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and associations. The meaning of the word will, therefore, be
clearer if we examine some of its Old Testament occurrences.
The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament in Greek
contains no less than seventy unquestioned occurrences of
ekklesia, and there may be several more. There are also six
occurrences of the verb ekklesiazo, `to gather' or `assemble'.
The first occurrence of ekklesia is in Deuteronomy 4:10, where
the verb ekklesiazo is also found. The word is usually translated
in the English version of the Septuagint either `assembly' or
`congregation'. In addition to the Book of Deuteronomy, the
word is also found in Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 and 2
Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Job, Psalms, Proverbs,
Lamentations, Ezekiel, Joel and Micah. It will be seen,
therefore, that the word was in common use from the days when
Israel were assembled before Moses, up to the time of Ezra,
Nehemiah and the prophets.
The word that the Greek translators had before them was the
Hebrew kahal, `to call, to gather, to assemble'. It is not
necessary to enumerate all the many occurrences, but we give a
few that are outstanding.
`The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening' (Exod. 12:6).
The exclusive nature of an ekklesia is illustrated in Nehemiah
13:1:
`On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people;
and therein was found written, that the Ammonite and the Moabite should
not come into the congregation of God for ever'.