This
title is meant to be funny and serious at the same time. It is meant to be funny because in the time
of Moses there was no such thing as a “church.”
It is meant to be serious because the Greek text of Acts 7:38 uses the
Greek word evkklhsia (ekklēsia)
that is often translated “church” in the New Testament.
KJV Acts 7:35 This Moses whom they
refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to
be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him
in the bush. 36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed
wonders and signs in the land of Egypt , and in the Red sea ,
and in the wilderness forty years. 37 This is that Moses, which said
unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto
you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. 38 This is
he, that was in the church in
the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount
Sinai , and with our fathers: who
received the lively oracles to give unto us: 39 To whom our fathers
would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned
back again into Egypt.
The American Standard Version also uses “church” to translate the word. The New
International Version, however, does translate the word “assembly”—and the Revised and New Revised Standard Version translate the word “congregation.” The Vulgate
uses the Latin transliteration of the Greek work: ecclesia.
By
way of introducing this study, I want to tell you the story of a little Latin
word. Prior to the time of Cicero, the great Roman philosopher, statesman,
lawyer,
orator,
political theorist, Roman consul
and constitutionalist,
who lived from January 3, 106 BC to
December 18, 43 BC. He came from a
wealthy municipal
family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one
of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.
He introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek
philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary
distinguishing himself as a linguist, translator, and philosopher.
When
Cicero encountered the Greek word kosmoj;vjjJß (kosmos), he knew there was no corresponding word in Latin for
the meaning of this Greek work in its philosophical use—“the world” or “the universe”
[the Russians call their astronauts “cosmonauts”].
So he studied the Greek word’s first and
continuing meanings of “ornament,
decoration, dress.” We still have an
English word that comes from this older meaning of kosmojς—“cosmetic, cosmetics.” So Cicero
found a Latin word that meant “ornament,
decoration, dress”—and that word was mundus. To this word he added the new meaning of “world” or “universe.” That is why most
of the Romance languages have words for “world”
taken from this Latin word:
|
English
|
Latin
|
Portuguese
|
Spanish
|
Italian
|
French
|
|
world
|
mundus
|
mundo
|
mundo
|
mondo
|
monde
|
The Romanians use the word lume, which was taken
from the Latin noun lumen, luminis, “light.”
But
the Greek word evkklhsia did not originally mean “church.” I will write
another blog to comment on the origin and meaning of the word “church.”
So
the Greek word evkklhsia originally meant “assembly.”
Thanks for visiting our blog.
Dr.
Ike Tennison
