First Posted May 27, 2008

According to Webster’s first three definitions (we discussed those last in the previous post), a “church“ is either a building, a bureaucracy, or an organization of religious believers.

Definition four, “a public divine worship,” still has us going somewhere, like to a church (definition one). However, going to church sounds more like going to an event or a happening than a building. Maybe we’re getting closer.

Definition five has “church” as a “profession” or “career.” I guess that’s where the guys who make up the “clergy or officialdom“ come from.

I apologize if all of this sounds a bit confusing, repetitive, or circular, but that is because it is confusing, repetitive, and circular.

Here is the point: Webster’s is a dictionary. Its job is to define a word accurately in light of its present meaning. What that means is that today, “church” means just what Webster says it means. What Webster doesn’t tell us is that its definition is what “church” has come to mean. Webster’s is a modern definition. In this century, “church means exactly what Webster says it does.

Bummer.

You want to know why bummer?

Because what “church” means today isn’t necessarily what it meant twenty centuries ago, you’re trying to reconcile a first-century idea of “church” with a twenty-first-century definition. And most of what “church” means today isn’t what it meant when Jesus first introduced the idea. If you’re a follower of Jesus rather than a follower of “church,” maybe that is why you’re so frustrated with “church.” It’s certainly why I am.

If you’re starting to get your feathers fluffed a little, just relax and hear me out. You may have a great church,  a wonderful church, a church that meets all your needs. I may not be talking about your church at all … of course, maybe I am.

All I’m really interested in is what the Bible says “church” is. If Webster’s definition of “church” doesn’t jibe with what is in the Word, well, then I guess we have a decision to make, don’t we?

Let’s start with what “church” isn’t, according to the Bible. Since Webster has given us a pretty good idea of what “church” means in the 21st century, we’ll hold those definitions up to “the light of scripture” to see if they’re light-proof.

Webster’s # 1: “Church” is a building. We all know that. Depending on where you’re from, churches are made out of limestone blocks, red brick, white clapboard, or metal siding and I-beams. Most of the time they’ve got a steeple and a lot of those have a cross on top. One thing we can all agree on – a “church” is a building.

I wonder if Jesus meant “building“ when first introduced the idea of “church” to His disciple Peter? “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18)

He says “build my church“; maybe He does mean that “church” is supposed to be a building. Seems to make sense reading the verse. It must be a pretty strong building too if “the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

There is one teensy-weensy problem with the verse though, and I’d better bring it up. Jesus didn’t say “church” in this verse; He said “ekklesia.” (Actually he didn’t: “Ekklesia” is Greek. Jesus spoke Aramaic; most likely he said “ladoth,” which is a discussion for another day. If you’re curious read this: https://www.chaimbentorah.com/2015/03/word-study-what-is-the-church-%d7%9c%d7%a2%d7%93%d7%aa/).

Our word “church“comes from the Middle English word “chirche.” “Chirche” comes from the Old English “cirice”; that comes ultimately from Late Greek “kyriakon.” “Kyriakon” or “kyriokos” means “belonging to the Lord (or lord).” “Kyriokos” appears in the New Testament but usually in reference to the “Lord’s Supper” or the “Lord’s Day”; never in relation to what we know as “church.”

So why the Middle English/Old English/Late Greek lesson? Is it really so important to know all this root word history stuff? What’s the problem with just reading the Bible as it is and taking the preacher’s word for what it means?

Here’s where the teensy-weensy problem in Matthew 16:18 becomes a big problem. The King James translators got the word “ekklesia” wrong the first time it appeared here where Jesus introduced the idea to Peter. Then they went on to get it wrong 114 more times.

But they did get “ekklesia” right three times. The word means literally, “called out ones.” It has the connotation of being “called out” to an “assembly” or an assembled group of people.

The three times the King James translates “ekklesia” correctly, as “assembly” are all lumped together in the back half of Acts 19.

Luke is telling the story of a group of Christians, they were called “the Way” back then, in a city called Ephesus; telling people about their new faith. So many Ephesians were coming to “the Way” that it began to affect business.

Ephesus was a temple town. And their temple was for the goddess Artemis. The city’s craftsmen made and its merchants sold statuettes, idols, to everyone who came to worship “the great goddess Artemis.” The Ephesians even had their own fight song, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” What they were saying, in effect, was “Artemis is great and our Artemis is greater than yours.”

Well, when people started believing in “the Way” they didn’t need Artemis anymore … or the little statuettes that kept the city’s economy humming along. So the merchants and craftsmen started a riot and called the whole city into a great assembly at the local stadium. This “assembly” of Ephesians rioting and chanting their Artemis fight song is the only time in the KJV that “ekklesia” is rightfully translated “assembly.”

Back to “church” as a building.

You want to know something else that is pretty interesting? The only time “church” is referred to as a building (the Greek word “hieron” means “temple”) is in this same story. It was these guys again, the Ephesians, talking about their temple of the goddess Artemis.

So, at this point, we know a couple of things:

When the KJV Bible says “church”(115 times total), 114 times the original word is “ekklesia” or “assembly,” one time the original word is “hieron” or “temple.” (By the way, I’m not picking on the KJV. All English translations use “church” to translate “ekklesia,” just not as much as the KJV.)

The English word “church” comes, ultimately, from the Greek word “kyriokos,” which means “belonging to the L(l)ord.”The problem is, when Jesus and the apostles talked about the “church”(114 times), they never said “kyriokos”; they said “ekklesia.”

Any way you shake it, when Jesus and the apostles spoke about the “ekklesia,” they weren’t talking about a “hieron”- a temple or building.

But that’s not how it is today. I’ve still got to agree with Webster’s; a “church,” among other things, is a building. The problem, as we have seen, is that when Jesus told Peter, “Upon this rock I will build my church.” he didn’t say “church,” he said “assembly.” Jesus wasn’t talking about a building.

I then next in this series, we’ll talk more about what Jesus wasn’t talking about. Maybe we can even get to what He was talking about.