: Sunday, May 09, 1999 8:37 PM
    Subject: Ekklesia
    
    
    I have been considering the difference between a "congregation" and a "church" (if any)? The hebrew words qahal or edah seems to be translated by the word ekklesia in the LXX, which is often translated by the english word congregation. I wonder if there is any difference. Perhaps congregation is used to describe the local church and "church" sometimes used to describe the universal church, but not always. Paul writes to the ekkesia but most bible translations used the word "church".
    
    Any comments?
    
    Tony Calman
    Westview Baptist Church
    "people learning to live Jesus' way"
    tcalman at optusnet.com.au
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