# Where Does the Word "Church" Come From?

> In Greek the word means "gathering" or "assembly." In the Septuagint the Hebrew verb qahal (קָהָל) was translated as ekklesias, which shows the word was used from ancient times for the people gathered around God.

*2016-12-03T13:57:58Z*

![Quote card on a cracked brown wall texture with a small domed building at left. St. Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians 46 and 48: "Why are there strifes, tumults, divisions, schisms and even wars among you? Do we not have one God, one Christ and one Spirit of grace poured out upon us all, and one calling in Christ? Why do we divide and tear apart the members of Christ, and fight against our own body?"](/uploads/sites/1274e232-e31c-46f4-a48b-27b854406479/media/origin-of-the-word-church.png?w=815&h=815)

In Greek the word means "gathering" or "assembly." In the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament we see that the Hebrew verb (קָהָל), pronounced "qahal," which means "gathering" or "assembly," was translated as (εκκλησιας), pronounced "ekklesias." From this we understand that the word, regardless of its later historical sense and usage, was used from ancient times to denote the church gathered together, the people gathered around God.

As for the word "kanīsa" (church) used as the Arabic equivalent of the word, it comes from the Syriac word (ܟܢܫܐ), pronounced "Knasha," which also means "gathering" or "a crowd of people."

(We Are His House) The Church is the Body of Christ and His Bride, and the believers are members of this Body:

The Church is the house of God. How beautiful is this description of the Church! If the Church is the house of God, then every believer must be a holy church, since God dwells in us by the Holy Spirit, declaring to us in the Holy Bible that we are His house, as St. Paul the Apostle teaches, saying: \[but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end\] (Heb. 3:6).

Our father Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty comments in his commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews and says: \[We must remain as the house of God, which Moses served before as a faithful prophet, and in which the Son dwells as the master of the house, sanctifying us by His Holy Spirit, as His eternal dwelling place that will not perish, if we hold fast to our confidence in Him and set Him as our hope in which we boast.\] [^1]

Thus St. Paul the Apostle laid down the authentic concept of the Church, which is the community of believers gathered around God who is present in their midst by the Holy Spirit, as the house of God, since in their gathering they become a temple of the Holy Spirit, as he also made clear when he said: \[Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?\] (1 Cor. 13:16).

And by this we realize that the Church is not merely a building, nor merely a name or a word, but the Church is a living entity, for it is also the Body of Christ, in which every believer is a member of this Body. And in order to understand what it means that the Church is the Body of Christ, we must study carefully what is mentioned in the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians, chapter five, about the Church as the Body of Christ. Accordingly, we will cite the text together with the opinions of the Fathers of the Church on it, following the trail of the Fathers and their thought about the Body of Christ, so that this may push us to understand the Church not only on the level of the Body of Christ but also the Church as the Bride of Christ.

The text: \[Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones\] (Eph. 5:22- 30)

[^1]: Tafsīr Risālat al-‘Ibrāniyyīn [Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews] by Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty

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Source: https://abba.fadymondy.com/en/blog/origin-of-the-word-church