In the four Gospels the Greek word ecclesia occurs
only here and in [Matthew] 18:17
(twice). But it is found 24 times in Acts and
over 60 times in Paul's Epistles. It is used for both
the whole Body of Believers (the church OF Jesus Christ, the church
OF Christ) and for local congregations--but never of a
building, as [it is used] today.
Ecclesia comes from the verb kaleo,
"call," and ek, "out." So it
literally means "called out."
The word has two significant backgrounds for its NT use for
"church." The first is the Greek secular use for
the "assembly" of free (called out) citizens in a Greek
city. We find this usage three times in the NT (Acts
19:32, 39, 41), for the city
"assembly" at Ephesus.
The second, more significant, use is found in the
Septuagint. There it refers to the "congregation"
of Israel. This usage is reflected in two passages in the NT
(Acts 7:38; Hebrews 2:12). The
latter is a quotation from the Septuagint.
Ecclesia occurs 115 times in the NT. In the
remaining 110 times it refers to the church, either local (87
times) or general (23 times). It is interesting to note that
all 9 times in Ephesians it means the Church OF Jesus
Christ (His Bride; cf Ephesians 5:25-27).
