congregation or assembly?

Originally posted on March 11, 2009 – by Andre Piet

Most Bible translations render the Greek word “ekklesia” with the word “congregation.” But, as so often, they are not concordant (= consistent) in this. Of the 114 times the word “ekklesia” occurs in the NT, it is translated (in the NBG translation) 109 times as “congregation” and 5 times as “popular assembly” or “assembly.” When it concerns a general assembly, the translators could hardly render this with “congregation,” and so in that case they chose “assembly”*. Rightly so! But why did they not do this consistently? By the rendering “congregation,” they have wrongly made the concept “ekklesia” into a church term.

Ekklesia = assembly. The people who were gathered in Ephesus are called an assembly (Acts 19:32, 39). When this assembly was dismissed, the “ekklesia” was thereby dissolved (Acts 19:41). There you have the difference between an “assembly” and a “congregation”! In Protestantism, a “congregation” is not merely an assembly but an organization with members and a board. The Bible knows nothing of this. Nowhere do we read of a church council/brethren’s council, registered membership, or anything of the kind! The Bible speaks of assemblies, gatherings. Assemblies that are under the supervision of men whom Paul calls “overseers.” An overseer is a shepherd who leads the assembly in the green pastures of the Word of God (Acts 20:28).
Take note: an overseer gives leadership to an assembly. Not to an organization or to individuals. That would be domination. Because people do not know what an ekklesia is (namely, an assembly), communities of believers easily fall prey to domineering leaders and boards.

It is very deliberate that we call the meetings of GoedBericht gatherings. We are not a “congregation” (in the usual sense), and we do not want to be. We arrange gatherings in which the Good Message sounds out loud and clear.
Nothing less, but nothing more either.

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• Ekklesia = (popular) assembly:
  Acts 7:38; 19:32, 39, 41; Hebrews 12:23.
  Translations such as the Statenvertaling, NBG-51, Telos translation, NBV, Willibrord, which usually use the word “congregation” as the translation for “ekklesia,” choose in Acts 19:32, 39, 41 a different translation word (gathering, assembly, popular assembly).

Delen: