Hello dear Friends and Readers! As I endeavor to study the book of Revelation, it has brought to my mind a new question.
When was “The Church” born?
Seems an easy one, right?! A quick internet search will give us an answer: Pentecost.
But, can we trust that answer?
Chapter 1 of Revelation states that Yeshua has written letters to the “7 churches.” The churches are named, and we can look them up on a map quite easily. They are all located in what today is known as southwest Turkey.
Okay. That seems easy enough.
As I studied the chapter, I began to look up words in the original Greek. It is pretty common knowledge that the word used for “church” in Revelation is the Greek word “ekklesia” (Strong’s Concordance # G1577).
Okay. Still fairly predictable.
Then, a question began to form…
Is there a Hebrew equivalent for the Greek word “ekklesia?”
My hypothesis was that there would not be. After all, the church / ekklesia was born at Pentecost…right?
Imagine my surprise when a little digging indicated that there IS a Hebrew equivalent for the word church / ekklesia!
So what Deb? The Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek. Wouldn’t we expect that?
Well, perhaps, yes.
But, if the church was born in Acts Chapter 2, at Pentecost, then why would it have been mentioned in the older Hebrew portion of the Bible? Why would there have been a Hebrew word for “church?”
Are you following my thought train?
Disclaimer: Now, it is at this point that I feel that I must share with you that my methods for digging are not scholarly. I do not have a degree in Bible study, and I do not own any expensive Bible study software. What I do have is a working knowledge of how to use Strong’s Concordance and a good friend who taught me how to find Greek/Hebrew equivalents using Thayer’s Greek Lexicon. (Thank you Kay T)
I say this to tell you two things:
1) Do your own homework. What if I’m wrong? I share with a pure heart, but I share as a human just trying to figure stuff out and sharing what I find along the way. So, this is an instance where “fact checking” is a must.
2) You can do this, too! The resources I use are free and available on the internet. I am going to show you how to study this out.
So, if this interests you, get your notepad out and your computer fired up because I am going to show you my process.
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In part two of this series, we will look at some evidence for answering the question:
Was the Church Born at Pentecost?
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