�Critical Perspectives
from the Word of God
The Greek word �kkles�a, translated “church” in English language editions of the New Testament, means “assembly,” “congregation,” “group of people,” or the “community” but not a building or assembly hall. Its derivation is from the association of two Greek words �k denoting “out of" and kale�n meaning “to call.” In a literal sense �kkles�a referred to a class of individuals “assembled” or “called together.”
In Judeo-Christian parlance, the word came to refer to the group of individuals called together from the world to form the qehal'el, the Church of God, who were the people of God composing the community of faith. In a non-religious Hellenistic sense, the word implied the calling of an assembly by a crier or herald for an event such as a town meeting.
Quite early the less formal designation �kkles�a became an abbreviated form of the proper noun phrase Ekklesia tou Theou, the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew qehal �eloh�m for the designation of the congregation-at-large (II Corinthians 11:8, Ephesians 5:23, I Timothy 3:5) as well as a reference to specific congregations (I Corinthians 14:23, 14:34; Revelation 2:1, 2:8, 2:12, 2:18; Revelation 3:1, 3:7, 3:14). The use of �kkles�a in the latter case was still in the sense of an assembly. In this sense the more appropriate description of a Christian congregation in English would be "the assembly" and that is the form followed in the Romance languages.
Some scholars, under the heavy influence of traditional Christianity, hold that the derivation of the word church is from the Greek kuriakos, meaning "of the lord". This is unfortunate for the English word “church” is problematic and comes to us from paganism. Ebenezer Brewer in his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable under the entry “church” states that:
the etymology of this word is generally assumed to be from the Greek, Kurious oikos (house of God); but this is most improbable, as the word existed in all the Celtic dialects long before the introduction of Greek. No doubt the word means ‘a circle.’ The places of worship among the German and Celtic nations were always circular (Welsh, cyrch; French, cirque; Scotch, kirk; Greek, kirkos, etc.). Compare Anglo-Saxon circe, a church, with ‘circol,’ a circle. (Brewer 1910:252.)
In Homer’s Odyssey the sorceress Kirke, a daughter of Helios and Perse who lived on the island of Aeaea, was an enchantress who turned men into swine. In Greek mythology Helios, god of the sun and light, as an omniscient figure was all seeing and all knowing. Perse personified the underworld aspects of the moon. The sun and moon, presumably, came together in an ancient solar eclipse. The disk of the sun blackened by the disk of the moon produced a glowing ring of fire—the flaming circle (Kirke, Circe). Echoes of this fiery circle are present in nimbus and halo symbolism. This is the symbolic ring of light, shown around the head of divinities, dignities, and saints, emanating a bright glow. A full disk mirrors sun god symbolism.
We suggest that the word church, in Middle English chireche, chirche, kirke, and in Anglo-Saxon circe, cirice, cyrice, finds its derivation in neither �kkles�a nor kyrios but in kirke. The Romance languages do not reflect this derivation as �kkles�a—Greek: �kkles�a; Latin: ecclesia—provides the basis for contemporary words for “the assembly,” e.g., French: �glise; Italian: chiesa; Portuguese: igreja; Spanish: iglesia.
Page last edited: 01/02/06 05:05 PM
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