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 There
is much controversy regarding the word used in the N.T. to
designate God’s people, the “ekklesia “The studious will
be interested in this quote from “Light From The Ancient East”
by Deissmann, an authority in his field. (Pp. 112—f.)
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“The
first scattered congregations of Greek-speaking Christians up
and down the Roman empire spoke of themselves as a “(convened)
assembly”; at first each single congregation was so called,
and afterwards the whole body of Christians everywhere was
spoken of collectively as “the (convened) assembly.” That is
the most literal translation of the Greek word ekklesia.
This self-bestowed name rested on the certain conviction that
God had separated from the world His “saints” in Christ, and
had “called” or “convened” them to an assembly, which
was “God’s assembly,” “God’s muster,” because God
was the convener.
It
is one of the characteristic but little considered facts in the
history of the early Christian missions that the Latin-speaking
people of the West, to whom Christianity came, did not translate
the Greek word ekklesia (as they did many other technical
terms) but simply borrowed it. Why was this? There was no lack
of words for “assembly” in Latin, and as a matter of fact contio
or comitia was often translated by ekklesia. There
must have been some special reason for borrowing the Greek word,
and it lay doubtless in ‘the subtle feeling that Latin
possessed no word exactly equivalent to the Greek ekklesia.
There
is evidence of this feeling even in
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non-Christian usage. Pliny the Younger
employs the Latinized word ecclesia in one of his letters
to Trajan. Some years ago a bilingual inscription of the year
103-4 A.D. came to light at Ephesus, which furnishes a still
more interesting example. It was found in the theatre, the
building so familiar to readers of Acts XIX, one of the best
preserved ruins in the ancient city. A distinguished Roman
official, C. Vibius Salutaris, had presented a silver image of
Diana (we are reminded at once of the silver shrines of Diana
made by Demetrius, Acts XIX, 24) and other statues “that they
might be set up in every ekklesia in the theatre upon the
pedestals.” The parallel Latin text has, ita ut (om)n(i)
(e)cclesia supra bases ponerentur.
The
Greek word was therefore simply transcribed. Here we have a
truly classical example (classical in its age and in its origin)
of the instinctive feeling of Latin speakers of the West which
afterwards showed itself among the Western Christians: ekklesia
cannot be translated, it must be taken over.”
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While
we are gasping at this depth we may as well note that Christians
at Corinth were “called (to be) saints” just as Paul was a
“called Apostle.” The thought is NOT that they were
designated or given the name “saints” but that they were
set-apart as the result of God’s holy calling. (1 Cor.
1: 1-2) The “church” is God’s (convened) assembly,
God’s muster, fruit of His calling.
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