Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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The One True Church
Chapter 14 – A Subtle but Noticeable Difference
In the previous chapter, I said that there were two exceptions to the general rule that the Greek words “ekklesia” and “sunagoge” – both meaning “assembly, congregation, or gathering” – were so synonymous that they could be used interchangeably.
The first exception in which “sunagoge” is used differently in the New Testament from “ekklesia” is that there is no clear case of “sunagoge” being used to describe a non-religious gathering as we saw of “ekklesia” in Acts 19. If both Greek words meant “assembly, congregation, or gathering,” without respect to whether it was religious or not, then we should wonder why there’s a New Testament example of “sunagoge” being used in that way.
The second exception in which these two Greek synonyms are used differently is that while “ekklesia” in the New Testament always refers to people and never to a building, “sunagoge” was regularly used to refer to a building as well as to people. Here are some examples:
Mark 1:21 They went into Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and began to teach.
Luke 4:28 And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things;
Luke 4:29 and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.
Acts 13:13 Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia; but John left them and returned to Jerusalem.
Acts 13:14 But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.
The question we should therefore ask is: Why does the New Testament restrict its use of “sunagoge” to religious “assemblies, congregations, or gatherings” and expand its use to include religious buildings – neither of which is the case with “ekklesia”? In other words, did these two synonyms come to be treated somewhat differently in the New Testament?
Before answering the question, we need to bring the Old Testament into consideration. It frames the question even more clearly.
You may know that the Old Testament was translated from the original Hebrew to Greek two or three centuries before Christ. This translation is called the Septuagint. As you would expect, based on all I’ve said to this point, both “ekklesia” and “sunagoge” were used to translate Hebrew words that meant “assembly, congregation, or gathering.” And both Greek words appeared frequently.
What’s notable about the Septuagint – and what distinguishes it from the New Testament – is that neither “ekklesia” nor “sunagoge” denoted a building. This sharpens the focus of our question. It now becomes, “Why does the New Testament not use the two terms as interchangeably as the Greek Old Testament did?
The answer is that by the time of the New Testament, the Jewish synagogue had become institutionalized. And the word “sunagoge” transitioned from being a secular word referring to people…to being a religious word describing both people and the structures – physical and otherwise – that supported them. By contrast, with the synagogue, the church did not become institutionalized until after the New Testament period. That’s why the meaning of “ekklesia” did not change until the centuries following the New Testament.
Summing up: In the Old Testament, synagogue was a movement; by the time of the New Testament, it had become an institution. In the New Testament, church was a movement; in the time after the New Testament, it became an institution. Both institutions are with us to this day, but we need to remember the difference between a movement and an institution…because it will help us discern the one true church.
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