Is Church In The Bible?

Posted byDave AldonPosted inhistory, theologyTags:, , , , , , ,

But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. – Matthew 12:36-37

The history of the written Bible and how certain words were translated remains a great point of contention today. In a website I created recently called Bible Translations, I sought to visualize the great history and web of translations that exist today. It’s an ongoing project because there is an enormous amount of translations out there. With that said, this post today is going to narrow in on a small group of early English translations, and help illustrate how important it is to ask questions about God’s word. Where did the word “church” come from? Why does the Bible use the word church? Is church as we understand it, actually in the Bible?

The Problem

The word “church” is used many times in the Bible, but only in the English New Testament. It’s an English word which evolved linguistically outside of the Bible from the Greek word κυριακόν (kūrikón), which is an adjective meaning “belonging to a lord.” This is not God specifically as LORD, but, for example, the master or lord of a given property. Kūrikón is used just a couple times in the Bible, and never in reference to the Body of Christ:

When you come together, it is not the Lord’s (Kūrikón) supper that you eat. – 1 Corinthians 11:20

This is an example of where Strong’s Concordance can be incredibly useful, because these nuances of Greek usage become more evident. With the word “church” originating from a Greek word that seemingly has no inherent religious connotations, why was it used as a translation for a completely different Greek word?

On this rock I will build my church. – Matthew 16:18

In the above verse from Matthew, the word church in the original Greek text is ἐκκλησίαν (ekklésia), meaning “a called-out assembly or congregation.” This is where in modern English the word ecclesiology comes from, which means “the study of doctrine concerning the church.” Ekklésia is the language Jesus uses frequently to describe the Body of Christ, and those called by God as an assembly.

Wycliffe, who wrote the first English translation based on Latin in 1382, chose to translate ekklésia (or ecclesia in Latin) as “church.” For example, this is the same passage in Matthew:

And Y seie to thee, that thou art Petre, and on this stoon Y schal bilde my chirche, and the yatis of helle schulen not haue miyt ayens it. -(Matthew 16:18, Wycliffe, c1382 in Old English Spelling)

It’s difficult to determine Wycliffe’s reasoning behind this, as the word “church” is today and was in the middle ages culturally misunderstood as simply a building or clerical institution and not the assembly of the Body of Christ.

Tyndale’s Solution

The first English translation of scripture based on the original Greek was the Tyndale Bible (Wycliffe’s was based on Latin). How did Tyndale translate ekklésia, the assembly and Body of Christ?

Tyndale himself actually struggled with this decision. He criticized his culture’s interpretation of the word church, believing that the clergy and monks at the time had monopolized the word, leading to its association with the ecclesiastical hierarchy and physical buildings. The word ekklésia never implied any of this, making “church” an inaccurate translation that perpetuated misconceptions.1

Tyndale chose congregation as a more suitable translation:

And I saye also vnto the that thou arte Peter: and apon this rocke I wyll bylde my congregacion. And the gates of hell shall not prevayle ageynst it. – (Matthew 16:18, Tyndale, c1526 in Old English Spelling)

The Conspiracy

When the King James Bible was commissioned, King James issued 15 edicts to regulate the group of translators as they worked. Edict number three2 is of great importance to this topic, and is as follows:

The Old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept, viz. the Word Church not to be translated Congregation etc.

Why would King James do this? The word “church” was monopolized by the clergy and monks to mean something contrary to Jesus’ words, so why would King James perpetuate that? This is the true worldly controversy, and answering this question is beyond the scope of this post and lies in a deeper historical study of who King James was as a person. Today, we’re focused on God’s word. A better question is why would God allow such blatant mistranslation of his word?

God Prevails

God is beyond our failures. Bible translations are surrounded by human motivation:

  1. The King James Bible was created with additional intent for the king of England to glorify himself and solidify power
  2. The Tyndale Bible was additionally motivated by spreading reformation to England and directly attack the Catholic church
  3. Today, the New International Version has stringent licensing and ranks very low on the Copy Church project scale3

Every translation has its own bias, yet God’s word endures. Even with the word “church” being used to incorrectly translate the Body of Christ that is called out of the wilderness by Jesus, we still understand this because Jesus didn’t summarize this idea into a single word.

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” – John 4:21-24

God’s grace endures beyond simple words, and the failures of human authors reveal more of God’s design.

“But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” – Romans 5:20

We can talk about the history of Bible translations because of this, and God wants to help us better understand his word. While “church” can mean a lot of things to people, the important thing is understanding what the Body of Christ actually is. We can misunderstand a lot of things, in fact the plain things Jesus taught us are still misunderstood:

“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?” – John 3:9-10

This isn’t a flaw in translation, but a flaw in us. Jesus is right in front of you now, and he won’t let a random word get in the way of the truth. He is the truth, and is the author of our lives and of his word. The Catholic Church in the middle ages long believed that “church” was a word limited only to the Catholic hierarchy and organization.4 But church (or ekklésia), as we read in scripture is the Body of Christ, not a building or ecclesiastical hierarchy. So what really is the church? We are the assembly and congregation, called by God out of the wilderness to live alongside Jesus. This is what was promised to us, and Jesus is ready for you right now.

The Conclusion

The history around the word “church” is complicated, and riddled with many worldly motivations. It has been clearly used as a political tool at various times, and as a stumbling block to distract us from our identity as the Body of Christ. We can see two groups of translations emerging during this new age of English translations:

  • Wycliffe’s Bible (1382) – used “church”
  • Tyndale’s Bible (1526) – used “congregation”
  • Coverdale Bible (1535) – used “congregation”
  • Matthew Bible (1537) – used “congregation”
  • The Great Bible (1539) – used “congregation”
  • Geneva Bible (1560) – used “church”
  • Bishop’s Bible (1568) – used “congregation” – The King James Bible is based heavily on this version, and the third edict targets this change specifically
  • Nearly all modern Bible translations (NIV, ESV, NKJV, etc.) – use “church”

Does something as simple as the word we use to describe the Body of Christ really matter in the end? It seems like just simple semantics, as long as we know what the real meaning is. But Jesus says the following:

But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. – Matthew 12:36-37

I believe that this is a warning to us to ask God for guidance, and to seek to turn our careless use of vocabulary into something intentional and clearly understood. Christians are not a “church” as our culture would believe, but an assembly of people called out of the wilderness by God. We are the Body of Christ, and Jesus dwells in us forever:

I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. – Leviticus 26:11-12

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” – Revelation 21:3

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. – Matthew 28:19-20

Footnotes

  1. If you dare to read his original writing, Tyndale wrote several explanations in Answer to Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue (full text linked here), which is where this information comes from. A more modern analysis of Tyndale’s decisions can be found in History of Christian Doctrine, which was written in 1916 (full text linked here) ↩︎
  2. The rest of King James’ edicts can be found in Manifold Greatness: The Making of the King James Bible, or here ↩︎
  3. Copy Church measures Bible translations on a Matthew 10:8 scale (Freely you have received, freely give) – see here for the legal breakdown ↩︎
  4. Partridge, A.C. (1973). English Biblical Translation. London: André Deutsch Limited. ISBN 9780233961293 ↩︎

Leave a comment