Words

A Word of Wisdom from my brilliant college roommate, dear friend, and Christian brother (and lawyer), John Holt:
“Words Matter. The World We Make With Words is always before us in both law and theology because words create worlds. Words matter because they have also created the theological world of every faith.”

Examples:

“The Way”, ἡ Ὁδός , (hē Hodós), was an early term used to describe the Christian movement, emphasizing the teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the path to transformation and salvation, and experience of God. Members of The Way formed assemblies or congregations called “ecclesía”.

“Ecclesía”, Ἐκκλησία (Ekklēsía) used exclusively for Christian assemblies or congregations of believers. In the first century, the ecclesía was primarily a gathering of early Christians who met in private homes or public spaces, functioning as a community rather than a formal institution. These assemblies were characterized by their adaptability to local cultures and their focus on communal worship, fellowship and service, and the mission of spreading the teachings of Jesus. Ecclesía was never used to refer to a physical building, and certainly not to any temporal hierarchical institution (read: Church).[1]

“Words are thus the records of things, and a change of a single term is a kind of signal to sceneshifters that we have closed one act and entered another in the five-act drama of Church history.  During the whole of Act I., as we may call it, the keynote is always διδαχή [teaching]; it is a doctrine, and those who preach or teach it are followers of the “way” [ἡ ὁδός], witnesses of the “word” [λόγοσ], or stewards of the “mystery” [μυστήριο].  Such is the apostolic keynote …

But a change came over the Church, which explains all her later “afterthoughts” in theology, as soon as the note διδαχή was dropped, and δόξα [private opinion] at first, and finally hardening into δόγμα [dogma], took the place of διδαχή. It is dogmatic theology, in all its forms, early and later, which we identify with that departure from the faith which the apostle (1 Tim. iv. 1) distinctly refers to as an apostacy.

Faith [πίστις] in the New Testament church [ecclesía] meant trust or affiance in the living God. It did not mean, “the faith” of the later dogmatic Church.  If πίστις retains its primitive simplicity of meaning as trust or affiance in the living God, and the term διδαχή the equivalent phrase for those teachings which make up the body of revealed truth, then we have what we need: “faith” in a person, and “teaching” concerning his work.”

“This fusing of morality and religion into one, is indeed that return to primitive New Testament Christianity which the age asks for, but does not see its way to.”[2]

The goal of the discussion below is to help the reader see what the age asks for: the return to primitive New Testament Christianity.

In the light of these circumstances, the total absence of any temporal institutional dogma in the following discussion is wholly intentional.

Ecclesía Structure

The earliest Christian communities were charismatically structured, not institutionally structured.

1. Charisma Was the Organizing Principle of the New Testament Ecclesía
   • The earliest ecclesías were held together by charismatic authority, meaning:
     • Leadership emerged from spiritual gifting, not appointment.
     • Apostles, prophets, and teachers were recognized because the Spirit was believed to speak through them.
     • Communities were small, fluid, and dependent on Spirit‑empowered individuals.
     • The early church didn’t have offices — it had gifts.
       
2. Apostles and Prophets Were Central — Not Peripheral
   • Apostles as foundational witnesses
   • Prophets as Spirit‑filled interpreters
   • Evangelists as itinerant emissaries
     
3. In the New Testament Ecclesía:
   • Charismatic gifts were common and expected.
   • Leadership was fluid and Spirit‑driven.
   • Prophecy, tongues, healing, and visions were normal parts of worship.
   • Authority was personal and experiential.
     
4. Beginning in the 2^nd century, Charisma began to decline as Institutional Authority rose
   • As charismatic eyewitnesses died, ecclesías needed stability.
   • Bishops and presbyters emerged to provide continuity.
   • Written texts (eventually the NT canon) replaced charismatic speech as the norm of authority.
   • Prophets and itinerant charismatics became viewed as destabilizing.

Apostles and Prophets built the Ecclesía; Bishops and Presbyters later managed it into the Church.

The Bible

We must understand that in the first century ecclesía, there was no Bible, as we know it.  They had the Septuagint (Greek translation of Hebrew Scriptures), but there was then no settled canon of Scripture of the Hebrew Old Testament; and the New Testament would not be assembled and closed for another 250 years.  Jesus himself quoted from some of the books which became part of the Hebrew canon, so we can assume that he considered them authoritative “Scripture”.  Jesus’ followers considered his (Jesus’) own teachings to be authoritative. Near the end of the first century, Christians were citing Jesus’ words and calling them “Scripture” (e.g., 1 Tim 5:18).  The book of 2 Peter includes Paul’s own contemporary letters among the “Scriptures” (2 Pet 3:16).  Scripture was mainly oral (from Apostles. Prophets, and Teachers) in the “New Testament” ecclesía.

The Word of God was a Person, Jesus Christ, the Son, the Logos (λόγος). The Christ of history was the Eternal Logos, the light of all humanity. The later developed New Testament Bible canon contains the word of God and became the principal book of modern Christian devotion.

However, we should be reminded that in the ecclesía divine revelation was considered continuous and experiential.  The idea that divine revelation would end at some point (e.g., with the closure of the Christian Canon in 367 AD, or at the end of the Apostolic era), would not have occurred to the ecclesía.

Creed

Examples from the New Testament Ecclesía:

From 1 Cor 15:

Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is plain that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.[3]

From Phil 2:

Though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied [ἐκένωσεν] himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.[4]

The current universal Nicene Creed would not be formulated until 325/381 AD.

Ministries within the New Testament Ecclesía

Ephesians 4:11

Apostle

Prophet

Evangelist

Pastor

Teacher

Charismatic Gifts of the Holy Spirit within the New Testament Ecclesía

Romans 12:6-8	1 Corinthians 12:1-14
Prophecy	Word of Wisdom
Ministry	Word of Knowledge
Teaching	Discernment of Spirits
Exhortation	Speaking in Tongues
Giving	Interpretation of Tongues
Leadership	Prophecy
Mercy	Faith
	Working of Miracles
	Gifts of Healing

Women in the New Testament Ecclesía

In an interview, Christian theologian and philosopher David Bentley Hart stressed that Paul’s letters—setting aside later pseudo‑Pauline additions—have a “remarkable egalitarianism” that is “almost historically inconceivable” for the time.

“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  Gal 3:28

Powerful Women in the New Testament Ecclesía

Woman	Reference	Comment
Phoebe	Romans 16:1-2	“a deacon [minister] of the ecclesía”
Priscilla (or Prisca)	Rom 16:3-5, 1 Cor 16:19	Founded at least two house ecclesías with Aquila
Junia	Rom 16:7	Named as “prominent among the apostles”
Nympha	Col 4:15	Started ecclesía in her house
Lydia	Acts 16:14, 15, 40	Started ecclesía in her house
Apphia	Philem 2	Started ecclesía in her house
Mary, Mother of Jesus	Acts 1:14	Present at first meetings of the ecclesía
Euodia, Syntyche	Phil 4:2-3	Co-workers: “for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel”
Four daughters of Philip	Acts 21:8/9	Prophetesses

Worship Patterns of the New Testament Ecclesía

The Christian ecclesía usually met in private homes for worship and instruction (Acts 2:46; 16:40; 18:7; Philem. 1:2). It appears that, in commemoration of the resurrection, the congregation assembled on the “Lord’s Day,” Sunday, the first day of the week (Acts 20:7See Eucharist, below; 1 Cor. 16:2). Writing to the ecclesía in Corinth, Paul describes two types of Christian gathering. One is the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist)(1 Cor. 10:16-17; 11:20-29) or ceremonial community meal. Paul goes on to describe a second type of charismatic gathering, the prophetic assembly, which includes both singing and thanksgiving in unknown languages, with interpretation, and prophecy (14:1-33). These were likely two aspects of the same gathering.

The order of worship in the Didache[5] [ca. 100 AD] allows Jewish forms for “grace” before and after meals. The leader’s prayer does not refer to the body and blood of Jesus; instead, the emphasis is on the gathering of the ecclesía body (see 1 Cor. 10:17). It is noteworthy that the prayer and thanksgiving are interlaced with doxologies; the event is a praise-celebration of the congregation of God’s people. The role of prophets is significant; the Didache calls them the ecclesía’s “high priests,” and gives instructions on how to welcome prophets and discern true from false teaching. The document does not specify what sort of ecclesía official is to preside over the Eucharist.

Worship patterns varied widely by location. Paul’s Gentile ecclesías were not as structured as those of the Jewish Christian ecclesías who came from a background of Synagogue/Temple worship (e.g., as described in the Didache). Diversity was the hallmark of New Testament Christianity.

Sacraments (Mysteries)

Jesus himself instituted the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist) as part of his last Passover celebration with his disciples (Matt. 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-22.) His words on that occasion (“This is my body . . . ,” “this is my blood . . . ,” “do this in remembrance of me”) suggest a close identification between the elements of bread and wine and the continuing presence of Jesus with his Ecclesía.

Two other sacramental actions established by Jesus were Baptism and Foot Washing. The Gospel of John records that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples on the night of his arrest, as a symbol of the loving servanthood they were to show toward one another (John 13:1-15). However, the rite is not specifically mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament.

Regarding Baptism, Jesus himself had been baptized by John the Baptizer as a sign of his role as the Messiah or Son of God (Mark 1:9-11).  The Didache tells us: “But with regard to baptism, baptize as follows. Having said all these things in advance, baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in [cold] running water.”

Prayer

“pray without ceasing” 1 Thess 5:17 (this is the foundational direction of hesychasm)

“But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you [openly].”  Matt 6:6

The Didache specifically quotes the text of the Lord’s Prayer (akin to Matt 6) and directs us to “Pray like this three times a day”.

Giving

Early Christian communities practiced notable acts of mutual aid and pooled collections, and giving was encouraged and commended by Paul. But Paul did not prescribe a universal rule that all goods and money be held in common.  Early Christian fellowship and service was fundamental and sometimes expressed in radical generosity, but giving was practical, voluntary, and contextual rather than a uniform economic communalism. 

Fasting

Again, from the Didache: “And do not keep your fasts with the hypocrites [i.e., Jews].  For they fast on Monday and Thursday; but you should fast on Wednesday and Friday”.

I quoted Rev. John B. Heard at the beginning of this post when he said, “This fusing of morality and religion into one, is indeed that return to primitive New Testament Christianity which the age asks for, but does not see its way to.”  I hope we have clearly pointed out “The Way”.

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[1] Theodore Beza, a Presbyterian follower of reformer John Calvin, was the first person to translate Greek “Ekklesía” with the modern English word “Church” in his 1556 translation of the New Testament canon.  To equate the first century Ecclesía with the 16^th century context of “Church” may be the worst Bible mistranslation ever made in English.  Worse yet, the translators of the 1611 King James Bible copied Beza’s mistranslation; and so it goes with most subsequent English translations. With translation alternatives of “assembly” or “congregation” readily available and historically used, I hardly think the mistranslation was innocent. Words matter.

[2] Heard, John B. Alexandrian and Carthaginian Theology Contrasted. T & T Clark, Edinburgh, 1893. (pp. 229-230)

[3] 1 Cor 15, Harper Bibles. NRSV–New Testament.

[4] Ibid., Phil: 2.

[5] The Apostolic Fathers. “Didache: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” (Bilingual English-Greek Edition). Translated and edited by Bart D. Ehrman. Vol. 1 of two volumes. Harvard University Press. 2003. The Didache was likely written in the first century by Jewish Christians living in the Egyptian, Palestinian, or Syrian region.

Note: All comments in brackets [] mine.