tulsa 2011
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Tyndale's Translation of Ekklesia As Congregation
In his 1525 translation of the Greek Textus Receptus of Erasmus William Tyndale
was faithful to the original meaning of ekklesia and translated it as congregation except for Acts 14: 13 and Acts 19: 37 where he used churche, meaning a pagan place of worship. In all other verses he translated ekklesia as congregation. Any doctrine is established by the original meaning of the Hebrew or Greek words used to express that doctrine. A translation into English should not change that doctrine. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance defines ekklesia, number 1577, as "a calling out, i.e. (to) a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation..."
See: http://www.acu.edu/sponsored/<wbr>restoration_quarterly/<wbr>archives/1950s/vol_2_no_4_<wbr>contents/ward.html
"The most common classical usage of ekklesia and its cognates was as a political term, meaning an assembly of citizens. In the Greek city-state the citizens were called forth by the trumpet of the kerux (herald) summoning them to the ekklesia (assembly)."
"It should be noted that in ordinary usage, ekklesia meant the assembly, and not the body of people involved."
An ekklesia as a meeting, assembly or congregation is a common noun, meaning that there are many assemblies. A proper noun refers to something that is unique like the name of a country or a person's name. The word church was redefined into being a proper noun, something that could replace Israel, or stand alongside Israel, the unique people of God in scripture. Old Covenant Israel was not replaced by the church, nor does Old Covenant Israel now stand alongside the church. There is one Body of Christ, one elect group, as Christ teaches in John 10: 6, "there shall be one fold." And Paul in Romans 12: 5 says "we, being many, are one body in Christ."
Another English word that might have been used to translate ekklesia is gathering.
The Greek word ekklesia in the Third Century B.C. Septuagint was translated from the Hebrew word qahal, which means assembly or congregation. Exodus 12: 6: "And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening."
Qahal is translated here as assembly and edah as congregation.
Stephen in Acts 7: 38 says "This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spoke to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers..." Church in the King James was translated from ekklesia.
So Luke, like other New Testament writers, used the Greek word ekklesia from the Septuagint. Ekklesia in Greek is very close in meaning to the Hebrew word Qahal.
Tyndale for Acts 7: 38 has "This is he that was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina and with our fathers."
Tyndale's translation of ekklesia as congregation is accurate because congregation is one of two or three English words which best fit the meaning of ekklesia as an assembly or congregation. The calling out part of the definition of ekklesia means a callingg out to a meeting, not just God's calling a person out to be saved.
But the English word church for ekklesia does not fit nearly as well as does ekklesia with qahal or Tyndale's congregation with ekklesia.
The English word church seems to have first appeared as a translation of the Latin ecclesia in Wycliffe's 1382 Latin to English translation of the New Testament. What did "church" mean at that time? Was the use of the word church favored by the Catholics in England then? Church became an ecclesiastical word redefined by the clerical profession, the clergy.
Translating ekklesia as church as Wycliffe did rather than as congregation as Tyndale did is not the whole problem with what the church became. There is no biblical justification for the institutionalized church that exists now. There is no doctrine in the scriptures for setting up a church institution of any kind which is like other man made institutions and is now incorporated under the Internal Revenue Service as a 501C(3) corporation.
The church as it now exists is a copy of what exists in the world, it is a copy of the structures of today's large corporate institutions. The church provides the institution for the priests and preachers to control what the church members believe is truth. In Revelation 13: 14-5 the second beast of Revelation 13, often called the False Prophet, who represents the many false prophets of Matthew 24: 11, causes people to make an image to the beast. An image is a copy of something. That something is the church becoming a copy of the world. Revelation 13: 14 also mentions that this image is to be made to the beast whose deadly wound was healed.
The doctionaries, including the longer, more scholarly ones, say that the English word church derived from the Greek word kyriakon, meaning, they say, the Lord's house. The Catholic Encyclopedia begins its definition of church by saying "The term church (Anglo-Saxon, cirice, circe; Modern German, Kirche)...Then it says "The derivation of the word has been much debated. It is now agreed that it is derived from the Greek kyriakon (cyriacon), i.e. the Lord's house, a term which from the third century was used, as well as ekklesia, to signify a Christian place of worship."
See: http://www.newadvent.org/<wbr>cathen/03744a.htm
The Catholic Encyclopedia says: "The term church (Anglo-Saxon, cirice, circe; Modern German, Kirche; Swedish, Kyrka) is the name employed in the Teutonic languages to render the Greek ekklesia (ecclesia), the term by which the New Testament writers denote the society founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ. The derivation of the word has been much debated. It is now agreed that it is derived from the Greek kyriakon (cyriacon), i.e. the Lord's house, a term which from the third century was used, as well as ekklesia, to signify a Christian place of worship. "
The Greek word kyros, lord, is in the New Testament. But in the New Testament the Greek words translated as house are oikia, oikonemeo, iokodespotes, okis and panoiki.
The Greek word kuriakos is in the New Testament. It is found in I Corinthians 11:20 where it refers to "the Lord's supper," and once again in Revelation 1:10 where it refers to "the Lord's day." So, kuriakos means something of the Lord. Kuriakos is Strong's number 2960, "from 2962, belonging to the Lord. Number 2962, "kirios, from kuros, supreme in authority,, the controller, God, Lord, master, Sir."
Kuriakon apparently meant the lord or master of a property. Kuriakon referred to property belonging to a lord or master, for example, a building.
But the ekklesia refers to an assembly of believers - and some who are not yet in Christ and born again, but are interested. Easton's (1897) Bible Dictionary says "There is no clear instance of it (ekklesia) used for a place of worship, although in post-apostolic times it early received this meaning."
The word of God is absolute, it is fact, and unchanging. "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost." II Peter 1: 21
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" II Timothy 3: 16
"The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." Psalm 12:6-7.
Since God himself inspired the words of the Bible and is able to preserve them, then man must not change those words. This means that a doctrine is established by the original meaning of the Hebrew or Greek words used to express that doctrine. A doctrine cannot be established or altered by the translation of a Greek word into English. This means that the Greek word ekklesia must be translated into an English word closest to the original meaning of ekklesia.
To argue or quarrel against this is the dialectic, which opposes and wants to compromise any statement that is absolute truth as is scripture, against that which is based on honest scholarship, and against absolute mortality.
Even if it is accepted that church derives from kyriakon, the lord's house, made into the Lord's house, this has problems with New Testament doctrine. If you go to the link below to the Oxford English Dictionary is says "CHURCH: FORMS: (a) cirice, cyrice, chiriche, churiche, chereche, (b) CIRCE, cyrce, chyrce, cirke, etc., etc.." Then, below this paragraph the Oxford English Dictionary says "CIRCE was a Greek goddess who turned men into PIGS!!"
The link to the longer definition of church in the Oxford English Dictionary is: http://civ.icelord.net/read.<wbr>php?f=3&i=63650&t=63650&v=f
""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 kйlikn '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).
CIRCE was a Greek goddess who turned men into PIGS!!"
The Oxford English Dictionary mentions the Greek goddess circe, and also says in caps in its list of spellings of church, the word CIRCE. The Catholic Encyclopedia lists circe as one spelling of church, but does not mention a possible origin of circe from the Greek goddess circe.
Even if it is accepted that church derives from kyriakon, the lord's house, made into the Lord's house, this has problems with New Testament doctrine.
The Roman Catholic Church emphasized the authority of the church hierarchy, the clergy, and the church as a building was part of the rule of the Church over the people. So the building for the Catholics would be God's house, like a temple of the Old Covenant.
But - "Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet." Acts 7: 48
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." I Corinthians 3: 16-17
"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" I Corinthians 6: 19
But what did the word "Circe" refer to? In his study, The Myth of Kirke, 1888, Robert Brown writes about Circe, which is a proper noun, in ancient Greek mythology and says it means "Circle" or "Circular." Circe referred to a building that was "circular," and also to a Goddess of ancient Greece. Kirke" or "Circe" was a mythical pagan Goddess who was the daughter of the Sun God.
See http://www.synagoguechm.com/<wbr>drashot/...rsynagogue.pdf
"We also see in Greek mythology, Circe is a minor goddess of magic (or sometimes a nymph,
witch, enchantress or sorceress) living on the island of Aeaea. Circe's father was Helios (or Helius), the god of the sun...Circe transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals through the use of magical potions. She was renowned for her knowledge of drugs and herbs."
”As seen in the picture on the left, it is said that Circe is pictured
holding a golden cup in her hand mixed with wine and drugs, by
which she controlled the kings of the world."
Revelation 7: 4 says "And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:"
For those who are followers of dispensationalism's literalist view of scripture, fornication in Revelation 7: 4 is used metaphorically, for the metaphoric woman of Revelation 17: 1-4 accepting doctrines and practices not in accord with those of the God of the Bible.
It is interesting to note that Revelation 18:23 follows up this image of the metaphoric woman having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations in saying that the light of a candle no longer shines in her land, and the voice of the bridegroom and his bride are no longer heard. And the verse ends by saying "by thy sorceries were all nations deceived."
Circe deceives people with her spiritual pharmakeia (drugs literally, but also sorcery) and brings many under a great delusion, a spell.[TABLE="class: cf FVrZGe"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD="class: amq"][/TD]
[TD="class: amr"][/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]
In his 1525 translation of the Greek Textus Receptus of Erasmus William Tyndale
was faithful to the original meaning of ekklesia and translated it as congregation except for Acts 14: 13 and Acts 19: 37 where he used churche, meaning a pagan place of worship. In all other verses he translated ekklesia as congregation. Any doctrine is established by the original meaning of the Hebrew or Greek words used to express that doctrine. A translation into English should not change that doctrine. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance defines ekklesia, number 1577, as "a calling out, i.e. (to) a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation..."
See: http://www.acu.edu/sponsored/<wbr>restoration_quarterly/<wbr>archives/1950s/vol_2_no_4_<wbr>contents/ward.html
"The most common classical usage of ekklesia and its cognates was as a political term, meaning an assembly of citizens. In the Greek city-state the citizens were called forth by the trumpet of the kerux (herald) summoning them to the ekklesia (assembly)."
"It should be noted that in ordinary usage, ekklesia meant the assembly, and not the body of people involved."
An ekklesia as a meeting, assembly or congregation is a common noun, meaning that there are many assemblies. A proper noun refers to something that is unique like the name of a country or a person's name. The word church was redefined into being a proper noun, something that could replace Israel, or stand alongside Israel, the unique people of God in scripture. Old Covenant Israel was not replaced by the church, nor does Old Covenant Israel now stand alongside the church. There is one Body of Christ, one elect group, as Christ teaches in John 10: 6, "there shall be one fold." And Paul in Romans 12: 5 says "we, being many, are one body in Christ."
Another English word that might have been used to translate ekklesia is gathering.
The Greek word ekklesia in the Third Century B.C. Septuagint was translated from the Hebrew word qahal, which means assembly or congregation. Exodus 12: 6: "And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening."
Qahal is translated here as assembly and edah as congregation.
Stephen in Acts 7: 38 says "This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spoke to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers..." Church in the King James was translated from ekklesia.
So Luke, like other New Testament writers, used the Greek word ekklesia from the Septuagint. Ekklesia in Greek is very close in meaning to the Hebrew word Qahal.
Tyndale for Acts 7: 38 has "This is he that was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina and with our fathers."
Tyndale's translation of ekklesia as congregation is accurate because congregation is one of two or three English words which best fit the meaning of ekklesia as an assembly or congregation. The calling out part of the definition of ekklesia means a callingg out to a meeting, not just God's calling a person out to be saved.
But the English word church for ekklesia does not fit nearly as well as does ekklesia with qahal or Tyndale's congregation with ekklesia.
The English word church seems to have first appeared as a translation of the Latin ecclesia in Wycliffe's 1382 Latin to English translation of the New Testament. What did "church" mean at that time? Was the use of the word church favored by the Catholics in England then? Church became an ecclesiastical word redefined by the clerical profession, the clergy.
Translating ekklesia as church as Wycliffe did rather than as congregation as Tyndale did is not the whole problem with what the church became. There is no biblical justification for the institutionalized church that exists now. There is no doctrine in the scriptures for setting up a church institution of any kind which is like other man made institutions and is now incorporated under the Internal Revenue Service as a 501C(3) corporation.
The church as it now exists is a copy of what exists in the world, it is a copy of the structures of today's large corporate institutions. The church provides the institution for the priests and preachers to control what the church members believe is truth. In Revelation 13: 14-5 the second beast of Revelation 13, often called the False Prophet, who represents the many false prophets of Matthew 24: 11, causes people to make an image to the beast. An image is a copy of something. That something is the church becoming a copy of the world. Revelation 13: 14 also mentions that this image is to be made to the beast whose deadly wound was healed.
The doctionaries, including the longer, more scholarly ones, say that the English word church derived from the Greek word kyriakon, meaning, they say, the Lord's house. The Catholic Encyclopedia begins its definition of church by saying "The term church (Anglo-Saxon, cirice, circe; Modern German, Kirche)...Then it says "The derivation of the word has been much debated. It is now agreed that it is derived from the Greek kyriakon (cyriacon), i.e. the Lord's house, a term which from the third century was used, as well as ekklesia, to signify a Christian place of worship."
See: http://www.newadvent.org/<wbr>cathen/03744a.htm
The Catholic Encyclopedia says: "The term church (Anglo-Saxon, cirice, circe; Modern German, Kirche; Swedish, Kyrka) is the name employed in the Teutonic languages to render the Greek ekklesia (ecclesia), the term by which the New Testament writers denote the society founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ. The derivation of the word has been much debated. It is now agreed that it is derived from the Greek kyriakon (cyriacon), i.e. the Lord's house, a term which from the third century was used, as well as ekklesia, to signify a Christian place of worship. "
The Greek word kyros, lord, is in the New Testament. But in the New Testament the Greek words translated as house are oikia, oikonemeo, iokodespotes, okis and panoiki.
The Greek word kuriakos is in the New Testament. It is found in I Corinthians 11:20 where it refers to "the Lord's supper," and once again in Revelation 1:10 where it refers to "the Lord's day." So, kuriakos means something of the Lord. Kuriakos is Strong's number 2960, "from 2962, belonging to the Lord. Number 2962, "kirios, from kuros, supreme in authority,, the controller, God, Lord, master, Sir."
Kuriakon apparently meant the lord or master of a property. Kuriakon referred to property belonging to a lord or master, for example, a building.
But the ekklesia refers to an assembly of believers - and some who are not yet in Christ and born again, but are interested. Easton's (1897) Bible Dictionary says "There is no clear instance of it (ekklesia) used for a place of worship, although in post-apostolic times it early received this meaning."
The word of God is absolute, it is fact, and unchanging. "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost." II Peter 1: 21
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" II Timothy 3: 16
"The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." Psalm 12:6-7.
Since God himself inspired the words of the Bible and is able to preserve them, then man must not change those words. This means that a doctrine is established by the original meaning of the Hebrew or Greek words used to express that doctrine. A doctrine cannot be established or altered by the translation of a Greek word into English. This means that the Greek word ekklesia must be translated into an English word closest to the original meaning of ekklesia.
To argue or quarrel against this is the dialectic, which opposes and wants to compromise any statement that is absolute truth as is scripture, against that which is based on honest scholarship, and against absolute mortality.
Even if it is accepted that church derives from kyriakon, the lord's house, made into the Lord's house, this has problems with New Testament doctrine. If you go to the link below to the Oxford English Dictionary is says "CHURCH: FORMS: (a) cirice, cyrice, chiriche, churiche, chereche, (b) CIRCE, cyrce, chyrce, cirke, etc., etc.." Then, below this paragraph the Oxford English Dictionary says "CIRCE was a Greek goddess who turned men into PIGS!!"
The link to the longer definition of church in the Oxford English Dictionary is: http://civ.icelord.net/read.<wbr>php?f=3&i=63650&t=63650&v=f
""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 kйlikn '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).
CIRCE was a Greek goddess who turned men into PIGS!!"
The Oxford English Dictionary mentions the Greek goddess circe, and also says in caps in its list of spellings of church, the word CIRCE. The Catholic Encyclopedia lists circe as one spelling of church, but does not mention a possible origin of circe from the Greek goddess circe.
Even if it is accepted that church derives from kyriakon, the lord's house, made into the Lord's house, this has problems with New Testament doctrine.
The Roman Catholic Church emphasized the authority of the church hierarchy, the clergy, and the church as a building was part of the rule of the Church over the people. So the building for the Catholics would be God's house, like a temple of the Old Covenant.
But - "Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet." Acts 7: 48
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." I Corinthians 3: 16-17
"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" I Corinthians 6: 19
But what did the word "Circe" refer to? In his study, The Myth of Kirke, 1888, Robert Brown writes about Circe, which is a proper noun, in ancient Greek mythology and says it means "Circle" or "Circular." Circe referred to a building that was "circular," and also to a Goddess of ancient Greece. Kirke" or "Circe" was a mythical pagan Goddess who was the daughter of the Sun God.
See http://www.synagoguechm.com/<wbr>drashot/...rsynagogue.pdf
"We also see in Greek mythology, Circe is a minor goddess of magic (or sometimes a nymph,
witch, enchantress or sorceress) living on the island of Aeaea. Circe's father was Helios (or Helius), the god of the sun...Circe transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals through the use of magical potions. She was renowned for her knowledge of drugs and herbs."
”As seen in the picture on the left, it is said that Circe is pictured
holding a golden cup in her hand mixed with wine and drugs, by
which she controlled the kings of the world."
Revelation 7: 4 says "And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:"
For those who are followers of dispensationalism's literalist view of scripture, fornication in Revelation 7: 4 is used metaphorically, for the metaphoric woman of Revelation 17: 1-4 accepting doctrines and practices not in accord with those of the God of the Bible.
It is interesting to note that Revelation 18:23 follows up this image of the metaphoric woman having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations in saying that the light of a candle no longer shines in her land, and the voice of the bridegroom and his bride are no longer heard. And the verse ends by saying "by thy sorceries were all nations deceived."
Circe deceives people with her spiritual pharmakeia (drugs literally, but also sorcery) and brings many under a great delusion, a spell.[TABLE="class: cf FVrZGe"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD="class: amq"][/TD]
[TD="class: amr"][/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]
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