The Meaning of Ekklesia

in the New Testament 1

J. W. Roberts
Abilene Christian College

Since the theme of the Abilene Christian College lecture-

ship for this year has to do with the church, it seems fitting
that treatment should be given of the basic New Testament
word which lies behind what we mean by the "church."2 At
the same time to give any kind of adequate treatment to the
task implied in this title requires a much broader study than
is possible in the time allotted. The question is many sided;
we are dealing with an idea which (1) originated and was
expressed in great depth in the Old Testament in Hebrew, but
which (2) received its fulfillment only in the New Testament,
and (3) is expressed by a Greek word which in itself had a
variety of uses. That Greek word—ekklesia—demands that
both its secular background (etymology and usage) and its
Jewish hellenistic background (the Septuagint and other late
Jewish sources) be heard from in determining its meaning in
the New Testament context. In view of the enormity of the
task a few aspects which seem to be timely and appropos to
our preaching and understanding have been chosen for
emphasis here.

This paper was read at the Biblical Forum at the Abilene Christian
College lectureship in February, 1972.
2
Reference may be had to the New Testament Greek lexicons and
Bible dictionaries for treatments of the word ekklesia. Especially help-
ful is the article in The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
(English tr. Grand Rapids, 1965) by K. L. Schmidt. Most helpful in this
paper has been the article on ekklesia by O. Linton in Reallexikon fuer
Antike und Christentums, Vol. 4 (Leipzig, 1941—) My point of view is
somewhat opposite to that of J. Y. Campbell reprinted from Journal of
Theological Studies, xlix, 195—6 (1948), 130ff in Three New Testa-
ment Studies (Leiden, 1965) entitled "The Origin and Meaning of the
Christian Use of the Word ekklesia."

27
28
Restoration Quarterly

Etymology or Derivation. In the first place the English

word "church" does not come from the Greek word
ekklesia, although it has largely assumed its meanings. It
rather comes from the Greek adjective kuriakos, which means
"that which is the Lord's" (compare its use in I Corinthians
10:21, "the Lord's table," and Revelation 1:10, "the Lord's
day"). The word was probably first used in a similar way
"the Lord's ekklesia" (he kuriake ekklesia), then the ekklesia
dropped out (ellipsis) as in "the right (hand)" or "on the third
(day)." Thus this adjective with the article (he kuriake) grad-
ually assumed the total meaning of the term "the Lord's
ekklesia" or "the church." What we ought to say (instead of
"the word 'church' comes from the Greek word ekklesia") is
that the term " 'church' is used to translate the Greek word
ekklesia" It has often been questioned (in view of its many
uses, some of which are not Biblical) whether "church" is a
very good translation at any point in a modern English trans-
lation. As long ago as Alexander Campbell's The Living
Oracles we were given a translation in which this word did
not appear. A profitable starting point would be for one to
take a Bible and a concordance and force himself to give
some other meaning or translation to the word ekklesia in
each context. What some of these renderings would be will be
made plain as we go along.
In the second place it would seem that a mistaken
emphasis on the etymology or derivation of the Greek word
ekklesia ought to be corrected. It has been customary among
us to stress the supposed fact that ekklesia is derived from
the Greek preposition ek ("out of") and kaleo ("I call") and
thus to say that the Greek word ekklesia means "the called
out." This derivation today is far from certain. Some author-
ities derive the word from eklêsia, which ultimately would go
back to ek-laos, "of the people."3
Whatever may be true about derivation, we ought to
avoid the frequent error of etymological fallacy—that of
assuming that once we have established the origin of a word
3
Compare Eduard Schwyzer, Griechische Grammatik in Handbuch
der Altertumswissenschaft, (München, MCMLIII), Vol. 1, p. 315.
The Meaning of Ekklesia in the New Testament: J. W. Roberts 29

we can always deduce the meaning of the word from that

etymology, as though words never change. It is quite clear
that historically the idea of a "calling out" or a summonsing
was not a significant part of the use of the term among the
Greeks.4 Though some lexicons define the word as "a duly
summonsed assembly," the summonsed assembly was the
sugketikos ekklesia whereas the regularly constituted
assembly among the Greek city states was the kuriae
ekklesiae "the principal or sovereign assemblies." The "call-
ing out" was not a part of the word itself but had to be
expressed by a qualifying adjective. In the New Testament
the concept of the separation of the people of God from the
world is expressed in several ways, in the word "saint" and
"holy" and more especially by the group of words which are
translated "elect" or "choose." If we want to emphasize that
Biblical idea, we ought to choose the word and texts in the
New Testament which really teach it.
The New Testament—A Double Usage. When we ask
what ekklesia means in the New Testament, we must start
with the fact that there is a basic twofold meaning of the
word there. It is used in a comprehensive or universal sense,
e.g., "Upon this rock I will build my church" (Matthew
16:18) and a local or community sense, e.g., "the church of
the Thessalonians" (I Thess. 1:1). The universal sense is most
fully developed in the letter to the Ephesians (1:23; 5:23).
Its use by Jesus in Matthew 16:18 is held by many scholars
to be an anachronism. There are uses of this meaning in Paul
before his development of it in Ephesians (Gal. 1:13; I Cor.
10:32; 12:28; 15:9; Phil. 3:6). The local or community sense
occurs in the meaning of both the group or body-politic
("the church which assembles") and the assembly ("the
church assembled").
The problem is how to account for these meanings and
what was the process of development. The most natural
supposition would be that the concrete meaning of the local
community either as a whole or in assembly was borrowed to
designate the local Christian group after the Christian move-

Compare Campbell, pp. 42f.

30 Restoration Quarterly

ment had moved out onto Greek soil and then the universal
concept developed as an abstract idea from this. Even if this
process is the correct one, it is not agreed as to what the
analogy was which furnished the basis of this adoption. The
options here need to be understood.
First there is the political assembly. This is purely local.
The model is that of an autonomous, self-governing com-
munity which directs and rules itself through a democratic
assembly composed of all free citizens.5 Smaller specific seg-
ments of the social order might have their own use. Thus in
Xenophon the army is democratic and in times of crisis calls
its own ekklesia to decide on a solution to its problems.6 In
the New Testament these meanings still are maintained, as in
Acts 19:39 where the city of Ephesus is shown to have its
own "lawful assembly" (en te ennomo ekklesia) and where a
confused mob is also described by the town clerk as an
ekklesia (19:32). In all of this there is no model for an ideal
or universal usage.
Nor is it clear, if this Greek community aspect is the
model for the Christian adaptation, what the exact analogy
was which would cause the choice. It has sometimes been
proposed that the term was used of Greek cultic societies or
unions. If this could be proved, it would provide a ready
answer to the question of why in the light of the social and
religious vocabulary of the times the disciples of Christ might
call themselves an ekklesia. But though this view is adopted
by Johannes Weiss in his commentary on I Corinthians,7
there are no clear examples of the usage in the literature and
the few examples sometimes cited, as Lietzmann points out,
show ekklesia being used not for the union itself but accord-
ing to the analogy of ordinary use for the business meetings
of the group. Too, it is doubtful whether Paul would not

5
References by Brandis in Pauly—Wissowa, 2163/2200. The word
is a late development, being lacking in Homer, Hesiod, and earlier
writers. Its use by Aristotle, Politics, 1285a of Homeric times is anach-
ronistic.
6
Anabasis, 1, 3, 2.
7
XVII and the bibliography cited there.
The Meaning of Ekklesia in the New Testament: J. W. Roberts 31

have rejected the word as inappropriate for the Christian

community if it had this kind of fixed meaning.8
Another possibility is that the term was borrowed on the
analogy of Greek fellowships or societies in general.9 As
Schmidt says,
Some Gentile Christian circles, which were not so
well, or not at all, acquainted with the OT context,
might have understood the term in the light of its
immediate derivation and possible recollections of
Greek fellowships. It is quite possible, and wholly
natural, that many matters of organization in
Christian congregations should have been regulated
according to the pattern of contemporary soci-
eties.1 °

But as the above quotation implies, this conclusion ought not

to be given too much credibility generally until another
hypothesis which forces itself upon us for consideration from
the Old Testament background is examined.
The Septuagint Usage. Another and perhaps the most
logical place to look for the explanation of the meanings of
ekklesia is in its Old Testament background. There one finds
two Hebrew words qahal and 'edah both of which refer basi-
cally to an assembly or congregation and which can approach
in their usage the local democratic function of the Greek
ekklesia.11 Qahal is given the basic translations (compare

8
So Schmidt, op. cit., p. 514.
9
For the data and analysis of the material on this background see
R. L. Johnston, "The Associations of the Graeco-Roman World," Res-
toration Quarterly 2 (1958), 148-153.
10
Compare the reference in Schmidt, op. cit., p. 514. He cites G.
Heinrici, "Zum genossenschaftlichen Charakter der paulinischen
Christengemeinden, Th. St. Kr., 54 (1881), 505ff. On this background
for the predominant influence "it has rightly been argued that the
reference is to things which are common to the formation of all soci-
eties and which are not peculiar to societies of this particular age. Cf.
again the commentary of Lietzmann on 1 Corinthians.
11
jOne might compare 1 Kings 12:20 where "edah is used of the
congregation of Israel in choosing for itself a king, for qahal we have
the gathering or company of the prophets in 1 Samuel 19:20.
32 Restoration Quarterly

Young's Analytic Concordance) in English: assembly (17),

company (17), congregation (86), multitude (3); 9edah is
translated: assembly (9), company (13), congregation (124),
multitude (1), people (1), swarm (1). Both words are used of
the congregation of Israel, seemingly somewhat interchange-
ably. However, qahal more frequently refers to the congrega-
tion in assembly or the act of assemblying, while 9edah often
is used of Israel in the aggregate^even when settled in its
homes and villages scattered throughout the land. But before
we assume that this idealization of Israel unassembled as the
"congregation" of God is the source of the universal concept
behind ekklesia, it must be pointed out that ekklesia is never
used in the LXX to translate 9edah but is the ordinary
translation of qahal, with sunagogue being the usual transla-
tion of 9edah. So one must inquire further.
It is the theological usage to which the words are put in
the Old Testament which is most instructive. Since Israel is
conceived more in terms of the theocracy, the religious con-
cepts of the Old Testament are not greatly concerned with
local and democratic groups. In common usage what is more
important are the gatherings of the people for worship or cult
and war in the name of God. But what is most important are
those gatherings which are viewed as constituting or renewing
the congregation as the people of God.
The first occurrence of the word ekklesia is in Deuteron-
omy 9:10 where it describes what had occurred earlier when
God had gathered Israel at Sinai to claim the people as his
covenant group, "You shall teach your sons . . . (all things
that happened) in the day when ye stood before the Lord our
God in Horeb in the day of the ekklesia" Compare 18:16.
The point seems to be that this day when the assembled
people were given the covenant of the Lord they became his
ekklesia. This gathering is the decisive event in Israel's
history; it was the constitutive event in the national life and
religion. A later meeting of the festival or worshipping group
(three regular occasions during the year according to Leviti-
cus 23) in a sense renews that assembly and are thus also the
ekklesia of the Lord: one with a bodily defect is not to enter
the ekklesia of the Lord (Deut. 23:lf.).
The Meaning of Ekklesia in the New Testament: J. W. Roberts 33

What makes this stand out in bold relief is that later

great assemblies were held at moments of crisis in Israel's
history or in periods of reestablishment and renewal after
some threat or debacle. Such "great assemblies" (megale
ekklesia) were those of Moses to reaffirm the covenant with
Israel on the plain of Moab just before his death (Deut.
31:30), that of Joshua after the entrance into Canaan
(Joshua 8:35), in the critical time of the Judges (Judges
21:5), at the removal of the ark to Jerusalem by David (I
Chronicles 13:1-2), and at the dedication of the temple by
Solomon (I Kings 8:14, 22, 55, 65, and see especially II
Chronicles 6:3; 30:13ff.). Finally we have the story of the
renewal of the covenant in the days of the return from the
exile under Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezra 10:Iff.; Nehemiah 8:2,
17; 13:1). Linton has pointed out that the stories of these
assemblies are cast as reechoes of the great assembly of Israel
at Sinai. Although ekklesia in these passages generally refers
to an actual assembly before the Lord at the central place of
worship, the thought that lies in the background is that of
being in the assembly as the people of God.12 It is not far
from this to the whole people of God as the congregation:
"the renown of the congregation" (Num. 1:16) or "the rulers
of the congregation" (Ex. 34:41). In Psalms 74:2 9edah
(sunagogue) expresses the idea that lies behind the concept
perfectly when it is said, "Remember thy congregation which
thou has purchased from the beginning; thou didst ransom
the rod of thine inheritance, this Mt. Zion wherein thou has
dwelt" (Psalms 74:2).
The corporate act of worship at the sanctuary was signif­
icant because there the presence of God in the midst of his
people as a congregation was celebrated. The Psalms often
express the joy of attending the assembly of the Lord, at the
great feasts and perhaps also at the morning and evening
sacrifice services held daily both morning and evening in the
temple until its destruction in A. D. 70 (Psa 22:23; 26:12;

This is what Campbell has failed to see in his treatment of the

Ο. T. material.
34 Restoration Quarterly

35:18; 40:10; 89:6; 107:32; 149:1). Numerous data in late

Judaism and apocalyptic literature exist to show that in the
Messianic age it was expected that there would be a great
gathering of God's people to Jerusalem where the congrega-
tion of the Lord would be reconstituted and God's law
promulgated.
How this background from the Old Testament relates to
the various community groups and assemblies among Judaism
at the beginning of the Christian era is not clear. There were
various community groups like the Theraupetics in Alexan-
dria, Egypt, which were described by Philo (The Theraupetics
or The Contemplative Life), the Dead Sea community at
Qumran in Judaea, and the communities of Pharisees
described by Josephus. These groups seem to have seen
themselves as some kind of collective embodiment of the
"congregation of the Lord" (a name Qumran regularly ap-
plied to themselves). There were, of course, also local groups
or communities of Jews with their weekly meetings for
worship and community interest. These were called "syn-
agogues," a name (it will be remembered) taken over from
the Greek Old Testament used to translate 9edah which refers
to either local assemblies or the national assemblies or the
people of Israel ideally considered as the congregation of the
Lord. The origin of the synagogue is unknown; there is
nothing like it in Old Testament times. Presumably it arose
during the exile when the temple was destroyed and the
people dispersed. Lacking the opportunity for pilgrimages to
the temple in Jerusalem, people in local areas began assem-
bling for fellowship and worship. This organization grew until
it became the body politic for the Jewish community, the
word being used in the senses of community, the assembly of
the community, and finally for the building where the group
met. Campbell has shown that ekklesia is used in Ecclesiasti-
cus for meetings of the synagogue.13
That the above is the background for the double signif-
icance of the word ekklesia in the New Testament seems

13
P. 49
The Meaning of Ekklesia in the New Testament: J. W. Roberts 35

plain. From Judaism and not from secular Greek usage came
the word ekklesia as a designation in the New Testament. Nor
(given this background) is it necessary to suppose that the
line of development was from local assembly to an idealized
universal sense. The book of Hebrews once applies a citation
of Psalms 22:23 of the work of Christ "among the brethren"
"in the ekklesia" (Hebrews 2:12). But more importantly in
12:23 the ekklesia, made up of firstborn people now as-
sembled at Mt. Zion, the "heavenly Jerusalem," is set over
against that decisive assembly of Israel at Mt. Sinai in the
wilderness. Obviously the two are thought of as parallel.
What happened at Jerusalem when Jews were gathered from
every nation under heaven and God acted with a marvelous
outpouring of the Holy Spirit was that the new covenant or
law of God was promulgated. Here a new congregation or
ekklesia was constituted on the basis of what God had done
in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament congregation of God has
become the congregation of God "in Christ Jesus" (I Thess.
1:1). Though the original ekklesia existed for only a short
while as a total worshipping and assembling group in Jer-
usalem, as it spread abroad it already had a precedent in the
Jewish local assemblies or synagogues for seeing the gathering
of two or three together in the name of the Lord as a repre-
sentation of the congregation of the Lord. The word might
be used of the local community as a wholeH;he body politic
(as the ekklesia of God in Corinth, I Cor. 1:1) or as
assembled worshipping group ("It is not permitted for a
woman to speak in the ekklesia" I Cor. 14:34). Always in
the background is the already developed universal sense (I
Cor. 10:32; 12:28; 15:9).14
The Jewish synagogue provided the model for this.
Indeed, it is inherent in the beginning of the church among
the Jews that there was no instant separation of the Chris-
tians from their Jewish brethren. The church was wholly

When Campbell claims that Paul had no theological doctrine of

the ekklesia and that the use of that term in Ephesians is a distinctive
thing among the reputed Pauline books, he forgets that Paul had
already used the term in the universal sense in such passages as these.
36 Restoration Quarterly

Jewish for many years, and there is evidence for continued

Christian continuance in the ritual of temple and synagogue.
Even in Paul's missionary churches the separation came only
later and was forced by the Jews themselves. It would be
assumed that the disciples of Jesus would have their own
separate meetings after the synagogue met. The earliest name
for the Christian assemblies, in fact, probably was "syn-
agogue" (as the word for "assembly" in James 2:2 is and as
the evidence from Epiphanius shows).15 Both Jewish and
Christian assemblies were called sunagogue or ekklesia inter-
changeably. It was after the destruction of Jerusalem and
after the Jewish communities with influence from Jamnia
began to enforce the band against Christians that each side
was forced to choose exclusively one of these names.
The word ekklesia, already understandable to the Jews
of the dispersion from the Old Testament and probably from
the synagogue, would also be intelligible to their Greek neigh-
bors from their use of it for the body politic of their civic
and community life.
Thus the use of the term ekklesia in the New Testament
probably owes more to the theological roots of the church in
the Old Testament than it does to the purely Greek secular
cultural and linguistic background. The church needs always
to be reminded, as Israel was, that hers is a unique position as
God's covenant people; she is the ekklesia of the Lord, fulfill-
ing God's purpose through Jesus Christ. He who responds to
what God has done in Jesus Christ becomes, by that re-
sponse, a part of the fellowship of the ekklesia. The descrip-
tive terms in the New Testament which distinguish this
ekklesia from every other ekklesia remind us of the way she has
been constituted as the fulfillment of God eternal purpose
and the price paid for her existence.

15
Schmidt, p. 518, citing Epiphanius, Haer. 30, 18, 2.
 ^ s
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