to pursue, in all my use of technical Biblical terms in Biblical Theology, is a different one, namely, to purge the Biblical words of their later partisan bias and theoretic accretions, and set them in their genuine Biblical light and colour. Our battleships are not discarded when their bottoms have been fouled by tropical marine deposits. We put them in the dry-docks and clean them, and they become as powerful and useful as ever. 1. For the study of èκкλŋoía we get little light from classic Greek. Thayer-Grimm says: "Among the Greeks, from Thucydides down (it means), an assembly of the people convened at the public place of council for the purpose of deliberating." It is used in this sense, in the New Testament, only in Acts xix. 32, 39, 41. In the Greek versions, the Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, it translates usually the Hebrew. This Hebrew np is, however, more comprehensive than ekkλnola. It has the same fundamental meaning of "assembly," but this may be of an army, a crowd, a band of robbers, as well as a political and religious assembly. It also means the act of assembling and the body itself as assembled. In the Pentateuch, the earliest part of the Old Testament translated into Greek, P is rendered by the Greek σvvaywyn in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. These are the chief passages in the Law where the Hebrew religious community, organised and meeting for worship, is described. Deuteronomy has a different usage; exλnola is used for p in all passages (Deut. ix. 10; x. 4; xviii. 16; xxiii. 1, 2, 3, 8; xxxi. 30) but one (v. 19 [22]), where ovvaywyn is used. This shows for Deuteronomy the hand of another and later translator than for the other books of the Pentateuch. The phrase, ÉKKλŋσía Kupiov (i. e., Yahweh), begins in Deut. xxiii. 1 (2), 2 (3), 3 (4), 8 (9). In the Prophets, the second layer of the canon, p is rendered by ovvaywyn in Jeremiah and Ezekiel often; in Isaiah the word is not used. But in the translation of the Minor Prophets éλnoía is used in the two passages, Micah ii. 5; Joel ii. 16—the only ones in the collection using. In the prophetic histories in all passages the same translation by ÉKKλŋoía is made. It is interesting to note, however, that GA gives ekkλŋσía in one passage, Ezek. xxxii. 3; Aquila in five passages, Ezek. xxiii. 47; xxvi. 7; xxxii. 3, 22, 23; and Theodotion in six passages, Ezek. xxiii. 47; xxvi. 7; xxvii. 27; xxxii. 3, 22, 23, showing an increasing tendency in later times to the use of ekkλnoía. This is confirmed by the translator of the chronicler, who in thirty-eight passages uses EKKλnoía for P. So also in the Psalter ekkλnola is used eight times; in Proverbs once; in Job once; σvvaywyn is used only in Ps. xl. 11 (10), and Prov. xxi. 16, for special reasons. It is evident, therefore, that in the earlier translations of the Old Testament into Greek was rendered by ovvaywyń, in the later translated by ékλŋola. We are thus at the very foundations of our study brought face to face with the fact that συναγωγή was an older Greek term than ἐκκλησία for Israel as an organized religious body, and so we should not be surprised that it has continued among the Jews to the present time. The collective Israel is now, as ever since the Pentateuch was translated into Greek, known as "the Synagogue." The collective Christianity has been known as "the Church," the earlier Christians preferring this term to "synagogue." The two terms are, indeed, synonymous terms, with little practical difference in meaning. More common in the Pentateuch than P is 7, "congregation, company assembled by appointment," used 115 times in the priest's code, and translated by ovvaywyń. There are two passages in which and p are used together (Exod. xii. 6; Numb. xiv. 5), translated in Greek by one word, ovvaywyń. Probably these are conflations. We thus have in the Old Testament the use of T and SP, terms to indicate the entire religious community of Israel. These were rendered by "synagogue" and "church." Evvaywyń came first to have a local sense of a single community, and thus probably exкλnoía became more common among the Greek Jews for Israel as a whole, although the Palestinian Jews adhered to the older word. It was natural, therefore, for Christians to use èκкλnσía by preference, which itself was also used for the local assembly as well as the whole body. This double sense of both words was established in the Old Testament. 2. The New Testament doctrine of the exλŋσía must be built on the teaching of Paul. There are only three cases in the Gospels in which the word exêλŋσía is put in the mouth of Jesus, viz., Matt. xvi. 17-19; xviii. 15-20. It is improbable that in either case Jesus used the Aramaic p. It seems altogether probable that he used in the former case "kingdom" or "house," for either of these words is more in accordance with the context, and the imagery of the passage and later references to it. In the latter case "the disciples" or "brotherhood" was probably used for a similar reason. Jesus, as we shall see later on, used "kingdom" where Paul used ἐκκλησία. 3. The use of exкλŋσía apart from Paul and his disciples is confined to James v. 14; Rev. i. 4-iii. 22, nineteen times; Rev. xxii. 16; III John 6, 9, 10; always of the local ἐκκλησία, where συναγωγή would have been equally appropriate. 4. EKKλnola is used in the book of Acts twenty-three times. In three of these the reference is to the Greek assembly (viz., xix. 32, 39, 41), as we have seen; six to the church in Jerusalem (viii. 1, 3; xi. 22; xii. 1, 5; xv. 4); four to the church at Antioch (xi. 26; xiii. 1; xiv. 27; xv. 3); one each to the church at Ephesus (xx. 17) and at Cæsarea (xviii. 22); thrice to a number of churches in different cities (xiv. 23; xv. 41; xvi. 5). Several passages need special attention. The phrase "the whole Church," Acts v. 11; xv. 22, seems to comprehend the whole Christian body. So also "the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria," Acts ix. 31; for Christianity had not extended farther at that time. Stephen, 'See Briggs, Messiah of the Gospels, pp. 190 f. Acts vii. 38, refers to the "Church in the wilderness," plainly indicating the continuity of the Church of his day with the Church of that day. But the most important passage is Acts xx. 28, where Paul warns the elders of the church at Ephesus: "Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in the which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of the Lord, which he acquired with his own blood." As I have said elsewhere: "There is a great difference of opinion as to the reading here. The external authority of MSS., versions and citations is not decisive. Tischendorf, DeWette, Meyer, and the mass of German critics read 'Church of the Lord'; Scrivener, Westcott and Hort, and the leading British scholars read 'Church of God.' If any unprejudiced man will compare the great mass of authorities cited on both sides, he will be convinced that there is ample room for difference of opinion. The context favours 'Church of the Lord.' This reading is also favoured by the fact that it is a unique reading and, therefore, difficult. Nowhere else in the New Testament do we find the phrase 'Church of the Lord.' The scribe in doubt would follow the usual phrase. "The Church of the Lord' is only found here in the New Testament, but it is the same in idea as the Church of which Christ is the head, according to the Epistle to the Ephesians. "The Church of God' is a favourite expression of Paul in his epistles. Indeed, the word 'church' is a Pauline word. In his theology it takes the place of the kingdom of the gospels and of the Jewish Christian writers. "The Church of the Lord' has been acquired as a possession by him. The means by which this precious acquisition has been made is his blood. This blood, according to the reading which has been adopted, is the blood of the Messiah. We are reminded of redemption by the blood of Christ, the lamb without blemish and without spot, of the first Epistle of Peter. Here, as there, the blood is doubtless the blood of the sacrifice of the new covenant as represented in the cup of the Lord's Supper. Parallel with the Church is the flock. This parallelism is favoured by the words of Jesus which connect flock and kingdom, and it is in accordance with the teachings of Jesus when he appointed his apostles to act as shepherds of the flock. The Church of the Lord is the flock of the Messiah which is to be fed by shepherds appointed by him. These shepherds were constituted by the Holy Spirit, so that they are shepherds of the flock of Christ, by the authority of Christ. The elders of the local church at Ephesus are addressed, according to the context. The apostle rises from the conception of the local church and flock to the universal Church and flock, and recog nises that the elders of the local church are shepherds of the universal Church of the Lord. They are overseers, who have the flock in charge. The elders are bishops in the church." Dr. Hort calls attention to the fact that Paul here has in mind Ps. lxxiv. 2, where the Septuagint uses avvaywyń, and that Paul does not hesitate to substitute ékkλησíа for it. "Of course, in strictness the words belong only to the one universal Christian ecclesia; but here they are transferred to the individual ecclesia of Ephesus, which alone these elders were charged to shepherd. In the epistles we shall find similar investment of parts of the universal ecclesia with the high attributes of the whole. This transference is no mere figure of speech. Each partial society is set forth as having a unity of its own, and, being itself a body made up of many members, has therefore a corporate life of its own; and yet these attributes could not be ascribed to it as an absolutely independent and, as it were, insular society; they belong to it only as a representative member of the great whole." "2 This passage just considered, in which Luke puts the word ekkλnoía Kupíov in the mouth of Paul, may introduce us to Paul's doctrine of the exλnoía. We may study it in its three stages of growth in the Pauline epistles: (1) in the earlier group of epistles, Galatians, I and II Thessalonians, I and II Corinthians, Romans; (2) in the epistles written during the Roman captivity, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon; and (3) in the pastoral epistles, I and II Timothy, Titus. (1) The term "church" is used three times in Galatians, four times in Thessalonians, thirty-one times in Corinthians and five times in Romans. In the Epistle to the Galatians Paul speaks of the local assembly or synagogue (i. 2, 22); but also of these local churches as in Christ (i. 22), and of the organised body of Christians as the Church of God which he had persecuted (i. 13). Paul does not in the Epistles to the Thessalonians rise above the local assembly or synagogue, but he teaches that these local assemblies are 1 Briggs, The Messiah of the Apostles, 1895, pp. 80-83, 2 The Christian Ecclesia, 1898, pp. 102-3, |