[B-Greek] Distributive KAT EKKLHSIAN follow up
Eddie Mishoe
edmishoe at yahoo.com
Fri Feb 17 13:40:38 EST 2006
Mitch:
I have little to add to Dr. Conrad's response, but I
will say that EKKLHSIA is often thought of as a
specific congregation or building. In the NT, for
example, THi EKKLHSIAi...EN CORINQWi was not a
specific congregation or house-church; the letter was
addressed to all the believers (assembled at various
house-churches) throughout Corinth. The plural of
ELLHSIA could be used, but there would be no material
difference, just a different emphasis.
In your Acts passage, the distributive sense is that
there were multiple elders (collectively) distributed
to the many churches (individually) throughout the
various cities that were mentioned in the previous
verses. The KAT' EKKLHSIAN denotes "throughout the
churches" or perhaps, "in church after church." I
don't have Smyth in front of me but he gives as an
example KATA + nation (singular) to mean "nation by
nation."
FWIW, I can not find one unambiguous reference to
multiple elders in one house-church, but that's a
general observation rather than a comment on any one
specific Greek text. I mention this last controversial
part as an invitation to those who can provide such to
me (OFFLIST). I've personally never reached a settled
conviction on this issue, and have always wanted to do
a deep study of it.
Eddie Mishoe
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