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Church and Synagogue |
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Church (ekklesia) and Synagogue (sunagoge)
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Ekklesia
“Ekklesia” was a common Greek word of its day. The simple definition of ekklesia is “a called out assembly.” But, the usage of this word among the Gentiles (as the world used it) gives a far more depth of meaning.
“The ekklesia was the lawful assembly in a free Greek city of all those possessed of the rights of citizenship, for the transaction of public affairs. That they were summoned is expressed in the later part of the word (klesis-->kaleo: call); that they were summoned out (ek: out) of the whole population, a select portion of it, including neither the populace, nor strangers, nor yet those who had forfeited their civic rights, is expressed in the first.” (1)
It is always used in the sense of an authorized assembly, or body, of people (who have been summoned) coming together for the transaction of some civic business. The call was specific and limited to those qualified and not to the general population. Only the assembly, as a whole, had the authority to conduct the business for which it was summoned.
The demonstration of the secular ekklesia is found in Acts 19:27-31. Specifically in verses 32, 39, and 41, where “assembly” is the Greek ekklesia. (The KJV mistranslated the word hierosulos [temple-robbers] as “robbers of churches" in verse 37.) Here in Ephesus, a silversmith Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen caused the ekklesia to meet to condemn Paul and others of blaspheme against their goddess, Diana. At first the ekklesia was confused, not knowing why they were called. When it was determined that issue was between the craftsmen and Paul, the leader of the ekklesia, the town clerk, declared that this was a matter for the appointed courts and not the ekklesia and thus he dismissed the ekklesia.
Synagoge
"Sunagoge" often denotes any gathering or bringing together of persons or things. It was during the time, which intervened between the closing of the O. T. canon and the opening of that of the New that sunagoge acquired that technical meaning of which we find it in full possession when the Gospel history begins; designating, as there it does, the places set apart for purpose of worship and the reading and expounding of the Word of God, the ‘synagogues,’ as we find them named; which, capable as they were of indefinite multiplication, were necessary complement of the Temple, which according to the divine intention was and could be but one."(1)
The Septuagint uses sunagoge for the gathering together ‘of cattle,’ to bring together, of collecting of revenues, the assembling of all kinds of things, men, objects, animals, a pile of stones, a swarm of bees (Ju 14:8), for a herd of bulls.
The sunagoge was not political in nature; while it may have on occasion conducted business this was not its purpose.
The Jewish Synagogue seems to have its origin during the exile of Judah while in Babylon. It is thought that the rise of the synagogue was under Ezra by the development of Jews gathering together for worship. No one person did the gathering, but rather they came together, or gathered themselves, as individuals into this company. The Temple was destroyed, they were isolated from Jerusalem, and the priesthood had no further official role. Thus the synagogue bound together the people, the law, and it gave them a link to God; in effect it served to preserve them. It served to keep alive their sense of nationalism, language, origin, history and religion. Teachers were the Rabbis. They had the Torah, and now rabbinical commentaries, and sects (Pharisees and Sadducees) were developing. To this day the synagogue is a substitute for what God had instituted in the Mosaic Covenant, that is, the Tabernacle/Temple, priesthood, offerings, the center worship.
The New Testament.
The subtle differences between, “gathering,” and “assembling” exists in these two institutions. The Synagogue is a gathering, a coming together, while the Ekklesia is an assembly, a putting together. As mentioned, the people of the Synagogue acted by their own volition to congregate. While the Ekklesia is composed of those who are acted upon by another drawing them together, assembling them, setting them in place (thus building the Ekklesia).
It is clear that the ekklesia is the church of Jesus Christ. There is No other word used for church, with the exception of the synonymous term “Bride of Christ.” The church is described in metaphoric terms such as little flock, the body of Christ, the house of God, the ground and pillar of the truth, etc. These characterize the church but they do not define the church. So if we understand ekklesia we will understand the definitive church.
The ekklesia has three component parts:
First, it is composed of those who have been called out from the general populace, based upon their qualifications and the selection of the One who is calling. No one person is an ekklesia, nor does the ekklesia exist until it is assembled.
Second, this body is assembled to conduct business, or perform that duty which has been commanded of it, or laid upon it. It carries with it a certain limited authority. By implication it must abide by lawful rules under which it has been chartered or commissioned, so it has regulations by which it must abide.
Third, by necessity it is a local bodily assembly (certainly visible).
All of this speaks of the Church of the New Testament. The word was not removed from its civic institutional usage, but became employed as a higher, loftier, intuition of God. We call it the church. It is the intuition, which God calls His little flock, the ground and pillar of the truth, the body of Christ, the temple of God, and the Bride of Christ. It still has the essence of the above three points, it is called out and assembled, it has an authority not given to others, it has a commission, and it is always local, and visible. Further, it has been given rules, commands, and doctrines, which guide and direct it. It is not the Kingdom of God but a part of the Kingdom, the only part with the authority to perform the “ordinances” of the New Testament.
It is true that the term ekklesia, church, is used in the generic sense in the scriptures. In the generic it is used for all churches wherever they exist. So in that sense it is a reference to the churches as universal, i.e. not restricted or addressed to one location. But that does not make it a universal, visible or invisible institution. Much argument is made that the church has two applications, universal invisible – consisting of all the saved, and local visible - comprised of visible membership. Nearly all the arguments for the universal invisible church have at their foundation 1 Cor, 12:13, a verse which is mistranslated. For it is not by one spirit we are all baptized, but in one spirit. It is mischief to say that the one spirit is the Holy Spirit. The word is simply spirit, without the definite article or the word “Holy” present. The better sense of this verse is that in one purpose, with one resolve, of one mind, or of singular agreement or unity, were they all baptized (see Eph. 4:23, Phil. 1:27 for this usage of the word “spirit”).
If there is such a thing as a universal church (containing all the saved and invisible-never assembled) is it still the ground and pillar of the truth? If it is not, the ground and pillar of the truth, then it is not the Church of the New Testament. But if it is, the ground and pillar of the truth, what are its doctrines, what truths does it have? For by definition of universal church, containing all the saved, would have to encompass all their beliefs. The church then would believe and teach as truth every doctrinal variance imaginable, and the greater part of them would be contrary and contradictory. Not even salvation would be definite! It would agree on nothing, it could do nothing with unanimity. How could candlesticks be removed from it as Christ threatened to those churches in Revelation 2, 3 that failed in doctrine and discipline? This is chaos. All imagery of the church in the New Testament reflects that of a local assembly. It cannot be both, for the very word for church, ekklesia, would be violated in its meaning.
Christ built His church from those who were His disciples. This makes it to consist of a very small portion of the numbers of those who are saved. The Father has many children but The Son has few disciples.
(1) Richard C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament
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This page last updated January 10, 2005 at 10:21am
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