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More On the Church and the Ekklesia
Posted : 4 Nov, 2013 06:32 AM
More On the Church and the Ekklesia
The Greek word ekklesia was used in the Septuagint. The seventy-two who translated the Septuagint around 280 B.C. used ekklesia for the Hebrew term, the "congregation of Israel."
"CHURCH: FORMS: (a) cirice, cyrice, chiriche, churiche, chereche, (b) CIRCE, cyrce, chyrce, cirke, etc., etc.,
"The ulterior derivation has been keenly disputed. The L. circus, and a Gothic word k�likn 'tower, upper chamber' (app. originally Gaulish) have both been proposed (the latter suggested by the Alemannic chilihha), but are set aside as untenable; and there is now a general agreement among scholars in referring it to the Greek word, properly kurion adj. 'of the Lord, dominicum, dominical' (f. Kurios lord), which occurs, from the 3rd century at least, used substantively (sc. doma, or the like) = 'house of the Lord', as a name of the Christian house of worship. Of this the earliest cited instances are in the Apostolical Constitutions (II. 59), a 300, the edict of Maximinus (303-13), cited by Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. ix. 10) a 324, the Councils of Ancyra 314 (Canon 15), Neo-Caesarea 314-23 (Can. 5), and Laodicea (Can. 28). Thenceforward it appears to have been in fairly common use in the East: e.g., Constantine named several churches built by him Kuriaka (Eusebius De Laud. Const. xvii),"(Oxford English Dictionary)."
The statement "Constantine named several churches built by him" can be ambiguous because the Dictionary does not say what language Constantine used. He may have used Latin and the Latin word ecclesia.
Jerome's Latin Vulgate translates the Greek ekklesia as ecclesia. For Example in Acts 8: 1, the Latin says "facta est autem in illa die persecutio magna in ecclesia quae erat Hierosolymis et omnes dispersi sunt per regiones Iudaeae et Samariae praeter apostolos."
The Douay-Rheims English has "And at that time there was raised a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all dispersed through the countries of Judea, and Samaria, except the apostles." But the Latin word ecclesia means assembly. The Oxford Universal English Dictionary defines "ecclesia" as: "Ecclesia [mediaeval Latin, and Greek - from : Summoned] -A regularly convoked assembly, especially the general assembly of Athenians."
So, the Jerome Latin Vulgate uses the Latin spelling ecclesia of the Greek word ekklesia, meaning, as Strong's Exhaustive Concordance says "...a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation, Jewish synagogue or Christian community."
The first English Bible translated from Greek to English did not translate the word ekklesia as church. William Tyndale's translation (1526) consistently used the word congregation for ekklesia. However, for Acts 14: 13 and Acts 19: 37 Tyndale used church to indicate a place of pagan worship.
In 1536 Tyndale was convicted of heresy by the Catholics and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake. No doubt, one of the reasons the Catholics killed him was because he translated ekklesia consistently as congregation, except in two places where the meaning is of a pagan congregation, where he translated ekklesia as church.
The word church for ekklesia was probably first used by Theodore Beza in 1556, a Protestant, who followed John Calvin at Geneva, Switzerland. As a Calvinist, Beza followed the Catholic idea of the universal Church and supported this concept by using the word Church instead of assembly. William Whittingham's Testament of 1557 followed Beza's usage of Church. The first edition of the Geneva Bible as a revision of the Tyndale New Testament, translated ekklesia as Church. The Geneva Bible followed Beza in translating ekklesia consistently as Church instead of as congregation as Tyndale had done. The consistent translation of ekklesia as Church in the English Bibles apparently dates back to a Calvinist, Theodore Beza.
In 1557 the Geneva New Testament, produced by William Whittingham, translated "ekklesia" as "church." It is important to note the Protestant source of this translation.
The next English Bible, the Bishops Bible (1568), which was a revision of the Geneva Bible, continued to translate ekklesia as Church, as have all later English translations including the King James Version. To have translated the word ekklesia as assembly - or congregation as Tyndale did - goes against the Catholic form of Church Government, and the use of that Church government and the clergy as an elite group to control the doctrines and practices of the congregations. What happens is that the clergy begins to depart from the doctrines of scripture while deceptively claiming to follow scripture. Later, as the congregations have come to accept the doctrines of the clergy, different from scripture, the clergy teaches their doctrines more openly and devotes less time to the teaching of scripture, especially to scripture which is clearly different from the doctrines of the clergy.
The Capital C Church, which was continued to some extent under Calvinism, gives the clergy as an elite group power to determine the doctrines and practices of those claiming to be Christians. This control makes it much easier for the clergy to teach doctrines that do not agree with scripture to the Christians because the clergy has conditioned them to believe they, the priests and preachers, are the authorities for God on earth and must be obeyed.
The Internal Revenue Service Publication 1828, "Tax Guide for Churches and Other Religious Organizations" says "The term "church" is not specifically defined in the Internal Revenue Code. However, because special tax rules apply to churches, it is important to distinguish churches from other religious organizations....Certain characteristics are generally attributed to churches. These attributes have been developed by the IRS and by court decisions. They include: a) A distinct legal existence, b) A recognized creed and form of worship, c) A definite and distinct ecclesiastical government, d) A formal code of doctrine and discipline, e) A distinct religious history, f) A membership not associated with any other church or denomination, g) An organization of ordained ministers, h) Ordained ministers selected after completing prescribed courses of study, i) A literature of its own, j) Established place of worship, k) Regular congregations, l) Regular religious service, m) "Sunday schools" for the religious instruction of the young, n) Schools for the preparation of its ministers.
Churches were added to section 501c3 of the tax code in 1954. After 1954 churches are incorporated as legal entities, corporations, from corpse, under the federal government, the IRS. We can thank Senator Lyndon B. Johnson got the tax exempt code applied to churches. So "that great man from the Pedernales" got the church defined as a corporation under the federal government, and subject to its control, though in the earlier years of this change the feds did not do too much controlling. Nevertheless, the federal government has authority and control over the churches as defined above in the U.S.
In fact, the definition of a church as having a distinct legal existence, a definite and distinct ecclesiastical government, an organization of ordained ministers, and ordained ministers selected after completing prescribed courses of study supports the original purpose of the Roman Catholic Church in making it the controlling elite to dictate all doctrines and practices to those claiming to be Christians. The Capital C Church exists to enable the clergy, an elite group running a corporation having a distinct legal existence, and that elite group being ordained ministers who have been educated in seminaries, to have full control over the doctrines and practices of the congregation. This is the church in 2013 in the U.S.
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