Is there a Greek among us? What a great way to start off a topic. In this blog post, we are going to talk about the ecclesia. To understand its meaning, you have to understand Greek, or at least the Greek origin of the word and it’s use. The word ecclesia is used over 115 times in the New Testament. The word comes from two Greek words “ecc” which means “out,” and “kaleo” which means “call.” So by definition the word means “the called-out ones.” When the word was translated into English, though, it was translated as the word “church.” What we are going to see through this blog post is that the Greek word “ecclesia” and the English word “church” as we use it today DO NOT mean the same thing.

To truly understand what a word means, you have to understand the etymology or the origin of the word. Where did the word “ecclesia” come from? Ecclesia originally came from Greece in the year 480 BC. The word was used to define the principal assembly of the government in Athens, Greece. The ecclesia was the governing body open to all male citizens over the age of 18. This body was responsible for declaring war, military strategy, and electing strategoi and other officials. The ecclesia was generally made up of 6,000 citizens (a quorum) and they would meet as often as 3-4 times a month to vote on decrees and treaties, law proposals, and to elect certain magistrates. In essence, this group of people was a civil or a governmental body convened to legislate affairs that pertained to the nation.

Now that we understand the word ecclesia, we must ask ourselves why this is the word used in the New Testament to describe The Church. Let’s take a look at a couple of Scriptures where this word is used:

Matthew 16:18-19 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church (ecclesia), and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Ephesians 1:22-23 “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church (ecclesia), which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

Colossians 1:17-18 “And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church (ecclesia), who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”

We can see a number of things from the Scriptures referenced above.

1. Jesus is the one who established the ecclesia.
2. The ecclesia is built on the revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
3. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the ecclesia.
4. The ecclesia contains the keys to the kingdom which gives them the power to lock and unlock things on the earth.
5. Jesus is the head of the ecclesia.
6. The ecclesia represents the fullness of Christ’s body.
7. Christ fills the ecclesia with the fullness of who He is.
8. Jesus was before the ecclesia ever was.
9. Jesus has preeminence over the ecclesia.

With these Scriptures in mind, let’s look up Strong’s definition of ecclesia (#1577).  The word stresses a group of people called out for a special purpose. It designated the new society of which Jesus was the founder, being as it was a society knit together by the closest spiritual bonds and altogether independent of space. Ekklesia, from ek, “out of” and klesis, “a calling” was used among the Greeks of a body of citizens “gathered” to discuss the affairs of the state. So Strong’s absolutely confirms the Greek meaning of the word as used in Athens, Greece to define a legislative (governmental) body of people.

So where is the discrepancy between today’s term ”church” and the ecclesia that Jesus established in Matthew 16?  I mean, aren’t they the same thing? Not at all. The two words aren’t even in the same ballpark of meanings. Let’s take a look at the word “church” that we use in our English language. Where did this word originate from? The word “church” comes from the Old English and German word pronounced “kirche” or “kirk” in Scotish. In early Greek, it was pronounced “kuriakos” or “kuriakon.” The root word is “kurios” which means “lord.” So the word “kuriakos” means “pertaining to the lord.” It is something that belongs to a lord. The word “church” existed in Celtic dialects long before the introduction of the Greek language, and it meant “a circle” because places of worship among the German and Celtic nations were always circular. The word “church” today means a society of persons who profess the Christian religion and the place where such persons regularly assemble for worship.  According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, 1988, page 251, the word “church” also means a building set apart or consecrated for public worship.

So how did we go from a governmental body of people to a building set aside for public worship? What happened? Did Jesus establish the ecclesia (a governing, legislating body of people) in Matthew 16, or did He establish a place prescribed for public worship by those who professed His name? Which was it? We need to know because it can’t be both. Where did the word get lost in translation from the Greek to the English? To answer this question, we need to study our history a little bit and see what happened. In 325 AD, the church joined the state under Constantine. Constantine converted to Christianity in 312 AD, and under his rule Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman empire. However, Constantine understood very little about Christianity and viewed Jehovah God as just another one of the gods he worshipped, along with Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, and Hercules. This did not stop him, however, from taking control over ecclesiastical affairs concerning the church. The emperor himself convoked general councils, presided over them, and published their edicts as laws of the empire. Usurpations were made possible and the ardent desire of each theological party was to enlist political power on its side and thus overwhelm its opponents. The Eastern clergy, being closer to the schemes of court, became infected with ambition and resorted to political intrigue to further their worldly interests. New legal rights, similar to those given to pagan priests earlier, were extended to the clergy and with the rapid accumulation of ecclesiastical property, the offices of the Church were turned by many into a means of personal enrichment. Sound familiar?

Let’s then fast forward another 1200 years later and take a look at a man by the name of King Henry VIII. We now have a church that has been operating under a pagan civil leader, corrupted by various gods and winds of doctrine, and this has been going on for over 1200 years. The church has spread from Rome all the way to England, and then a man named King Henry VIII comes on the scene. The Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, ex-communicates King Henry in 1533 over his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and all hell breaks loose. King Henry decides to break from Rome, seize the church’s assets in England, and declare himself the Supreme Head of the church. Now let’s go back to our English definition of the word church which means “something belonging to a lord” and see if we can’t start drawing a conclusion. By the time King Henry rolls along, we see that the church has become something that has been under the control of a carnal or earthly “lord” for over 1200 years. So what happened to the ecclesia?

Let’s go back to Acts 17 and take a look. Paul and Silas come to Thessalonica and start preaching in a Judean synagogue. Paul begins reasoning with these Judeans saying to them that Christ suffered for their sins, was risen from the dead, and the Jesus that Paul was preaching is the same Christ. And this simple little message creates this HUGE UPROAR! Verse 6 “But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, ‘These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.’” Now wait a second! These who have “turned the world upside down?” What in the world were these Judeans talking about it? What possibly could Paul have said that turned their world upside down? Verse 7 reveals the answer. “Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king–Jesus.” Ahhh. So there’s the problem right there. They were decreeing that another king had come and that they were coming to set up His government. Oh boy! Now, that’s a problem. You see, there wasn’t supposed to be any other king but Caesar, and no kingdom but Caesar’s. So when Paul and Silas start declaring that another kingdom had come to town, there was a great convulsion in the city. They confronted the earthly, carnal governmental system with the government of God and all hell broke loose.

So how does this relate to our understanding of church in our New Testaments today and even in our practices? Let’s flash back again to 1533. During King Henry’s reign, there was a man by the name of William Tyndale. He was one of the reformers in the Protestant Reformation and was influenced greatly by Erasmus and Martin Luther. Tyndale was the first to translate considerable parts of the Bible into English for public readership. He took advantage of the medium of print, which allowed him to widely distribute his newly translated English Bible.  This was taken as a direct challenge the system (the status quo) of the day–to the Catholic church, the English church and the state. Now why would Tyndale be a threat to the state? Could it be because the state was married to the church and King Henry was the supreme leader of the English church? Could it be that Tyndale challenged the religious and political system of his day? Unfortunately for Tyndale, he was strangled and burned at the stake for his translating of the Bible. Of particular interest is that Tyndale refused to use the English word “church” in his translation of the Bible. Instead, he used the original Greek word ecclesia and translated the word to mean “assembly” or “congregation.” Now why would this infuriate the state? Why would this make the church so mad that they would burn him at the stake?

Let’s go back to Paul and Silas in Acts 17 and find out why. Paul and Silas were doing the exact same thing that Tyndale did. They refused to marry the system of their day–Caesar. They proclaimed that there was a new sheriff in town and His name was Jesus. They declared that His kingdom–his government–had come and they were no longer under the rule of an ungodly, unrighteous system. Could it be that Tyndale was doing the same thing when he translated the Bible into English?  Could it be that God was using him as a reformer in his day to declare the truth that God’s people would not be ruled by man, but by the head of the ecclesia–Jesus Christ? Could it be that Tyndale was altering the 1200 year paradigm of his day? Later King James would go on to translate the Bible into our first translation that we have today–the King James version.  It is interesting to note that King James made fifteen specific edicts as far as the translation went, and edict number three was that his version had to retain the word “church” in the translation and was not to be replaced with the word ecclesia (or congregation). So what was good ole King James so worried about? He was worried about the same thing that King Henry was worried about, the same thing that Constantine was worried about, and the same thing that Caesar was worried about–a KING who would rule over their position of power. King James understood that he could rule over the church (a physical building), but he could never rule over an ecclesia (the legislative body of called out ones).

So I end this blog post by repeating my question in the beginning: “Is there a Greek among us?” What I really mean by this is “is there a person among us who understands the spiritual significance of the word ecclesia and how it applies to the body of Christ today?” If the body of Christ truly understood what this word meant, America would not be in the position that she is in right now. If Christians truly understood this word, they would know that they serve a much higher purpose than meeting in buildings on Sunday mornings and calling it “church.” They would understand that they “are” the church, the ecclesia, the called out ones.  Called out of what? Called out of this world’s system and called into the system or government of God–a government under the full reign, power, and authority of Jesus Himself. If we could only understand this concept, we would then learn how to reign and rule with Him and apply His power and authority to the culture around us. We will never understand how to govern upon Christ’s behalf until we understand the “ecclesia” and its purpose. Is there a Greek among us?