--Critical Perspectives
from the Word of God

The Church of God, or more accurately the Congregation of God, is the formal proper noun rendering of ekklesia tou Theou. It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew qehal'el, or qehal �eloh�m, usually translated church of God in the English editions of the New Testament, referring to a class or assemblage of the people of God who have been "assembled" or "called together."

In Koin� the Hebrew qehal'el, Church of God, became EKKLESIATOUTHEOU, a formal self-designation, or proper name, for the ancient church. It was not until the ninth century CE that the Greek text of the Christian Scriptures, that is, the New Testament, employed minuscules. In the shift to minuscules from majuscules the Greek text EKKLESIATOUTHEOU became �kkles�a tou Theou and so it has appeared in later Greek minuscule manuscripts.

The theological consequences of regarding the phrase "Church of God" as a proper name for the ancient church, as opposed to "church of God" as a general reference to the people of God, differ. For example, the former suggests the more or less structured organization found in the ancient church reflecting the shared vision, shared goals, shared structure, and shared leadership of the apostles. The latter, an anachronistic reading, implies a more unstructured entity in the sense of a "greater" church reflecting the realities of the translator�s world and the chaos of the fragmented Christianity of the Period of the Great Separation.

Accordingly, translators have consistently rendered this phrase into English as "church of God," in the sense of a greater church. Hence, a translator’s choice of rendering the Greek text EKKLESIATOUTHEOU as "church of God" or with the formal specificity of the proper name "Church of God" depends upon the exegesis the translator desires to emphasize. Exegesis always precedes translation.

Page last updated: 12/29/03 06:31 PM.

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