THE
ASSEMBLY
In their own nomenclature, the
Jews were an assembly. The cultic and political act of a solemn and
formalized convention of the whole population—men, women and children—was felt to
be so typical and representative that, by metonymy, it provided the popular
designation whereby one referred to the Jews.
In the accounts of the premonarchic
period the assembly = ‘edah = synagôgê is a common synonym for
the people, especially in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Joshua. The expression
fades in the literature of the monarchy, where “Israel,” “Judah,” “House of
Judah” are preferred. But in the alter postexilic literature an even stronger
expression for assembly = qahal = ekklêsia is used to designate
the people (For example, Neh 7:66; Mi 2:5; 1 Macc 4:59; Pr 5:14. Several texts
in Dt use it in this sense, e.g. 23:2-4). The expression are also current in
the apocryphal writings like 1 and 2 Enoch and the Psalms of Solomon
(1 Enoch 53:6; 2 Enoch 68:7; Ps Sol 17:44 [17:48 old versification]).
And the custom is attested in the Jewish inscriptions (Shürer, History2
2:429). Philo writes: “For when the whole multitude came together with harmonious
oneness to give thanks for their migration (the exodus), [The Lord] no longer
called them a multitude or a nation or a people but an ‘assembly’” (Philo, Exod.
1:10). There are early rabbinical usages which also designate the people as an
assemblage (These include tsibur, keneset, chaberah). Of course there
were other, surrogate, expressions used to refer to the people, but the array
of terms that depict Israel as a convened assembly (and synagôgê is a
very common one) is used with such frequency that there must have been
something archetypical and constitutive about such gatherings.
And that is the case. The Hebrew
scriptures describe critical national events as transacted in plenary assembly
= ekklêsia = synagôgê:
1 For taking corporate military
decisions:
(a) at Mizpah, to avenge the crime at Gibeah of Benjamin (Judg 20:2; 21:5, 8);
(b) attacked by Joab and Ammon, Judah consults the Lord (2 Ch 20:5, 14);
(c) Israel is obliged to release captives and booty from Judah (2 Ch 28:14);
(d) the Maccabean rebels deliberate how to relieve Galilee and Gilead (1 Macc
5;16);
€ Bethulia deliberates how to respond to Holofernes’ siege (Jdth 6:16);
(f) the pioneers return to Judaea face the order to dismiss their foreign wives
(Neh 8-10).
2 For ratifying the covenant:
(a) under Moses (dt 4:10; 9:10; 18:16; 23:1, 2,; 31:30);
(b) under Ezra (Ezra 10:1, 8, 12, 14; Neh 8:2, 17).
3 For acclaiming rulers:
(a) Solomon (1 Ch 28:2, 8; 29:1, 10, 20);
(b) Jeroboam (2 Ch 10:3);
(c) Josh (2 Ch 23:3);
(d) Simon (1 Macc 14:28).
4 For hallowing:
(a) David receives the ark (1 Ch 13:2, 4);
(b) Solomon dedicates the temple (1 Kgs 8:14, 22, 55, 65; 2 Chr 6:3, 12-13;
7:8);
(c) Hezekiah renews Passover (2 Ch 30:2, 4, 13, 17, 23-25).
5 For receiving communications:
(a) Moses commands the Law to be read out every seven years (Dt 31:9-13);
(b) Jeremiah delivers his oracle that Babylon will take the lead (Jer 25);
(c) Messages from Rome and Sparta (1 Macc 14:19).
6 For bestowing official honors:
(a) on Yahweh (1 Ch 29:20);
(b) on heroic neighbors (Sir 31:11; 39:10; 44:15);
(c) on Judith Jdth 6;14-20).
7 For judgment, especially of
capital crimes:
(a) adultery (Ezk 23:46);
(b) sabbath-breaking (Num 15:32-36);
(c) folly (Pr 5:14). (James Tunstead Burtchaell, From Synagogue to Church:
Public Services and Offices in the Earliest Christian Communities [Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1992], 209-10)
[The word ekklêsia was] Originally
a virtual synonym for synagôgê = meeting, it had been differentiated by
the Greek Bible. Synagôgê served to translate keenest, and was
used to designate local communities; ekklêsia translated qahal,
and was used to designate plenary gatherings of the community. By metonymy the
two terms could be and often were exchanged. Christian usage takes full
advantage of the metonymy and prefers to use ekklêsia = assembly to mean
community, both local and worldwide. In Christian usage the word rarely
designates an actual meeting (1 Cor 11:18; Ac 7:38; ITr, 3:1. Acts sometimes
uses to plēthos = the entire group to refer to an assembly: 6:2; 15:12,
22; 21:22; see also Hm, 11:9. In a way this expression supplants their
reference, as Jews, to themselves as a people - dêmos). This choice of
title seems to be purposeful. The Christian community systematically avoided
the continuation of the even more traditional term, synagôgê. Acts
20:28, quoting from Psalm 72, replaces synagôgê with ekklêsia
precisely in order to make it applicable to the Christian community. In the
gospels and Acts the customary usage is almost entirely suppressed: synagôgê
is almost never used to designate a Jewish community (Exceptions: Ac 6:9; 9:2;
26:11; see Hm, 11:9). Instead, following Palestinian usage it refers to
Jewish meeting houses. The usual word elsewhere in Jewry for meeting house = proseuchê
is, in turn, never used in the New Testament for that purpose. It is rare for
these Christians to speak of their own communities or gatherings as synagôgai
(Js 2:2; Hm, 11:9; IPol, 4:2; Epiphanius, Adversus
Haereses, 30,18,2. The first two documents are found from Judeo-Christian
authors). In fact synagôgê is used pejoratively: “the synagôgê of
Satan,” “the synagôgê of villains” (Rv 2:9; 3:9; Letter of Barnabas
5:13 [quoting Ps 21:16]; 6:6. By contrast, when a favorable allusion is to be
made, the word used is ekklêsia: “the ekklêsia of my brothers,” “the
ekklêsia of the holy ones” [quoting Ps 42:3; 22:23], Barnabas, 6:16).
Paul, the most frequent user of ekklêsia, never once writes the word synagôgê,
nor do the deuteron-pauline letters.
Clearly the Christians were
beginning to differentiate themselves from other Jewish communities—by nomenclature,
not by structure—at a very early date. This was a practice of Jewish sectarian
groups which . . . became customary as the Christians chose a distinctive vocabulary
to denote institutions which were not all that distinctive. (Ibid., 278-79)