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Sidebar: Church and Congregation in Scripture
'Church' and 'Congregation' in the Scriptures
The exact relationship of the New Testament Church (Greek ekklesia) to the
congregation of Israel in the Old Testament can best be understood when we learn
the different interpretations placed on the two Hebrew words for "congregation":
'edah and qahal.
The Holman Bible Dictionary, in its article "Congregation," explains that
these Hebrew words were used with a significantly different meaning in the days of
Christ and the apostles. "In the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint) 'edah
was usually translated (into Greek as) sunagoge, (and) qahal (as) ekklesia. In late
Judaism (the Greek word) sunagoge depicted the actual Israelite people and (the word)
ekklesia the ideal elect of God called to salvation. Hence (the Greek word) ekklesia
became the term for the Christian congregation, the church . . . There
is a direct spiritual continuity between the congregation of the Old Testament and
the New Testament Church. Significantly the Christian community chose the Old Testament
term for the ideal people of God called to salvation (ekklesia), rather than the
term which described all Israelites collectively (sunagoge)."
This explains why the New Testament word for the Church, ekklesia, refers only to
those people, Jews and gentiles, who are called by God to receive salvation through
Jesus Christ. Therefore the Church of God, the term most generally applied to God's
people in English translations of the New Testament, is the body of people who are
special to God because they obey His Word and accept His Son, Jesus Christ, as the
Messiah.
©1999 United Church of God, an International Associtaion
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