ἐκκλησία

Forms

ἐκκλησῐ́ᾱ (ekklēsíā) f (genitive ἐκκλησῐ́ᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἔκκλητος (ékklētos, “called out, summoned”) + -ία (-íā), a collective abstract noun built on the verbal adjective of ἐκκαλέω (ekkaléō, “to call out, summon”), which is ἐκ (ek, “out”) with καλέω (kaléō, “to call”).^[2][1][3] The /t/ of the adjective became /s/ before the /i/ of the suffix.^[1][3]

Beekes traces the verb to a root Proto-Indo-European *kl̥h₁- (“to call”), which is also behind Latin calō (“to announce, summon”) and Hittite kališš- (“to call, summon”).^[2] Wiktionary compares the formation of convocātiō (“a calling together”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus uses it, in the Ionic form ἐκκλησίη (ekklēsíē), of an assembly called on Samos, and Thucydides of the assemblies of Athens and Sparta.^[4][5][6] It meant an assembly that had been duly summoned, a narrower term than a mere gathering (σύλλογος (súllogos)).^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

At Athens it was the name of the sovereign assembly of the citizens, which the Council convened;^[6][8] Aristotle distinguishes its regular meetings from those specially summoned.^[4] The word was used for the assemblies of other cities too, and for meetings of soldiers.^[6][5] Dionysius of Halicarnassus applies it to the Roman comitia, and Philostratus to a decree passed by an assembly.^[4]

The Septuagint made it the usual rendering of Biblical Hebrew קָהָל (qāhāl), the assembly of Israel, alongside συναγωγή (sunagōgḗ).^[9][7] The New Testament keeps the civic sense at Ephesus, uses it in Acts of a disorderly crowd, and above all names with it the Christian congregation of a place and the whole body of Christians, the Church.^[10][11][6] BDAG suggests that Christians favoured the word because the Greek Scriptures already used it of Israel and because it sounded orderly rather than seditious.^[10] Later it also meant a church building.^[4]

It passed into Latin as ecclēsia and into Coptic as ⲉⲕⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ (ekklēsia), recorded from about AD 300.^[1][12] Medieval vernacular Greek used it for the Christian community and for a church, with forms such as εκκλησιά (ekklisiá).^[13] Modern Greek has learned εκκλησία (ekklisía) for the Church and a church, and for the ancient assembly, and the popular form εκκλησιά (eklisiá) for a church building or a service.^[14]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the Ionic form for an assembly on Samos.^[4][5]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of the Athenian and Spartan assemblies.^[4][6]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle distinguishes the regular meetings of the Athenian assembly from extraordinary ones.^[4]
• 1st century BC – Dionysius of Halicarnassus uses it for the Roman comitia.^[4][5]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it of Christian congregations and of the whole Church.^[10][4]
• About AD 300 – Coptic texts record the borrowing Coptic ⲉⲕⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ (ekklēsia).^[12]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts use it, also as εκκλησιά (ekklisiá), for the Church and for a church.^[13]
• Modern Greek – The word survives as εκκλησία (ekklisía), with the popular εκκλησιά (eklisiá) for the building.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. An assembly of citizens duly summoned; at Athens, the popular Assembly convened by the Council.^[4][6]
2. An assembly in another city, such as Sparta or Samos, or a meeting of soldiers.^[6][4]
3. (Roman history) The comitia.^[4]
4. A decree of an assembly.^[4]
5. (Septuagint) The congregation of Israel.^[9][4]
6. (New Testament) A casual gathering or crowd.^[10]
7. (New Testament) A local community of Christians; the whole Christian Church.^[6][10][11]
8. (Late Greek) A church building.^[4]

Word family

• ἐκκλησιαστικός (ekklēsiastikós)
• ἐκκλησιάζω (ekklēsiázō)
• ἐκκλησιαστής (ekklēsiastḗs)

Related words

• σύγκλητος (súnklētos)
• ἔκκλητος (ékklētos)
• καλέω (kaléō)
• Latin ecclēsia

Usage notes

Ammonius distinguishes the Athenian ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía), the meeting of the people of the city, from a κατάκλησις (katáklēsis), a meeting to which the people of the countryside were also called for weightier business.^[15] Hesychius glosses it with σύνοδος (súnodos) and πανήγυρις (panḗguris).^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
8. ^ Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
9. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b c d e Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
11. ^ a b United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
12. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
13. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
14. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
15. ^ [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)
16. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)