Pastor of Faith Free Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis. Husband to Esther. Father of five. "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me," -Gal. 2:20.
Etymology of “church” is interesting. Our English word comes from the Greek kyrios (Lord) in the possessive through old English (Lord’s). Revelation 1:10 Lord’s Day (kyriake hemera). 1 Corinthians 11:20 Lord’s Supper (kyriakon deipnon). So it’s of interest that translators have rendered ekklesia as “church” and not something akin to “gathering.”
This would seem to be consistent with Luther’s usage of church/congregation in his explanation to the Third Article of the Creed in the Large Catechism.
Shameless plug for the Sverdrup Journal here – in one journal, I’m not sure which one, Pastor Marty Horn wrote an article about that exact etymology, talking about the word “church” usually referring to the congregation however, with the King James version being written, there may or may not have been some ulterior motives to the translation “church” rather than “congregation.”
I’ll have to check it out. For the paper I wrote for the GSS Journal, I leaned heavily on Luther’s understanding and translation of “congregation” in the Third Article of the Creed from the Large Catechism.
Etymology of “church” is interesting. Our English word comes from the Greek kyrios (Lord) in the possessive through old English (Lord’s). Revelation 1:10 Lord’s Day (kyriake hemera). 1 Corinthians 11:20 Lord’s Supper (kyriakon deipnon). So it’s of interest that translators have rendered ekklesia as “church” and not something akin to “gathering.”
This would seem to be consistent with Luther’s usage of church/congregation in his explanation to the Third Article of the Creed in the Large Catechism.
Shameless plug for the Sverdrup Journal here – in one journal, I’m not sure which one, Pastor Marty Horn wrote an article about that exact etymology, talking about the word “church” usually referring to the congregation however, with the King James version being written, there may or may not have been some ulterior motives to the translation “church” rather than “congregation.”
I’ll have to check it out. For the paper I wrote for the GSS Journal, I leaned heavily on Luther’s understanding and translation of “congregation” in the Third Article of the Creed from the Large Catechism.
Thank you!!1