LEAVING THE DOCTRINE OF BAPTISMS 17:3
“Being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit … one body … one Spirit, … one hope ... one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all ...” (Ephesians 4:4-6, YLT). cf. 1 Corinthians 8:6.
His Body. To keep the Holy Spirit’s unity, we must diligently work to realize the one body, the one baptism, and the one Lord in our lives. This one body is to be subject to and belong to the Lord Jesus. His body is “His church.” “And he is the head of the body, the church” (Colossians 1:18, KJV). In other words, the one body is the Lord’s church. God the Father is still over all but He raised Christ up from the grave and made Him to be over every existing power (“every name that is namedi”) and to be head over the church “which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:20-23).
Body. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon tells us that this word bodyG4983 is used sometimes tropically; e.g., “is used of a (large or small) number of [people] closely united into one society, or family as it were; a social, ethical, mystical body; so [it is so used] in the N. T. of the church.”ii “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Romans 12:5).
The Lord’s Church. Jesus told His apostles during the year of His impending crucifixion, “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18); i.e., He would construct, edify His “one body.” Jesus, being the one head, is the head of only one body. This construction of building began on the Pentecost after His resurrection with the first preaching of the gospel of His death, burial, resurrection with testimony of the witnesses (Acts 2:41, 47; 1 Corinthians 15:1-5). Those hearing and believing and were baptized were added to the foundation infrastructure (Acts 2:41; Ephesians 3).
Church. Just as I mentioned in the previous article that the word “lord” was interesting to me, the word “church” is also intriguing. The history of the word “church” apparently is from the Old English and German word “kirche”, subsequently, developing with various spellings, such as cirice, circe; then, churche, cherche, etc.; having originated from the Greek (Anglicized) kuriakon of the first century, which is the adjective form of kurios, the Greek for our English “lord.”iii Since the word “church” is developed from kuriakon, one would reason that it means “belonging to the lord”; i.e., “Lord's.”iv Some think that it originally was associated with a “house”, “the Lord’s house”, which expression can be traced back to the third century but not to the first when the New Testament was written.
Problem. But the Greek in Matthew 16:18, etc., is not kuriakon; it is not “belonging to the Lord.” In fact, the Greek word "kuriakos" appears in the New Testament only twice. It is never translated "church! It is found once in I Corinthians 11:20 where it refers to "the Lord's supper," and once again in Revelation 1:10 where it refers to "the Lord's day." In both of those cases, it is translated "the Lord's..." and not "church."
The word translated "church" in Matthew 16 in the Greek is actually an entirely different word that is Anglicized as ecclesia. We use this word in English every time we say the title of the book of Ecclesiastes in the OT. Although the KJV used a Hebrew text as source for translating this OT book, it does not use its Hebrew title which meant "one that convenes a congregation or assembly."v Ecclesiastes is actually the Latinized form of the title used in the Greek Bible that means “a member addressing that assembly.”vi The word ecclesiastic is used in the text and translated in the KJV as “Teacher” in 1:1, 2, 12; 7:27; 12:8-10. But for some reason the title in the KJV remained in the Latinized Greek. It isn’t translated as “Teacher of the Assembly.” We do experience a legitimate Anglicized adjective in our English dictionary, “ecclesiastical” that is used in the religious world which is defined, “of or relating to a church especially as an established institution” (from Merriam-Webster Dictionary).
Real Definition Of Ecclesia. The Greek word for “church” (ekklēsiaG1577) is literally “a calling out, [ex(k)-, (like our ‘exit’) ‘out’; plus -kaleo, ‘to call’-GW] that is, (concretely) a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation (Jewish synagogue, or Christian community of members on earth or saints in heaven or both)” (Strong’s Dictionary, my emphasis). This Greek word form appears in the New Testament approximately 115 times. The KJV always wrongly substitutes the word “church” (lord’s) every time except for three times: Acts 19:32, 39, 41. In these instances the translators uses "assembly" instead of "church." It refers to a special assembly in that context: a civil body of select (called, elected) people. We as Christians can relate to this “elected” definition, for we are called out to be the elect of God. “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering” (Colossians 3:12; cf. 1 Peter 1:2; etc.).
The popular Greek OT version that was used by the dispersed Jews during the first century also uses this word ecclesia in 86 verses. The Apostolic Bible Polygott translates almost every occurrence in the OT as “assembly” with an exception being the book of Ecclesiastes as has been noted.
An example from the Polygott is, “I shall describe your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you” (Psalm 22:22). This verse is quoted in Hebrews 2:12 by the Polygott as “I will report your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to you.” The KJV uses “congregation” in the OT passage for the Hebrew (Psalm 26:12) but “the church” in its quote from the Greek NT (Hebrews 2:12).
Not all versions, of course, use the substituted word “church.” For example, instead of “church” in Matthew 16:18, English versions, Darby, TS2009, World English Bible, Young’s Literal Translation, and the Literal Translation of the Bible have “assembly”; the ISV and the Jubilee have “congregation”; the Tree of Life has “community.” These English words apparently match the meaning of the Greek word for the Lord’s body.
The assembly/congregation does belong to the Lord.
Members are "in the Lord" (Romans 16:8,11, 13; 1 Corinthians 4:17; 6:17; 7:22; etc.). In this sense they are indeed "the church" (i.e., the Lord's). "But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (2 Corinthians 10:17).
"In whom all the building [people] fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:21,22).
In conclusion, the one body of the Lord is the ecclesia, the called-out elect of the Lord. Is it a sin to refer to the ecclesia as the Lord’s (“church”) as some authors have contended? In my judgment, definitely not. It is not any more wrong than referring to the one immersion as the one baptism. In the one case (baptism) the translation is a coined transliteration of the Greek, but we know it refers to the special immersion authorized by Christ. In the other, although it is a substitute coined derivation of another designation it has been defined in society and understood as a term for the Lord’s assembly. To demonstrate my point, an accepted definition according to Merriam-Webster.com for the word “church” is “#3. a body or organization of religious believers: such as c. congregation. example: ‘they had appointed elders for them in every church ’- Acts 14:23 (Revised Standard Version).”
But I would certainly agree with the argued point by some that it must be understood that our use of “church” is referring to the body of the Lord’s people (#3 definition) and not a physical and man-made house, tabernacle, or temple, etc. This confuses the Word (1 Corinthians 14:33) and our understanding of the teaching concerning the Lord’s one body.
GAYLON WEST
Throw Out The Lifeline
i “in the name of” means “in the authority of”. "The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us IN YOUR NAME!’ … ‘Behold, I HAVE GIVEN YOU AUTHORITY to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you.’" Luke 10:17, 19
ii Soma.G4983 https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=kjv&strongs=g4983
iii From the Oxford Universal English Dictionary; cf. article, http://www.aggressivechristianity.net/articles/ecclesia.htm
iv For “Jehovah” and “Jesus” per “lord” see my previous article.
v https://www.lds.org/manual/old-testament-seminary-teacher-manual/introduction-to-the-book-of-ecclesiastes?lang=eng
vi Septuagint LXX; the Greek translation for the Jews dispersed in the Roman Empire.
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