Kuriakos & Ekklesia

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I don’t know any Greek, so I want to ask:
  • what do the words Kuriakos and *Ekklesia *mean?
  • what is the difference between these two terms?
and:
  • where does our word ‘church’ come from, and
  • is this the same in all western languages?
 
  1. Kyriakos means “of the Lord” or “the Lord’s.”
  2. Ekklesia means “church.”
  3. They mean completely different things. 😛
  4. From the middle English chirche, which came from the Old English cirice, which came from the west Germanic kirika, which came from the ancient Greek kyriakon. (Which means the same thing as above but different gender.)
  5. Germanic languages use descendants of kyriakon but Romance and Celtic languages use descendants of the Latin ecclesia, which comes from the Greek ekklesia.
 
To supplement what MarcusAndreas said since to say Ekklesia means “Church” is not very helpful, Ekklesia actually means “Assembly.”

Since we are talking about the Lord’s Assembly, the two meanings are in fact related.
 
Ekklesia, From the Greek means a community called out for deliberation, decision making etc. It is more formal than “crowd” for which there are other Greek words, Homilos and ochlopo…

Here is a nicely written article on the term Ekklesia.

It’s written by a Baptist and so does not carry the understanding beyond the “local community”. However it does explain pretty well the “Secular” use of the term and how first century Christians would have understood it.

Peace
James
 
So if I understand correctly, there are two Greek words that western languages derive their word for Church for. Germanic languages have kuriakos as its origin, while Keltic languages have ekklesia as its origin.

Does this have anything to do with Bible translations? Or are both words used in the New Testament? Is their difference between the protestant and the Catholic use of either of (or both) words?
 
LongJohnSilver said:
So if I understand correctly, there are two Greek words that western languages derive their word for Church for. Germanic languages have kuriakos as its origin, while Keltic languages have ekklesia as its origin.

Does this have anything to do with Bible translations? Or are both words used in the New Testament? Is their difference between the protestant and the Catholic use of either of (or both) words?
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I do not know of there being “two Greek words” for Church used. Unless you might be referring to sunagoge soon-ag-o-gay’ = an assemblage of persons; specially, a Jewish “synagogue”. I believe this term was used in places int the Septuagint.

As to differences in how Catholics and protestants use the term various terms, yes there often is though sometimes the differences are pretty subtle.

Peace
James
 
“Ekklesia” was used in the Septuagint (Jewish translation of the Old Testament into Greek, from before Our Lord was born) as a translation of the Old Testament word for the assembly of all the Jewish men, women, and children. The Hebrew word is “qahal”.

“Kyriakon doma”, the house of the Lord, is where our Ekklesia assembles on Kyriake ( the Lord’s Day). In Latin, that’s “domus Domini”. Of course, this was a Bible expression for the Temple, which is why another common early Christian term for a church was “templum”. (And if you’re looking for a Catholic church in a lot of countries today, “templo” or similar words is what to look for.)
 
The word “church” may have descended instead from “Kyriake oikos”, the Lord’s household/house, which was another Greek expression for a church and the Church.

Another Septuagint expression was “oikos Kuriou”, the house of the Lord or the household of the Lord. Most versions of the Septuagint use this specific expression for the Temple.

In 1 Timothy 3:15, you’ll see the expressions “oikou Theou” and “ekklesia Theou” set as equivalents to each other.

So really, using the word “church” to mean both the people and the building where they meet – that’s pretty much going back to the oikos idea.

The connection between Ecclesia and church is easier to see in some other countries. You’ll see things like iglesia (Spanish for Church and church building) eglise (French, ditto), eglais (Irish Gaelic, ditto), and eglyws (Welsh, ditto) which are more obviously close to their root word.
 
Mintaka said:
The word “church” may have descended instead from “Kyriake oikos”, the Lord’s household/house, which was another Greek expression for a church and the Church.

Another Septuagint expression was “oikos Kuriou”, the house of the Lord or the household of the Lord. Most versions of the Septuagint use this specific expression for the Temple.

In 1 Timothy 3:15, you’ll see the expressions “oikou Theou” and “ekklesia Theou” set as equivalents to each other.

So really, using the word “church” to mean both the people and the building where they meet – that’s pretty much going back to the oikos idea.

The connection between Ecclesia and church is easier to see in some other countries. You’ll see things like iglesia (Spanish for Church and church building) eglise (French, ditto), eglais (Irish Gaelic, ditto), and eglyws (Welsh, ditto) which are more obviously close to their root word.
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So both Ekklesia and Kuriou are used in the N.T. to refer to a / the Church? One means Assembly and on means the building in which they assemble?

Sorry, I have a hard time understanding all this. 🙂
 
LongJohnSilver said:
So both Ekklesia and Kuriou are used in the N.T. to refer to a / the Church? One means Assembly and on means the building in which they assemble?

Sorry, I have a hard time understanding all this. 🙂
Click to expand...
I should let Mintaka answer this…but anyway

‘Kuriou’ means ‘of the Lord’
it’s not a synonym for ekklesia

so like if you had

‘ekklesia Kuriou’ that would mean
church of the Lord

similar to this is
‘Theou’ means ‘of God’
so that

‘ekklesia Theou’ means
church of God
 
LongJohnSilver said:
I don’t know any Greek, so I want to ask:
  • what do the words Kuriakos and *Ekklesia *mean?
  • what is the difference between these two terms?
and:
  • where does our word ‘church’ come from, and
  • is this the same in all western languages?
Click to expand...
Secular usage in classical Greek
In profane Greek ekklesia denotes a popular assembly, generally for political purposes (see Acts 19:32, 39, 41). [Gerhard Kittle, *Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm R. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968), vol. III, pp. 501ff, s.v. “ekklesia”; Xavier Léon-Dufour, Dictionary of the New Testament (NY: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1980), s.v. “Church.”]
“The citizens are the ekkletoi, i.e., those who are summoned and called together by the herald. This teaches us something concerning the biblical and Christian usage, namely, that God in Christ calls men out of the world.” There are cultic implications to the word. “. . . in the classical period the ekklesia in the sense of a popular assembly is not without a religious undertone and is one of the main institutions of the divinely given polis and its order.” We can see this by the prayers offered before the ekklesia by the herald and by each speaker prior to his own address. [Kittle, pp. 513-4.]

Usage in the Septuagint (=LXX)
The word ekklesia occurs 100 times in the LXX, 81 times as a translation of the Hebrew qahal and 4 times for derivatives of qahal. The word qahal designates a religious assembly of the Israelites (1 K 8:5, 14, 22). In this context ekklesia can mean an assembly in the sense of the act of assembling or those assembled. [Kittle, p. 527; *New Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “Church, I (In the Bible).”]

Romance languages
The French “église” and Italian “chièsa” come from the Latin ecclesia, itself, an exact transliteration of ekklesia.

Anglo-Saxon languages
The English “Church” together with the German “Kirche” are derived through the Gothic from the late Greek kyriakon which means “a thing or place pertaining to the Lord” NCE, s.v. “Church, I (In the Bible).”], suggesting “the Lord’s (house).” [John L. McKenzie, SJ, *Dictionary of the Bible (NY: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1965), s.v. “Church”.]
 
Okay, I get it. Thanks guys! Always keep learning. 👍

And thanks JRKH for posting that article!
 
In Acts 9:31 the English translation is “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Sama’ria had peace and was built up; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it was multiplied.”

The words “the church throughout all” is translated from the Greek ekklesia kata holis
Which inspired Ignatius to call the church Catholic [kata holis].
 
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