The word ‘church’ in common language has many meanings depending on the context. This is the story …
Origin of the English word ‘church’
The English word ‘church’ itself is Anglo-Saxon in origin. The word first appeared in Anglo-Saxon translations of the Gospels as ‘chyrcan’ after which within the Wycliffe Bible as ‘chirche’, and the word developed into the trendy English word ‘church’. It is Germanic and will come from Gothic. It is said to ‘Kirche’ in German, ‘Kerk’ in Dutch, ‘Kirk’ in Scots and similar words in Scandinavian languages. It appears to be etymologically derived from the Greek ‘kyriakos oikos’ which implies ‘house of the Lord’, so it may perhaps at all times have had the nuance of a constructing.
Origin of the biblical term
The use of the word ‘church’ within the Bible was to translate the Greek word ἐκκλησία. This word might be transliterated into the Roman alphabet as ‘ekklesia’, and it got here into Latin as ‘ecclesia’. The Latin word ‘ecclesia’ gives us the English word ‘ecclesiastical’, but additionally the word for church in another languages comparable to ‘église’ in French, ‘iglesia’ in Spanish, and ‘eglwys’ in Welsh.
The Greek word ‘ekklesia’ was not invented by Christians. The word was originally a secular word used for a gathering of individuals, comparable to a crowd, or an assembly or group called for a specific purpose. In Greek society an ‘ekklesia’ was often the town council composed of local Greek freemen, where slaves, non-Greeks and ladies weren’t allowed to hitch.
The word ‘ekklesia’ was utilized by Greek-speaking Jews for his or her gatherings. It was used a few hundred times within the Septuagint (often abbreviated as LXX), which was the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures from the third century BC. The word ekklesia was used to translate the Hebrew קְהַ֖ל (qahal), which is generally translated into English as ‘assembly’ or ‘gathering’, first in Deuteronomy 4:10. The one that spoke or preached to the ekklesia was called the ekklesiastes, which became the title in Greek of considered one of the books of the Septuagint, which is a book we still call Ecclesiastes because of this. The ‘ekklesia of the LORD’ was the assembly of Israel. Later the word ‘synagogue’ got here for use as well, after which as a substitute.
Christian context
Later the early Christians, who used Greek as their lingua franca and were steeped within the Septuagint, naturally continued to make use of the word ekklesia for his or her gatherings, and so it appears of their writings. St Matthew used the word 3 times, once in Matthew 16:18, and twice in Matthew 18:17. In these places, William Tyndale in his translation of the New Testament in 1526, preferred to make use of the word ‘congregation’. The Geneva Bible modified that to ‘Church’, and this was also utilized in the King James Version, which established the present use of the word.
Even within the New Testament the Greek word ‘ekklesia’ is utilized in secular, Jewish and Christian contexts. In Acts 7:38, ‘ekklesia’ refers to Israel and is most frequently translated ‘congregation’. When the word is utilized in the secular context in Acts 19:32 to confer with an area crowd, it’s translated in most English Bible translations as ‘assembly’. The remainder of the time when the word is used for a Chistian group, it’s translated in most English Bibles as ‘church’.
St Paul uses the term over sixty times. It could also be that in Galatians 3:28 when St Paul wrote “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, there’s neither male nor female, for you’re all one in Christ Jesus” (NKJV), he was contrasting the membership criteria of a Greek ekklesia with a Christian church. St James seems to have preferred the word ‘synagogue’ in James 2:2, where it is generally translated as assembly or meeting, although Darby kept the word synagogue in his translation.
In the epistles we see the word ‘ekklesia’ referring to a Christian community in a certain place. So, in Colossians 4:15 we read of the church which met in a house, then in 1 Corinthians 12:28 St Paul outlines different roles which individuals can have within the church. In Ephesians 5:25, St Paul writes about Christ who loves the Church, and here he means all Christians. So, within the New Testament context, the church had the concept of either an area Christian community in a specific place, or the collective community of all Christians in every single place. Over time the word ‘church’ stretched and prolonged its semantic range to produce other associated meanings not present in the Bible.
Church services
Over the centuries the word church also got here to confer with the acts of spiritual service, which a church community held. So, when people talk of ‘going to church’ or ‘attending church’ they mean attending the act of spiritual service.
Church buildings
At first these Christian churches met in people’s houses, barns or in caves. Only in later centuries as Christianity was established and free from persecution, did these church communities construct their very own places of worship, which later got here to be generally known as churches themselves. Some church congregations meet in schools, village halls or other places which aren’t church buildings dedicated for Christian use. Conversely, sometimes a church constructing may not actually have a church congregation anymore. There is a British organisation called the Friends of Friendless Churches, which feels like an oxymoron, but it surely exists to take care of redundant places of worship, and plays a job in preserving ecclesiastical heritage.
Church universal
In theology ‘the Church’ is all the body of all Christians no matter age and denomination, sometimes called ‘the Church universal’. This may confer with all Christians living on the earth today, or could also be broader as all the body of Christians from all time whether living and dead. Sometimes people distinguish between the Church Militant, being all Christians alive on Earth now, and the Church Triumphant, being those that have ‘gone to glory’.
It was only after the Reformation when other Christian church organisations arose that the word ‘Church’ was also applied to a denomination, comparable to the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, and later others just like the Elim Pentecostal Church and the United Reformed Church. Often when the press and media confer with discussions and changes in ‘the Church’, it is definitely shorthand for the Anglican Church or the Catholic Church.
Spelling convention
In writing the convention is generally that when church is spelt with a small initial c, it refers to an area church congregation where ‘a church’ is a single group of Christians in a single place. However, when Church is spelt with an initial capital C it refers to a bigger collective group, comparable to the Church of England, or the Church universal of all believers. Usually it is evident in context, but not at all times. Moreover, the excellence of a lower-case c or upper-case C is a convention in written English, but it surely is lost when the word is heard or spoken.
How the word developed
The word ‘church’ has turn into a prefix, and we are able to use the words churchgoer, churchyard, churchwarden, churchman and churchmanship. The word ‘church’ has also turn into a verb, and you possibly can be churched and even de-churched. There is even a ceremony called churching, where women are blessed after childbirth. The Book of Common Prayer features a service for the Churching of Women.
Churchmanship
Some people talk of churchmanship to confer with the variety of governance and management utilized by their variety of church. People talk of “High Church” to mean churches with an emphasis on ceremony, liturgy and tradition, sometimes within the Anglican context also called Anglo-Catholic. In contrast “Low Church” refers to churches whose structure and repair are simpler, less formal and a greater emphasis on Scripture, often more evangelical. High Church to Low Church is a spectrum and the terms are typically utilized by Anglicans, and sometimes Catholics and sometimes in other traditions. It can be a matter of perspective and relies on what you’re comparing to. The term “Broad Church” refers back to the idea of being supportive of various sorts of churchmanship throughout the same denomination. The phrase “broad church” can be utilized in British English for any group, organisation, or political party, comparable to the Conservative Party, which incorporates and tolerates a large set of opinions, by analogy to the breadth of views within the Church of England.
In many parts of Wales and rural England, the words “church” and “chapel” have come for use as labels for forms of churchmanship. A one that is described as “church” or who attends “church” is generally Anglican, while a one that is “chapel” or attends “chapel” is a non-conformist, typically Baptist, Methodist, Independent or Congregationalist. In England and Wales, just the usage of the phrase “I’m going to chapel” is recognised as an indicator that the person will not be from the Established Church. In Scotland, people might use the word “Kirk” as a substitute of church.
Alternatives to the word ‘church’
The word ‘church’ has sometimes been used beyond the Christian context by the use of analogy. The Church of Scientology has no connections with Christianity in any respect, but the usage of the word ‘Church’ gives it a sound of spiritual respectability.
Due to misunderstandings and confusion, some Christian traditions have deliberately tried to avoid the word ‘church’. For some people the usage of the word ‘church’ as a constructing and as a denomination were unhelpful and unbiblical, and this encouraged the use of different phrasing.
The early Quakers called themselves Friends who met as ‘societies’, their buildings were called ‘meeting houses’, and their organisation is named the Society of Friends. They referred to traditional places of worship not as churches, but as steeplehouses. John Wesley and the early Methodists met in ‘societies’, and their buildings were called ‘chapels’, and so they referred to their organisation as ‘the Connexion’. John Nelson Darby preferred to make use of the word ‘assembly’ in his translation of the Bible, which is why Brethren discuss an assembly, typically meeting in a Gospel Hall or Mission Hall. Likewise, one Pentecostal grouping is named “the Assemblies of God”. Christadelphians confer with their meetings as ecclesias.
Some Fresh Expressions of church may prefer to confer with themselves as a house church, or may prefer not to make use of the word in any respect, and call themselves a congregation, a gathering, a fellowship or a worshipping community, if that’s more helpful of their context.
Some purists lament the usage of the word ‘church’ beyond its biblical usage. However, the character of language is that languages change, words gain different meanings, and the meaning of any word relies upon its context. One solution in English is to easily keep the word ‘church’ and add in a clarifying word to disambiguate the meaning. So, we are able to confer with a church congregation, a church service, a church constructing, a church denomination and the Church universal.
