Tyndale's Consistent Translation of Ekklesia As Congregation: A Study In the Meaning of Church
Tyndale in his 1526 English New Testament consistently translated ekklesia as congregation, except for Acts 14: 13 and Acts 19: 37 where he used churche, meaning a pagan place of worship. Tyndale broke with Catholic tradition and used congregation for ekklesia something which might have contributed to his being strangled at the stake by the Catholics.
John Wycliffe in his 1382 English translation of the Latin ecclesia used chirche. For example, Wycliffe says for Acts 6: 1, "
"But Saul was consentynge to his deth. And greet persecucioun
was maad that dai in the chirche, that was in Jerusalem." Wycliffe's 1382 English translation is a Catholic Bible.
Look at the two texts in Acts for which Tyndale uses chirche instead of congregation.
http://wesley.nnu.edu/sermons-essays-books/william-tyndales-translation/
Acts 14: 13 in the Tyndale New Testament: "And when the people sawe what Paul had done they lifte vp their voyces sayinge in the speache of Lycaonia: Goddes are come doune to vs in the lyknes of men.
12 And they called Barnabas Iupiter and Paul Mercurius because he was the preacher.
13 Then Iupiters Preste which dwelt before their cite brought oxe and garlondes vnto the churche porche and wolde have done sacrifise with the people."
"Then Jupiter's priest which dealt before their city brought ox and garlands unto the churche porch and would have done sacrifice with the people."
Tyndale translates ekklesia as churche in Acts 14: 13, but in all other places except Acts 19: 37 Tyndale uses congregation for ekklesia.
Acts 19: 37, "When the toune clarcke had ceased the people he sayd: ye men of Ephesus what man is it that knoweth not how that the cite of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddas Diana and of ye ymage which came fro heven.
36 Seinge then yt no man sayth here agaynst ye ought to be content and to do nothinge rasshly:
37 For ye have brought hyther these me whiche are nether robbers of churches nor yet despisers of youre goddes."
"For ye have brought hither these men which are neither robbers of churches nor yet despisers of your gods."
What meaning then does the word churche, spelled chirche by the English Catholic Wycliffe in 1382, have for William, Tyndale?
Churche is, for Tyndale in Acts 14: 13 and Acts 19: 37 a pagan place of worship.
The link to the longer definition of church in the Oxford English Dictionary is: http://civ.icelord.net/read.php?f=3&i=63650&t=63650&v=f
"CHURCH: FORMS: (a) cirice, cyrice, chiriche, churiche, chereche, (b) CIRCE, cyrce, chyrce, cirke, etc., etc.,
"The ulterior derivation has been keenly disputed. The L. circus, and a Gothic word kйlikn 'tower, upper chamber' (app. originally
Gaulish) have both been proposed (the latter suggested by the Alemannic chilihha), but are set aside as untenable; and there is now a general
agreement among scholars in referring it to the Greek word, properly kurion adj. 'of the Lord, dominicum, dominical' (f. Kurios lord), which
occurs, from the 3rd century at least, used substantively (sc. doma, or the like) = 'house of the Lord', as a name of the Christian house of
worship. Of this the earliest cited instances are in the Apostolical Constitutions (II. 59), a 300, the edict of Maximinus (303-13), cited by
Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. ix. 10) a 324, the Councils of Ancyra 314 (Canon 15), Neo-Caesarea 314-23 (Can. 5), and Laodicea (Can. 28).
Thenceforward it appears to have been in fairly common use in the East: e.g., Constantine named several churches built by him Kuriaka
(Eusebius De Laud. Const. xvii),"(Oxford English Dictionary).
CIRCE was a Greek goddess who turned men into PIGS!!"
The Oxford English Dictionary mentions the Greek goddess circe, and also says in caps in its list of spellings of church, the word CIRCE. The Catholic Encyclopedia lists circe as one spelling of church, but does not mention a possible origin of circe from the Greek goddess circe.
Even if it is accepted that church derives from kyriakon, the lord's house, made into the Lord's house, this has problems with New Testament doctrine.
The Roman Catholic Church emphasized the authority of the church hierarchy, the clergy, and the church as a building was part of the rule of the Church over the people. So the building for the Catholics would be God's house, like a temple of the Old Covenant.
But - "Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet." Acts 7: 48
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." I Corinthians 3: 16-17
"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" I Corinthians 6: 19
But what did the word "Circe" refer to? In his study, The Myth of Kirke, 1888, Robert Brown writes about Circe, which is a proper noun, in ancient Greek mythology and says it means "Circle" or "Circular." Circe referred to a building that was "circular," and also to a Goddess of ancient Greece. Kirke" or "Circe" was a mythical pagan Goddess who was the daughter of the Sun God.
See http://www.synagoguechm.com/drashot/...rsynagogue.pdf
"We also see in Greek mythology, Circe is a minor goddess of magic (or sometimes a nymph,
witch, enchantress or sorceress) living on the island of Aeaea. Circe's father was Helios (or Helius), the god of the sun...Circe transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals through the use of magical potions. She was renowned for her knowledge of drugs and herbs."
Our English word church is from Greek word Ekklesia. In translating a Greek word into English the rule is that the English word must have a meaning that is closest to the meaning of the Greek word at the time the Greek text was written.
The Greek word ekklesia in the Third Century Septuagint was translated from the Hebrew word qahal, which means assembly or congregation. Exodus 12: 6: "And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening."
http://www.acu.edu/sponsored/restoration_quarterly/archives/1950s/vol_2_no_4_contents/ward.html
""In the light of this study of the existing evidence concerning the pre-Christian history of ekklesia, the following may be noted: (1) Ekklesia meant an assembly. (2) It was familiar both to Gentiles by political usage and to Greek-speaking Jews through the LXX. (3) Its Greek history associated with it a certain dignity, with possible ideals of freedom and equal-membership playing a part. (4) It could be used of a religious assembly--Pagan or Jewish--but it did not become the title of any religious group, Pagan or Jewish. (5) Negatively, no evidence is found that in usage it meant "the called out"—despite etymology—nor that it came to mean "the People of God," nor that, in general, it was applied to any other than an
individual assembly."
"
"In the New Testament this site says "Acts. Ekklesia is used 23 times by the author of Acts.....Ekklesia is explicitly or implicitly used in a local sense: it is the assembly (assembled or not) at Jerusalem (11:22; 12:1, 5; 15:4, 22), at Antioch (11:26; 13:1; 14:27; 15:3), at Caesarea (18:22), and at Ephesus (20:17,28). "
"Ekklesia is used 62 times in the Pauline epistles. In Paul's first letter to Corinth he uses ekklesia several times according to common usage; denoting an actual assembly:"
Then this site says "When speaking of a larger geographical area Paul uses the plural: the churches of Asia (1 Cor. 16:19), of Galatia (1 Cor. 16:1; Gal. 1:1), of Macedonia (2 Cor. 8:1), of Judea (Gal. 1:22; 1 Thess. 2:14). Paul also uses ekklesia of smaller groups, such as the household church of Prisea and Aquila in Rome (Rom. 16:5), that of the same couple in Ephesus (1 Cor. 16:19), that of Nympha in Laodicea (Col. 4:15) and that of Philemon in Colosse (Phile. 2). These can evidently be called ekklesia, even while calling the total group in the city ekklesia."
But in Colossians 4: 15 Paul uses ekklesia to mean, as he usually does, a local congregation. Did he change the definition of ekklesia from being a congregation to being equal to the Body of Christ? Be careful here. The question is what percentage of the home congregations Paul is writing about in Ephesians and Colossians are members of the Body of Christ? It is possible that at that time and place almost everyone in the home congregations written about in Ephesians and Colossians were the elect of God.
Yet the doctrine that the Church with a capital C is the Body of Christ encourages an easy salvation in which it almost means that joining a church makes you saved.
Tyndale in his 1526 English New Testament consistently translated ekklesia as congregation, except for Acts 14: 13 and Acts 19: 37 where he used churche, meaning a pagan place of worship. Tyndale broke with Catholic tradition and used congregation for ekklesia something which might have contributed to his being strangled at the stake by the Catholics.
John Wycliffe in his 1382 English translation of the Latin ecclesia used chirche. For example, Wycliffe says for Acts 6: 1, "
"But Saul was consentynge to his deth. And greet persecucioun
was maad that dai in the chirche, that was in Jerusalem." Wycliffe's 1382 English translation is a Catholic Bible.
Look at the two texts in Acts for which Tyndale uses chirche instead of congregation.
http://wesley.nnu.edu/sermons-essays-books/william-tyndales-translation/
Acts 14: 13 in the Tyndale New Testament: "And when the people sawe what Paul had done they lifte vp their voyces sayinge in the speache of Lycaonia: Goddes are come doune to vs in the lyknes of men.
12 And they called Barnabas Iupiter and Paul Mercurius because he was the preacher.
13 Then Iupiters Preste which dwelt before their cite brought oxe and garlondes vnto the churche porche and wolde have done sacrifise with the people."
"Then Jupiter's priest which dealt before their city brought ox and garlands unto the churche porch and would have done sacrifice with the people."
Tyndale translates ekklesia as churche in Acts 14: 13, but in all other places except Acts 19: 37 Tyndale uses congregation for ekklesia.
Acts 19: 37, "When the toune clarcke had ceased the people he sayd: ye men of Ephesus what man is it that knoweth not how that the cite of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddas Diana and of ye ymage which came fro heven.
36 Seinge then yt no man sayth here agaynst ye ought to be content and to do nothinge rasshly:
37 For ye have brought hyther these me whiche are nether robbers of churches nor yet despisers of youre goddes."
"For ye have brought hither these men which are neither robbers of churches nor yet despisers of your gods."
What meaning then does the word churche, spelled chirche by the English Catholic Wycliffe in 1382, have for William, Tyndale?
Churche is, for Tyndale in Acts 14: 13 and Acts 19: 37 a pagan place of worship.
The link to the longer definition of church in the Oxford English Dictionary is: http://civ.icelord.net/read.php?f=3&i=63650&t=63650&v=f
"CHURCH: FORMS: (a) cirice, cyrice, chiriche, churiche, chereche, (b) CIRCE, cyrce, chyrce, cirke, etc., etc.,
"The ulterior derivation has been keenly disputed. The L. circus, and a Gothic word kйlikn 'tower, upper chamber' (app. originally
Gaulish) have both been proposed (the latter suggested by the Alemannic chilihha), but are set aside as untenable; and there is now a general
agreement among scholars in referring it to the Greek word, properly kurion adj. 'of the Lord, dominicum, dominical' (f. Kurios lord), which
occurs, from the 3rd century at least, used substantively (sc. doma, or the like) = 'house of the Lord', as a name of the Christian house of
worship. Of this the earliest cited instances are in the Apostolical Constitutions (II. 59), a 300, the edict of Maximinus (303-13), cited by
Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. ix. 10) a 324, the Councils of Ancyra 314 (Canon 15), Neo-Caesarea 314-23 (Can. 5), and Laodicea (Can. 28).
Thenceforward it appears to have been in fairly common use in the East: e.g., Constantine named several churches built by him Kuriaka
(Eusebius De Laud. Const. xvii),"(Oxford English Dictionary).
CIRCE was a Greek goddess who turned men into PIGS!!"
The Oxford English Dictionary mentions the Greek goddess circe, and also says in caps in its list of spellings of church, the word CIRCE. The Catholic Encyclopedia lists circe as one spelling of church, but does not mention a possible origin of circe from the Greek goddess circe.
Even if it is accepted that church derives from kyriakon, the lord's house, made into the Lord's house, this has problems with New Testament doctrine.
The Roman Catholic Church emphasized the authority of the church hierarchy, the clergy, and the church as a building was part of the rule of the Church over the people. So the building for the Catholics would be God's house, like a temple of the Old Covenant.
But - "Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet." Acts 7: 48
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." I Corinthians 3: 16-17
"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" I Corinthians 6: 19
But what did the word "Circe" refer to? In his study, The Myth of Kirke, 1888, Robert Brown writes about Circe, which is a proper noun, in ancient Greek mythology and says it means "Circle" or "Circular." Circe referred to a building that was "circular," and also to a Goddess of ancient Greece. Kirke" or "Circe" was a mythical pagan Goddess who was the daughter of the Sun God.
See http://www.synagoguechm.com/drashot/...rsynagogue.pdf
"We also see in Greek mythology, Circe is a minor goddess of magic (or sometimes a nymph,
witch, enchantress or sorceress) living on the island of Aeaea. Circe's father was Helios (or Helius), the god of the sun...Circe transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals through the use of magical potions. She was renowned for her knowledge of drugs and herbs."
Our English word church is from Greek word Ekklesia. In translating a Greek word into English the rule is that the English word must have a meaning that is closest to the meaning of the Greek word at the time the Greek text was written.
The Greek word ekklesia in the Third Century Septuagint was translated from the Hebrew word qahal, which means assembly or congregation. Exodus 12: 6: "And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening."
http://www.acu.edu/sponsored/restoration_quarterly/archives/1950s/vol_2_no_4_contents/ward.html
""In the light of this study of the existing evidence concerning the pre-Christian history of ekklesia, the following may be noted: (1) Ekklesia meant an assembly. (2) It was familiar both to Gentiles by political usage and to Greek-speaking Jews through the LXX. (3) Its Greek history associated with it a certain dignity, with possible ideals of freedom and equal-membership playing a part. (4) It could be used of a religious assembly--Pagan or Jewish--but it did not become the title of any religious group, Pagan or Jewish. (5) Negatively, no evidence is found that in usage it meant "the called out"—despite etymology—nor that it came to mean "the People of God," nor that, in general, it was applied to any other than an
individual assembly."
"
"In the New Testament this site says "Acts. Ekklesia is used 23 times by the author of Acts.....Ekklesia is explicitly or implicitly used in a local sense: it is the assembly (assembled or not) at Jerusalem (11:22; 12:1, 5; 15:4, 22), at Antioch (11:26; 13:1; 14:27; 15:3), at Caesarea (18:22), and at Ephesus (20:17,28). "
"Ekklesia is used 62 times in the Pauline epistles. In Paul's first letter to Corinth he uses ekklesia several times according to common usage; denoting an actual assembly:"
Then this site says "When speaking of a larger geographical area Paul uses the plural: the churches of Asia (1 Cor. 16:19), of Galatia (1 Cor. 16:1; Gal. 1:1), of Macedonia (2 Cor. 8:1), of Judea (Gal. 1:22; 1 Thess. 2:14). Paul also uses ekklesia of smaller groups, such as the household church of Prisea and Aquila in Rome (Rom. 16:5), that of the same couple in Ephesus (1 Cor. 16:19), that of Nympha in Laodicea (Col. 4:15) and that of Philemon in Colosse (Phile. 2). These can evidently be called ekklesia, even while calling the total group in the city ekklesia."
But in Colossians 4: 15 Paul uses ekklesia to mean, as he usually does, a local congregation. Did he change the definition of ekklesia from being a congregation to being equal to the Body of Christ? Be careful here. The question is what percentage of the home congregations Paul is writing about in Ephesians and Colossians are members of the Body of Christ? It is possible that at that time and place almost everyone in the home congregations written about in Ephesians and Colossians were the elect of God.
Yet the doctrine that the Church with a capital C is the Body of Christ encourages an easy salvation in which it almost means that joining a church makes you saved.