Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 40:157 (Jan 1883)
Article: The Conception ΕΚΚΛΗΣΛΑ In The New Testament
Author: E. Benj. Andrews

BSac 40:157 (Jan 1883) p. 35

The Conception ΕΚΚΛΗΣΛΑ In The New Testament

Prof. E. Benj. Andrews

Matthew 16:18 is, manywise, an interesting scripture: “And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” But the interest has usually not been fixed upon that limb of the verse which most deserves it. The relation of Peter to the church is, indeed, a fit subject for study; but still more so is Christ’s conception of the church itself. This is the earliest passage containing that conception; and what is still worthier to be noticed, it presents it to us directly from Christ. It will not end, but will more than begin, the task which this paper proposes, if we can ascertain with a measure of exactness what thought confronted Christ’s mind corresponding to the word “church” in this address to Peter.

It is an instant suggestion to proceed at once to study the word ἐκκλησία. But it is almost certain that Christ did not speak these words to Peter in Greek. Renan thinks that he always used Aramaic, never uttering a single sentence in another tongue. This is, perhaps, going too far. However, considering, among other things, Christ’s social condition,

BSac 40:157 (Jan 1883) p. 36

the facts that he taught chiefly the common people, and so taught as to make them hear him gladly, that the then needs of the synagogue service and of private scriptural study in Palestine had called forth Aramaic versions of most of the Old Testament books, that the Gospel of the Hebrews, a very old if not the oldest of the Gospels, was written in Aramaic, and that a considerable party in the church of Jerusalem used Aramaic until the time of Hadrian, we cannot doubt that at least a dialogue between Christ and his chief apostle would be in this their mother tongue.1

What, then, was that Aramaic word of Christ’s which our Greek Matthew translates by εκκλησία? Beyond doubt it was קהל. קהל was one of those numerous Hebrew words which had significance enough in relation to Israelitish thought and life to be retained in the vernacular after the Captivity.2 It is Aramaic, therefore, as truly as it is Hebrew. It occurs with exceeding frequency in all the Targums, and in them all is the regular Aramaic word whereby to effect the transfer of קהל from Hebrew. In Onkelos, embracing the Pentateuch, that section of the Old Testament where You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
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