Re: Ekklesia

From: Juan Stam (jstam@una.ac.cr)
Date: Sun May 09 1999 - 22:23:24 EDT


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<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>Greetings from Costa Rica after a long silence!
I was off the list for some time because of computer problems.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>My impression is that in the early Pauline epistles
&quot;ekkles&iacute;a&quot; 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 &quot;town
meeting&quot;.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>In his book THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE CHURCH, Emil Brunner
insisted on this meaning of the term and argued that our modern word&nbsp;
&quot;Church&quot;&nbsp; is so radically different from the original sense, that
when we wish to refer to the original meaning we should not say
&quot;church&quot; but &quot;ekklesia&quot; and save &quot;church&quot; only for
its modern meaning.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Thanks for a good question, Tony, and best wishes! Juan Stam,
Costa Rica<BR></FONT></DIV>
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<BLOCKQUOTE
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    <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><B>-----Original Message-----</B><BR><B>From:
    </B>Tony Calman &lt;<A
    href="mailto:tcalman@optusnet.com.au">tcalman@optusnet.com.au</A>&gt;<BR><B>To:
    </B>Biblical Greek &lt;<A
    href="mailto:b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu">b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu</A>&gt;<BR><B>Date:
    </B>Sunday, May 09, 1999 8:37 PM<BR><B>Subject:
    </B>Ekklesia<BR><BR></DIV></FONT>
    <DIV><FONT size=2>
    <DIV><FONT size=2>I have been considering the difference between a
    &quot;congregation&quot; and a &quot;church&quot; (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 &quot;church&quot; sometimes used to describe the universal church, but
    not always. Paul writes to the ekkesia but most bible translations used the
    word &quot;church&quot;.</FONT></DIV>
    <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
    <DIV>Any comments?</DIV>
    <DIV>&nbsp;</DIV></FONT></DIV>
    <DIV><FONT size=2>Tony Calman<BR>Westview Baptist Church<BR>&quot;people
    learning to live Jesus' way&quot;<BR><A
    href="mailto:tcalman@optusnet.com.au">tcalman@optusnet.com.au</A></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>

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