Acts 13:1

Polycarp66 at aol.com Polycarp66 at aol.com
Sun Mar 19 07:36:20 EST 2000


In a message dated 3/16/2000 3:43:18 PM Central Daylight Time, 
RobRMacon at aol.com writes:

<< In Acts 13:1, EN ANTIOCEIA KATA THN OUSAN EKKLHSIAN:  This seems like an 
odd 
 way to express location of the church.  I could not find any other examples 
 in the New Testament of this use of KATA.  Usually, KATA is used to express 
 location distributively when there are several locations being considered, 
 however this refers to a singular location.  I did find this use of OUSA in 
 Acts 11:22, with the preposition EN.  Acts 13:1 uses EN, apparently to refer 
 to the location of the prophets and teachers.  
  >>

This could well be a distributive use of KATA.  In Acts 20 we are told that 
Paul called the PRESBUTEROI of the church of Ephesus to meet him (v. 17).  He 
then refers to them as EPISKOPOUS (v. 28).  It would appear that the 
monarchical episcopate had not yet arisen.  There may have been more that one 
instance of the church, both in Ephesus and in Antioch.  This would make it 
possible to have a church which is distributed throughout the city.  This is 
especially true in view of the fact that many of the early churches (all??) 
were house churches.

gfsomsel



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