THERE are words whose history it is peculiarly interesting to watch, as they obtain a deeper meaning, and receive a new consecration, in the Christian Church; words which the Church did not invent, but has assumed into its service, and employed in a far loftier sense than any to which the world has ever put them before. The very word by which the Church is named is itself an example\u2014a more illustrious one could scarcely be found\u2014of this progressive ennobling of a word. For we have \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1 in three distinct stages of meaning\u2014the heathen, the Jewish, and the Christian.<\/p>\n
In respect of the first, \u1f21 \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1 (=\u1f14\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9, Euripides<\/a>, Orestes<\/em>, 939) was the lawful assembly in a free Greek city of all those possessed of the rights of citizenship, for the transaction of public affairs. That they were summoned is expressed in the latter part of the word; that they were summoned out of the whole population, a select portion of it, including neither the populace, nor strangers, nor yet those who had forfeited their civic rights, this is expressed in the first. Both the calling (the \u03ba\u03bb\u1fc6\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2, Phil. iii<\/a>. 14; 2 Tim. i<\/a>. 9), and the calling out (the \u1f10\u03ba\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03ae, Rom. xi<\/a>. 7; 2 Pet. i<\/a>. 10), are moments to be remembered, when the word is assumed into a higher Christian sense, for in them the chief part of its peculiar adaptation to its auguster uses lies. It is interesting to observe how, on one occasion in the N. T., the word returns to this earlier significance (Acts xix<\/a>. 32, 39, 41).<\/p>\n Before, however, more fully considering that word, it will need to consider a little the anterior history of another with which I am about to compare it. \u03a3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u1f74 occurs two or three times in Plato<\/a> (thus Theaet<\/em>. 150 a), but is by no means an old word in classical Greek, and in it altogether wants that technical signification which already in the Septuagint<\/a>, and still more plainly in the Apocrypha, it gives promise of acquiring, and which it is found in the New Testament<\/a> to have fully acquired. But \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u03ae, while traveling in this direction, did not leave behind it the meaning which is the only one that in classical Greek it knew; and often denotes, as it would there, any gathering or bringing together of persons or things; thus we have there \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u1f74 \u1f10\u03b8\u03bd\u1ff6\u03bd (Gen<\/a>. xlviii. 4); \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u1f74 \u1f51\u03b4\u03ac\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd (Isai<\/a>. xix. 16); \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u1f74 \u03c7\u03c1\u03b7\u03bc\u03ac\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd (Eccles<\/a>. xxxi. 3), and such like.<\/p>\n It was during the time which intervened between the closing of the Old Testament canon and the opening of that of the New that \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u1f74 acquired that technical meaning of which we find it in full possession when the Gospel history begins; designating, as there it does, the places set apart for purposes of worship and the reading and expounding of the Word of God, the \u2018synagogues,\u2019 as we find them named; which, capable as they were of indefinite multiplication, were the necessary complement of the Temple, which according to the divine intention was and could be but one. But to return to \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1. This did not, like some other words, pass immediately and at a single step from the heathen world to the Christian Church: but here, as so often, the Septuagint supplies the link of connection, the point of transition, the word being there prepared for its highest meaning of all.<\/p>\n When the Alexandrian translators undertook the rendering of the Hebrew Scriptures, they found in them two constantly recurring words, namely, hdAfe and lhAqA. For these they employed generally, and as their most adequate Greek equivalents, \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u1f74 and \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1. The rule which they seem to have prescribed to themselves is as follows \u2014 to render hdf for the most part by \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u1f74 (Exod<\/a>. xii. 3; Lev. iv. 13; Num<\/a>. i. 2, and altogether more than a hundred times), and, whatever other renderings of the word they may adopt, in no single case to render it by \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1. It were to be wished that they had shown the same consistency in respect of lhq; but they have not; for while \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1 is their more frequent rendering (Deut<\/a>. xviii. 16; Judg<\/a>. xx. 2; I Kin<\/a>. viii. 14, and in all some seventy times), they too often render this also by \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u1f74 (Lev<\/a>. iv. 13; Num<\/a>. x. 3; Deut<\/a>. v. 22, and in all some five and twenty times), thus breaking down for the Greek reader the distinction which undoubtedly exists between the words.<\/p>\n Our English Version has the same lack of a consistent rendering. Its two words are ‘congregation’ and ‘assembly;’ but instead of constantly assigning one to one, and one to the other, it renders hdf now by ‘congregation’ (Lev. x. 17; Num. i. 16; Josh. ix. 27), and now by \u2018assembly\u2019 (Lev. iv. 13); and on the other hand, lhq sometimes by ‘assembly’ (Judg. xxi. 8; 2 Chron. xxx. 23), but much oftener by ‘congregation’ (Judg. xxi 5; Josh. viii. 35).<\/p>\n There is an interesting discussion by Vitringa (De Synag. Vet. pp. 77-89) on the distinction between these two Hebrew synonyms; the result of which is summed up in the following statements: \u2018Notat proprie lhq universam alicujus populi multitudinem, vinculis societatis unitam et rempublicam sive civitatem quondam Constituentem, cum vocabulum hdf ex indole et vi significationis sage tantum dicat quemcunque hominum coetum et conventum, sive minorem sive majorem\u2019 (p. 80). And again: \u2018\u03a3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u03ae, ut et hdf, semper significat coetum conjunctum et congregatum, etiamsi nullo forte vinculo ligatum, sed \u1f21 \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1 [=lhq] designat multitudinem aliquam; (quae populum constituit, per leges et vincula inter se junctam, etsi saepe fiat non sit coacta vel cogi possit’ (p. 88).<\/p>\n Accepting this as a true distinction, we shall see that it was not without due reason that our Lord (Matt<\/a>. xvi. 18; xviii. 17) and his Apostles claimed this, as the nobler word, to designate the new society of which He was the Founder, being as it was a society knit together by the closest spiritual bonds, and altogether independent of space. Yet for all this we do not find the title \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1, wholly withdrawn from the Jewish congregation; that too was “the Church in the wilderness” (Acts<\/a> vii. 38); for Christian and Jewish differed only in degree, and not in kind. Nor yet do we find \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u1f74 wholly renounced by the Church; the latest honorable use of it in the New Testament, indeed the only Christian use of it there, is by that Apostle to whom it was especially given to maintain unbroken to the latest possible moment the outward bonds connecting the Synagogue and the Church, namely, by St. James<\/a> (ii. 2); \u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u03ae, I may add, on two occasions is honorably used, but in a more general sense (2 Thess<\/a>. ii.1; Heb<\/a>. x. 25).<\/p>\n Occasionally also in the early Fathers, in Ignatius for instance (Ep. ad Polyc. 4; for other examples see Suicer, s. v.), we find \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u1f74 still employed as an honorable designation of the Church, or of her places of assembly. Still there were causes at work, which led the faithful to have less and less pleasure in the appropriation of this name to themselves; and in the end to leave it altogether to those, whom in the latest book of the canon the Lord had characterized for their fierce opposition to the truth even as “the synagogue of Satan” (Rev<\/a>. iii. 9; cf. John<\/a> viii. 4).<\/p>\n Thus the greater fitness and dignity of the title \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1 has been already noted. Add to this that the Church was ever rooting itself more predominantly in the soil of the heathen world, breaking off more entirely from its Jewish stock and stem. This of itself would have led the faithful to the letting fall of \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u03ae, a word with no such honorable history to look back on, and permanently associated with Jewish worship, and to the ever more exclusive appropriation to themselves of \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1, so familiar already, and of so honorable a significance, in Greek ears.<\/p>\n It is worthy of note that the Ebionites, in reality a Jewish sect, though they had found their way for a while into the Christian Church, should have acknowledged the rightfulness of this distribution of terms. Epiphanius (Haeres. xxx. 18) reports of these, \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u1f74\u03bd \u03b4\u1f72 \u03bf\u1f57\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9 \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u1f11\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1\u03bd, \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03bf\u1f50\u03c7\u1f76 \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1\u03bd.<\/p>\n It will be perceived from what has been said, that Augustine, by a piece of good fortune which he had no right to expect, was only half in the wrong, when transferring his Latin etymologies to the Greek and Hebrew, and not pausing to enquire whether they would hold good there, as was improbable enough, he finds the reason for attributing \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u1f74 to the Jewish, and \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1 to the Christian Church, in the fact that \u2018convocatio\u2019 (=\u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1) is a nobler term than \u2018congregatio\u2019 (=\u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u03ae), the first being properly the calling together of men, the second the gathering together (\u2018congregatio,\u2019 from \u2018congrego,\u2019 and that from \u2018grex\u2019) of cattle. See Field, On the Church, i. 5.<\/p>\n The \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03b3\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2 differs from the \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1 in this, that in the \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1, as has been noted already, there lay ever the sense of an assembly coming together for the transaction of business. The \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03b3\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2, on the other hand, was a solemn assembly for purposes of festal rejoicing; and on this account it is found joined continually with \u1f11\u03bf\u03c1\u03c4\u03ae, as by Philo, Vit. Mos. ii. 7; Ezek. xlvi. 11; cf. Hos. ii. 11; ix. 5; and Isai. lxvi. where \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03b7\u03b3\u03c5\u03c1\u03af\u03b6\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd = \u1f11\u03bf\u03c1\u03c4\u03ac\u03b6\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd: the word having given us \u2018panegyric,\u2019 which is properly a set discourse pronounced at one of these great festal gatherings. Business might grow out of the fact that such multitudes were assembled, since many, and for various reasons, would be glad to avail themselves of the gathering; but only in the same way as a \u2018fair’ grew out of a ‘feria,’ \u2018holiday\u2019out of a ‘holy-day.’ Strabo (x. 5) notices the business-like aspect which the panhgu<reij commonly assumed (\u1f25 \u03c4\u03b5 \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03b3\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bc\u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03b9\u03ba\u03cc\u03bd \u03c4\u03b9 \u03c0\u03c1\u1fb6\u03b3\u03bc\u03b1: cf. Pausanias, x. 32. 9); which was indeed to such an extent their prominent feature, that the Latins rendered \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03b3\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2 by ‘mercatus,’ and this even when the Olympic games were intended (Cicero, Tusc. v. 3; Justin, 5).<\/p>\n These with the other solemn games were eminently, though not exclusively, the \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03b7\u03b3\u03cd\u03c1\u03b5\u03b9\u03c2 of the Greek nation (Thucydides, i. 25 ; Isocrates, Paneg. I). Keeping this festal character of the \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03b3\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2 in mind, we shall find a peculiar fitness in the word’s employment at Heb. xii. 23; where only in the N. T. it occurs. The Apostle is there setting forth the communion of the Church militant on earth with the Church triumphant in heaven,\u2014of the Church toiling and suffering here with that Church from which all weariness and toil have for ever passed away (Rev. xxi. 4); and how could he better describe this last than as a \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03b3\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2, than as the glad and festal assembly of heaven? Very beautifully Delitzsch (in loc.): [\u03a0\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03b3\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2 ist die vollzahlige zahlreiche und inbesondere festliche, festlich froliche und sic ergotzende Versammlung. Man denkt bei \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03b3\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2 an Festgesang, Festreigen und Festspiele, und das Leben vor Gottes Angesicht ist ja wirklich eine unaufhorliche Festfeier.’<\/p>\n