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The Book of Genesis uses the word kahal in the following
passage in chapter 28:
`And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee,
that thou mayest be a multitude of people' (Gen. 28:3).
The translation of kahal by `multitude' here is unwarranted.
The Authorised Version itself bears this out, for, apart from the
parallel passage in Genesis 48:4, the word `multitude' is never
again used as a rendering of kahal. The A.V. translators
themselves were evidently not quite satisfied, for in the margin
they give as an alternative, the word `assembly'. The second and
third occurrences of kahal in Genesis are in chapters 35 and 48:
`A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee' (Gen. 35:11).
`I will make of thee a multitude of people (Gen. 48:4).
These three passages in Genesis are three prophetic statements
in connection with the blessing given to Jacob, who was also
named Israel. However strange or improbable it may appear at
first sight, these three passages constitute the foundation of
every reference to the ekklesia, the `church' in the Old or New
Testaments. When, therefore, we read in Matthew 15:24 that
the Lord said: `I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house
of Israel', and in 16:18: `upon this rock I will build My church',
we do not feel under any necessity to modify the limitation of
chapter 15 or to expand the exclusive company of chapter 16.
The `church' to which the Lord added daily, on and after the day
of Pentecost, was an Israelitish assembly, as a reading of Acts 2
will show, and subsequent statements in the Acts will confirm
(e.g., 10:28 and 11:19). The inclusion of the saved Gentiles into