Churches forced to close during the pandemic!’ ‘Churches re-opening for worship!’ Such headlines demonstrate the confusion that many experience as to what ‘church’ actually means. The English word and the Scottish term ‘kirk’ ultimately derive from a Greek term kyriakos, meaning ‘of the Lord’. But the words in the Bible that are translated ‘church’ are quite different – and that is where the confusion arises.
CONGREGATION OF ISRAEL
You might think that the term ‘church’ only occurs in the New Testament, but that is not quite true. The Old Testament frequently refers to the qahal of Israel, which the Authorised Version (quaintly to our ears) translates as ‘the congregation of Israel’. Most modern translations render it ‘the community of Israel’, ‘the assembly’, or simply ‘the Israelites’.
But the Greek version of the Old Testament translates this with two different terms: synagoge (mostly in the Pentateuch) from which we get ‘synagogue’, the gathering of Jews for worship; and ekklesia (mostly in the historical narratives) which has come into English as ‘ecclesiastical’. The teacher in verse 1 of the wisdom book Ecclesiastes is a person who gives teaching to the qahal or the ekklesia.
Throughout the Old Testament, the qahal of Israel is supposed to have several characteristics. The verb qhl (related to this noun) has the central meaning of ‘coming together for a common purpose’, often to make decisions together, or gather for war, or for civic or religious purposes. The underlying idea here is of unity – and it is the disunity of Israel which is a repeated problem. The conflict between the different tribes in the Book of Judges is resolved by the establishment of the monarchy in Samuel-Kings, but the later split between the northern and southern kingdoms is depicted as the great failure of the people, weakening both sides.
CALLED AND SET APART
But the people are called to be more than ‘one’; they are also called to be holy: ‘Be holy, even as I am holy’ (Exodus 15:11). This is the repeated refrain throughout the regulations in Leviticus (Lev. 11:45, 19:2, 20:7 and so on) which is picked up in the New Testament (1 Peter 1:16) and undergirds the vision of God’s people as a ‘kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ (Exodus 19:6). Being holy has a negative aspect, being different and distinct from those around. But it also has a positive aspect, reflecting and drawing from the holiness of God.
Their unity and holiness do not, however, eliminate difference. The people continue to have tribal, clan and family affiliations, and distinctive cultures. We even learn that they have regional accents, when in Judges 12:5 the Ephraimites cannot say the word ‘shibboleth’ properly. Ironically, the term has become a byword for something that divides people or marks tribal identity.
