[B-Greek] EKKLHSIA

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Jun 10 05:59:03 EDT 2007


On Jun 9, 2007, at 11:09 PM, Delbert Flora wrote:

> I was told that the composite of EKKLHSIA, EK + KALEW, does not  
> mean "the called out ones" as its parts would imply. If EKKLHSIA  
> does not mean "called out ones" what does it mean? BDAG seem to say  
> it means an assembly or community, but I don't see how that differs  
> from a group "called out."

All that George has cited is valid enough, but I think all that is  
really important in response to this question is his initial note:

"EKKLHSIA was generally used of the city assembly.  See LSJ s.v."

The problem here is the attempt to etymologize a word that certainly  
originally did involve a summons to the citizenry to attend a public  
meeting: the public meeting of the citizenry is the EKKLHSIA, but the  
NT usage is not derived directly from EK and KALEW bur rather from  
the conventional historical sense, "public assembly" (replacing the  
older Greek word AGORA, which in Homer means "assembly" rather than  
"market place"). EKKLHSIA is already used in the LXX to convey the  
sense of Hebrew QaHaL, "congregation." The attempts to attach a  
distinctive etymological sense (with a theological overtone) to NT  
usage of this word is misguided, but it seems to be deeply embedded  
in older interpretive literature.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/





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