One In Jesus

For those of us with a restorationist bent, the idea that there was but one congregation in a given city during New Testament times is a disturbing conclusion, because the Churches of Christ operate in ways that are very contrary to this pattern.

And while we could argue whether this is a “binding” example, we should first perhaps ponder the wisdom of the arrangement, especially in light of how much a modern city differs from a First Century city.

So what might be some objections to such an arrangement? Continue reading →

Ephesian elders and the Jerusalem church

Now, consider Paul’s speech to the elders at Ephesus –

(Act 20:17-21 NAS) 17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.  18 And when they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time,  19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews;  20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house,  21 solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

He was addressing the elders of a single “church” (v. 17). And yet Paul had taught “house to house” (v. 20). “House to house” translates kat’ oikous — “according to houses” or “distributed to houses.” The church meeting “in” a house meets kat’ oikon (according to or as distributed to a house). Continue reading →

In the NT, ekklēsia is used in two senses: the church-universal and the local congregation. These parallel the use of ekklēsia in the OT to refer to all of Israel gathered at Mt. Sinai or in Jerusalem for worship, the reading of the Law, or the like, or to refer to those Jews who live in a particular city, as in Ezra and Nehemiah.

When Jerusalem and the Temple were being rebuilt under the leadership of these men, most Jews remained in Babylon or otherwise scattered across the Ancient Near East. Even during Jesus’s day, more Jews lived outside of Judea than in Judea — and yet the Jews called to meet with their leaders were the ekklēsia.

Where we miss an important turn is our tendency to equate a modern congregation with the First Century notion of a city’s ekklēsia. You see, in the First Century, there was only one ekklēsia or congregation per city. This fact is often obscured by translations that speak of a “congregation” or “church” that meets in someone’s house. Recent Greek studies reveal that these passages are actually speaking of the part of the church that met in a given house. Continue reading →