CHURCH, IDEA OF (ekklhsia, ek klay se ah) In comparison with other
terms used to describe the church, ecclesia was relatively neutral and
colorless, conveying by itself little theological meaning. The Greek Old
Testament (OT) uses ecclesia almost 100 times as the translation for the
Hebrew qahal. The basic meaning of both the Greek and Hebrew is a mee-
ting or gathering. It is the people and the purpose which give significance
to the qahal; it could be a gathering of men called up for military duty, or
for civic action, or a gathering of prophets.
List of Topics—Introduction; Expressions of Eccclesia :
1. The saints and the sanctified; 2. Believers & faithful;
3. Slaves & servants; 4. The people of God;
5. Kingdom & temple; 6. Household and family;
7. The New Exodus; 8. Vineyard and flock; 9. One
body in Christ; 10. The new humanity. Conclusion
Introduction—In the New Testament (NT), ekklesia could mean an
assembly of persons which has been summoned for a particular purpose;
that purpose could be secular or religious. It could mean a community of
believers of any size, from a single household to an entire province. In all
these cases, the basic function of the word is to identify, without quali
fying adjectives, a particular congregation or congregations. It could mean
a community gathered by God through Christ; and the nature of this
community is continually qualified by the One who summons or gathers it.
The ecclesia belongs to God because God has called it into being, dwells
within it, rules over it & realizes God’s purpose through it. & because
ecclesia belongs to Christ, & to God, they constitute together a single
reality —a worldwide covenant community.
Another meaning for ecclesia is the people of God's new age.
Because this Messiah is now gathering his people, ecclesia comes to
include a strong sense of decisive finality. They will be gathered and will
participate in the new age the Messiah begins, & the gathering will span all
generations & all places. The community will be a recipient and channel of
God's glory, a participant in God's war with Satan, & the heir of promises,
including eternal life.
Expressions of Eccclesia (10 Groups)—There are more than 100
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Expressions of Eccclesia (10 Groups)—There are more than 100
expressions in the Bible that express ecclesia's idea of community. Here
they will put into ten groups:
1. The saints and the sanctified. Ecclesia may be viewed as
those whom God has actively called, chosen, gathered, foreknown,
justified, glorified, and sanctified. The church is sometimes desig-
nated as “the saints,” and the use of this term accents the work of
the Holy Spirit. The Son who sanctifies is one with those who are
sanctified. To be saints is to share in Christ. “The chosen” & “the
elect” are likewise used to designate the church, and to emphasize
God's participation in the process of calling the church together.
God's action of justification, whereby God leads people to see the
l need for living a righteous, virtuous life, & the need for God's
help in living that life is a part of this view of the church.
2.
Believers and faithful. Ecclesia may be viewed as a perso-
nal,
yet communal response to God's action through Christ. In
Christ, God
justifies all, and pronounces them righteous before God;
in response,
people commit themselves in confidence, in trust, and
in faith. Those
who believe in the faithful God and God's faithful Son
are those in
whom the faithfulness of God in Christ operates; they
are made alive
and are united in the work of divine reconciliation.
3. Slaves & servants Ecclesia may be viewed as the basic du-
ties which this response of faith entails. The church is the company
of those who through faith have accepted enlistment as slaves, ser-
vants, stewards, ministers, witnesses, confessors, ambassadors, sol-
diers, & friends. Christ is viewed as both lord & slave, both master
and servant. The basic demand of obedience which Christ lays on
the church thus becomes an inescapable obligation to the world.
The slave image is grounded in the teaching of Jesus, as is made
evident in all four gospels.
It thus became NT authors' early custom to introduce them-
selves as slaves of God. They viewed this slavery as the opposite
of slavery to fear, to the law, the flesh, the world & Satan. Slaves
of Christ are free people in relation to their masters in the flesh. To
be slaves in Christ isn't incompatible with being friends & brothers.
The term diakonia reflects this image of the church. Although
a special office of deacons appears, their work doesn't diminish the
truth that the whole church is a diakonia.
4. The people of God The Christian ecclesia is viewed
throughout the NT as the people of God. Almost all the descrip-
tions of ecclesia in the NT utilize concepts & images which in the
Greek OT had been applied to God's people, and thus suggest a re-
cognition of solidarity with Israel that is sometimes made entirely
explicit. What constitutes people as the Israel of God is that com-
munal relationship to God which is produced by God's promise,
election, Christ's dying life, and the communal response to those
actions.
The community is held together by its remembrance of delive-
rance. It is bound to God in a covenant written on hearts, which
God will never repudiate. It is a realm pervaded by personal fami-
mily relationships to God. The life of God's people involves essen-
tially the praise & glorification of God among the nations, & the
extension of the covenant community's limits to include people
from every nation, tribe, & tongue. All positive qualifications of
God's true people are kept in tension with remembering the history
of a people which rejected & continue to reject their God, & who
repudiated and continue to repudiate their rightful King. The old
promise of a strict judgment is still present.
5. Kingdom and temple The church is also viewed in terms
5. Kingdom and temple The church is also viewed in terms
of these institutions, which are both familiar and central in the life
of Israel. The church includes those who have transferred into the
kingdom of his Son. And the way into the kingdom is narrow and
steep requiring total renunciation & humiliation. The center of Isra-
el's kingdom was David’s City, Jerusalem. The Messiah & the mes-
sianic people were described as heirs & inhabitants of God's city.
For John in the Revelation, both Harlot & Satan are represented
by Jerusalem, which is both the scene of great apostasy & also the
scene of the redemption.
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Central to the mission and destiny of Jerusalem was the tem-
ple. In fact, it was the presence of the temple which made Jerusa-
lem the Holy City. God doesn't dwell in a temple, but rather erects
God's people as a sanctuary. Jesus' body is also called a temple, &
Christ is thought of as the cornerstone. People on earth are the
substance of the temple, but there is a close inter-dependence be-
tween this visible community and temple in heaven.
Because God's presence creates this temple & because the tem-
ple's fundamental function is to serve God day & night, there is no
incongruity in thinking of Jesus as both cornerstone & high priest,
and of believers as both living stones & priests. Here the concep-
tion is that of the shared priesthood of a community which has re-
ceived life and power through their dying Lord.
Because his priesthood is accomplished through his “sacrifice”
of himself, so too the community of the priests is created and sus-
tained by self-sacrifice. The self-sacrificing work of the apostle in
his ministry of God's grace to the Gentiles is his priestly service.
And the priesthood is a royal priesthood because the source of its
liturgical holiness is identical with the source of its kingly power.
Its Lord revealed in his death and resurrection the meaning of both
kingship and priesthood.
6. Household and family The church is understood to be the
gathering-place for the coming of the new age of God's household,
God's family. Many OT concepts enter into new vitality in Chris-
tian thinking. “The house of Israel” and “the house of God” is used
to describe the church. To God, the household is related in terms of
dependence, obedience, stewardship, watchful waiting, & patient
boldness. The church is thought of as the Sons of God.
Related to this is thinking of the church as a brotherhood. In
fact the church is addressed as brothers no fewer than 30 times in
the book of Acts alone. Sonship and brotherhood are inseparably
related to sharing in his sufferings. And the character of the church
depends upon the interdependence of the life of the elder son and
his many brethren.
In the NT, Christ is also presented as the bridegroom, which
follows in the OT tradition of viewing Israel as God's chosen bride.
Because of this conception, idolatry and adultery become vivid de-
scriptions of sin. For Christ, the church becomes bride through his
sacrificial love for it. For the church, life as his bride is expressed
by reverence & obedience, by renouncing every other husband, &
by seeking holiness.
7. The New Exodus The NT often thinks of the church in
comparison to key events in the scriptural history of Israel. Among
the more incidental is the reference to baptism as comparable to
salvation from the Flood, with the church as the ark. Most perva-
sive and subtle are the associations of the church with Israel in
Egypt: the sojourn; the conflict between Moses and Pharaoh; the
plagues and the Exodus; the covenant at Sinai; the tabernacle, etc.
Different NT writers on different occasions focused their
thoughts on different episodes in this saga. The church's Supper is a
continuation & renewal of the feasts of the Passover & Unleavened
Bread. It is by this long story of Israel as God's son that the thought
of the church as God's sons is conditioned throughout the NT. The
story as a whole informs most of the agricultural images which had
become customary OT descriptions of Israel; those same images
were adopted as equally fitting to describe the church.
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8. Vineyard and flock The church is described by a wide range
of agricultural analogies, all evocative of the church's dependence
on God. The comparison of God's people to the vineyard is a fami-
liar one. God rents his vineyard to tenants and demands an accoun-
ting from them. The OT conception of Israel as a fig tree informs
the gospel parables concerning the fruitless tree. Israel's picture as
the olive tree is supplemented by Paul. To Paul, the tree's root is
holy; therefore the branches also are holy. Fruitless branches (unbe-
lievers) will be cut off; wild olive branches (Gentile believers) will
be grafted on. John uses the olive tree in analogy in the Revelation.
The most pervasive agricultural analogy, however visualizes
the church as God's flock. And there are different shepherds—stran-
gers, hirelings, wolves, as well as good shepherds. Jesus Christ is
often described as Lamb as well as Shepherd. It is in giving his life
as a lamb that Jesus becomes qualified to shepherd the sheep. His
sacrificial death becomes the source & standard for the care which
his representatives should give to his flock.
9. One body in Christ The ecclesia is described as “one body
in Christ.” Set over against the one body in Christ is the one body in
sin. The “old self” is representative of this body of sin; it is a mem-
ber of a body which is in slavery to sin. From this captivity all can
be freed, achieve redemption, only by divine help. It is sin’s tyranny
which Christ has destroyed in his body by his incarnation, death, &
resurrection. The church refers to those who are united in him and
through him; they are baptized into his death, they are crucified with
him to self. Having a partnership in Christ’s dying body, their bodies
become members of him. This body binds all together in a koinonia
or communion of life and righteousness, over which Christ rules.
The thought of the church as Christ's body conveys many nuan-
ces as used by Paul. In particular we should recognize that the treat-
ment is most highly developed in Colossians and Ephesians. In
Paul's letters, the dominant accents are the following. In the church
every person is a member of Christ's body and should so regard him-
self. Each member, however unspectacular his role in the body, shares
fully in the common glory and life. All in the body participate in the
death & resurrection of Jesus. Through his death they receive the pro-
mise of cosmic redemption, for he overcame the rulers of this age,
took captivity captive.
Finally, related to the body concept is the Christ concept of
Christ as the head. Herein is expressed the conviction that the head is
the source and locus of authority. Both Ephesian and Colossians pre-
sent him as head over all things. There are enough echoes in other
writings to suggest he wasn't alone among early Christian in emplo-
ying this vocabulary. Central and important as this description is, it
was seldom used alone. Paul habitually fused many patterns and pic-
tures, using many of the images mentioned above together.
10. The new humanity The church is viewed as the beginning of
a new creation, a new humanity. In him all are one through the fact of
a shared creatureliness & a shared death. As the last Adam, Christ “be-
came a life-giving spirit” the first fruits of the dead, “the image of the
one of heaven.” Those who belong to him are being transformed into
this image, from one degree of glory to another. Those who receive
the graceful gift of life and righteousness are the first fruits of his
creatures. That which unites them to Christ unites them to one ano-
ther in the ministry of reconciliation. The individual is incorporated
into the 1 new Man; this signals the transformation of his inward na-
ture and his solidarity with all people.
In this one new person, it is impossible for hostilities to remain
between slave and master. The life of this person is characterized by
peace, by love, by access “in one Spirit to the Father.” The gospel use
of “Son of Man” stems in part from Daniel and probably conveys also
the ancient oriental idea of the primal, archetypal man. Only from this
man can true humanity be inherited.
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Conclusion—The foregoing summary of similar ways of expres-
sing the church idea is far from complete. No list can exhaust the vivid
imaginative power of the NT writers or do justice to the fluidity, vitality,
& subtlety of their conceptions. None of the separate titles or pictures
can be taken as comprehending the total range of thought; none can be
reduced to a concrete definition.
Every one of these patterns of thought describes the church's
dependence on the triune God in such a way as to accent the interdepen-
dence of all members of the community, past, present, and future. Fel-
lowship in the church bridges the chasms between heaven and earth,
between beginning and end, between all races, nations, sexes, & classes,
considered impassable by the mind of this world. Participation in the life
of the church was considered necessary for comprehending the implica-
tions of the word-pictures described above. Moreover, whatever descrip-
tion be adopted as central, that term needs to be corrected & supplemen-
ted by the other images. If we would fully understand the idea of the
church in the NT, we should consider all the similar expressions at once.
Several patterns of thought appear in almost all these expressions.
The church is thought of as a profoundly theocentric reality, whose
origin & destiny rest in God’s powerful initiative. It is a Christo-centric
community because Christ's work qualifies the existence of the commu-
nity at every point. The church is a charismatic reality, for the Holy
Spirit knits together its life, and the gifts of the Spirit empower its work
and determine its duties. The church is a new creation, a growing
organism, a bearer of promise for all creation.
The warfare between God and Satan cuts through community life,
whose every choice registers a divided loyalty, yet it remains God's cho-
sen instrument of action in the world. Integral to its grounding in the
fullness of God's glory is the oneness and the wholeness of the church.
This oneness is enriched rather than destroyed by the diversities of his
many gifts; the freedom of the many members; the scattered location of
the many congregations, etc. The NT idea of the church is not so much
a technical doctrine as a gallery of pictures. In this shifting panorama of
thought we can detect recurrent themes which exhibit their vitality and
flexibility with which they are voiced.
CHURCH, LIFE OF. During the time between his resurrection & second
coming, Jesus Christ continues his ministry in and through the church.
At the end of the apostolic age, the first lines of church organization are
visible. The church spread quickly over the eastern Mediterranean area.
The Spirit, without whom the church would not have existed, was also
the director of its religious, moral, and material life, and its guide in its
relations to ancient society.
Every living body must grow. From the day of Pentecost, the
church began to expand outward from Jerusalem , to Judea , Samaria , and
to the end of the earth (Acts 1). Even Paul as the Apostle to the Gentiles
also counts Jerusalem as the factual starting point of his missionary
journeys. The three stages of Judea , Samaria , and the end of the world,
are at the same time geographical and religious stages. Thanks to the
missionary work of the apostles Paul and Barnabas, and the evangelists
Stephen & Phillip, from 30 A.D. to about 47 A.D., the church extended
over almost all the eastern basin of the Mediterranean . Then from 49-60
approximately, the apostle Paul founded churches on all the shores of the
The book of Acts, in its 2nd 1/2, speaks only of Paul's missionary
journeys. But during this period the chief missionary was certainly not
alone in this work. He implies that the other apostles & brethren of the
Lord are traveling to announce the gospel, and besides them, there were
a great number of unnamed missionaries. At the time Paul was writing
to the Romans, between 55 and 58 A.D., the gospel had been preached
in Egypt , coastal Africa , Italy , and perhaps even in the South of France.
It must also be recalled that the apostolic mission was essentially a
mission in cities, and most often in provincial capitals. Along with this
geographical expansion went extension on the religious or theological
plane. Scarcely 20 years after Jesus' passion, the church had already
attained its full greatness on the religious plane by the church's exten-
sion to the whole world, Jew and non-Jew alike. There weren't separate
churches for Jews and Gentiles. The church remained one, & one only.
It has been said, with reason, that the chief personage in Acts is
neither Peter nor Paul, but the Spirit. 1st, the Spirit makes it known to
the church that it is part of the divine plan that the Gentiles too should
share in the salvation of Christ. 2nd, the Spirit is the instigator of the
church’s unity. Always and everywhere the Spirit makes the believers
live a new life, of which the sign is unity and brotherly communion.
3rd, the Spirit teaches all things to the disciples & helps them remember
all that Jesus has said to them.
Before Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John were written in the years
65-100 approximately, the elements which compose them were transmit-
ted orally. The gospels were preached & thought long before they were
written. It is worth noting that there exists only one book of the Acts of
the Apostles; the person of Christ was always more important than the
memories of the apostles.
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On the other hand, it was the deepest conviction of the church
since the beginning that in Jesus the Old Testament promises had been
fulfilled. The same redeeming power of God that had been at work since
the beginning of Israel's history, when God brought his people out of the
land of Egypt, was at work again in Christ's resurrection. That same
redeeming power will work again at the end of this world, when Christ
shall return with glory and the kingdom of God
Thus, the Old Testament scriptures became as much a source of
edification for the church as the writings which spoke of Christ. On the
other hand, as the hope of the past has actually been fulfilled, so the
Christian hope in the consummation must also find its realization. The
church lives in the age of the Spirit, and this age has its proper place in
God's design. However long this age, the church always has the same
task before her: to teach the gospel to the world & to maintain the belie-
vers spiritual life.
The church’s life is a life of communion with Christ. Former Jews
and Gentiles have access to it through repentance. Since these 2 groups
that were united in the church have different pasts, the repentance by
which all must pass didn't have the same significance for the Jews as for
the Gentiles. The Jews were called to repent, not their moral faults, but
the religious and theological error of unbelief.
After Paul was converted, he had the same passionate zeal for
God's glory. The difference was that he came to know that salvation
wasn't to be gained by human effort, but given to them in the fellowship
of the living Christ. For other Jews, what inspired the religious & moral
life was no longer the law recited in the synagogue, but the living person
of Christ, with whom they enter into communion through the gospel and
the Eucharistic meal.
For the Gentiles, on the other hand, conversion to the gospel meant
a radical change of religious and ethical life, and a greater step than the
passage from Judaism to Christianity. The Gentiles were much more
free than the Jews sexually. Moreover, the Gentiles looked with indul-
gence on unnatural vices, which were an abomination in Israel . The
believer’s sexual misconduct is much more than an ethical defect; it is
an offense against Christ.
It is therefore for a religious reason, even more than for a moral
one that the believer must turn away from the works of the flesh. To the
“works of the flesh” in the plural, Paul opposes the “fruit of the Spirit”
in the singular. This fruit is Christ’s love; it creates a unity of mind in
the believer, & requires that believers “love one another with brotherly
affection.” Thus, in the church religious life is the foundation of moral
life. In a word, Christ takes possession of the entire person and their
religious, material, and social life.
Among the first Christians at Jerusalem , no one said that any of
the things they possessed were their own. Property was sold in voluntary
acts inspired by the love which reigned in the church. Since, however,
the present world continued as before, the communism of the early
church proved to be a wrong solution of the problem of community life.
While this was an economic failure, it wasn't a spiritual one. The experi-
ence of the first believers at Jerusalem began the tradition of sharing
which inspired the collection organized by Paul.
In Paul’s eyes the collection wasn't mere generosity. It expressed
the communion which united all believers. The collection bound to one
another those in Palestine , Asia , and Europe who were bound to Christ
in one body. The Israel ’s children are at salvation’s origin. All these
spiritual riches have been transmitted by the Jews to the Gentile; conse-
quently the Gentiles must, on their side, share with the Jews the material
riches which they possess and which the Jews lack. Thus, the gospel
places Christians in their entirety, with their soul & their worldly posses-
sions, in a new relation to those who share in the salvation of Christ.
The church also united people of every social status, from the rich
who had slaves to serve them to the very slaves themselves. Paul him-
self was, no doubt, of high social standing, as is suggested by his Roman
citizenship, his knowledge of both Judaic and Hellenistic culture, & the
funds he had at his disposal. Of special interest is the church's attitude
towards women and slaves. Not only did women enter the church, but
they exercised therein a ministry of assistance of which the apostle Paul
approves.
Paul does not defend the old oriental conception that the woman's
first religious duty was absolute submission. The Christian marriage was
to be strictly monogamous for both husband and wife; this was a novelty
as compared to pagan customs. Further, there should be complete har-
mony between husband and wife in love & mutual service. Paul ordains
for the husband an attitude of tenderness and faithfulness that no hus-
band can adopt and keep unless he is animated by the spirit of Christ.
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As to slavery, the apostle Paul advises slaves to submit themselves
to their masters, but he reminds the masters that they themselves have in
heaven one who is the master of both slaves and masters. This cautious
attitude of the early Christians in the social sphere can be explained by
2 facts. 1st, the end of history was believed to be at hand, so the church
did not care to change the social order of the time, so long as God main-
tained that setting. In a word, the church didn't think of using the gospel
for social revolution.
2nd, the church appealed primarily to the individual. It wished to
bring one into communion with Christ, for one changed by Christ will in
turn change the framework of society in which they live. Thus, if the
church did not preach a revolution, neither did it sanction a social state
inspired by the human heart’s hardness and selfishness. The church, by
its very existence, created a new sociological form, the Christian commu-
nity itself.
CHURCH, ORGANIZATION OF. The church is Christ’s body, and each
body-member has to serve according to his calling & ability. Salvation’s
work had been accomplished by Jesus Christ at a given moment in
history. This work had been done once for all; it was not repeated. The
apostles’ witness, which made this work known to all, became as impor-
tant as the work itself. The church was thus founded by Christ’s work &
by the apostles’ testimony.
But the construction or the edification of the church must be pur-
sued until the second coming of Christ. The church draws its life from
the gospel; it needs people to preach it and to explain it. On the other
hand, the church is called on to be a structure, a body and not an unorga-
nized mass of believers. Lastly, the church has had, from earliest times,
the ministry of caring for the poor and the unfortunate.
As to apostleship, the New Testament (NT) uses the term “apostle”
in both a looser & a stricter sense. 1st, it is applied either to missionaries
like Barnabas, or to messengers of a particular community. 2nd, it desig-
nates a limited group of men who have been recognized as authorized
representatives of Jesus Christ. In order to be an apostle in this sense,
one must be a direct witness of the glorified Christ.
The 12 apostles were chosen by Jesus in his earthly life to join
him. They saw the risen Lord and received from him the commission to
be his witness in Jerusalem , in Palestine , & to the earth’s end. Thus the
12 stood in a unique position. They were witnesses of the ministry and
of Christ’s resurrection. And while Matthias replaced Judas after his
apostasy, no attempt was made to replace any other of the 12 who died.
Paul stands in a position similar to that of the 12 for 2 reasons.
1st, Paul sets his experience on the Damascus Road alongside the 12's
experience on Easter. Second, Paul has been entrusted by Christ with the
gospel to the Gentiles. Moreover, Paul is highly conscious of the excep-
tional vocation of an apostle, and while he recognizes the apostles before
him, he considers himself the last of the apostles. Thus, according to the
NT, the apostle occupies a unique position in the history of salvation. He
has seen the risen Lord and has been commissioned by him to preach the
gospel.
It isn't enough, if the world is to be saved, that Christ should have
died and risen again. What is also necessary is that Christ’s death and
resurrection should be announced to the world. God has elected to save
the world by a concrete, historical work of redemption. The witnesses’
mission is to announce this work. As Christ’s witnesses, the apostles are
clothed with his power. But as the church grows, the apostles leave their
preaching and teaching, in the hands of new ministers. Only their charge
as witnesses of the risen Lord is not transmissible. The church can have
no other apostles than those chosen by Jesus himself, or who are chosen
like Matthias to replace one who had forfeited his position by his betrayal.
In Jerusalem , the church's growth necessitated the 7's appointment
“to serve tables,” in order that the apostles might devote themselves “to
prayer and to the ministry of the word.” Among the seven, two played a
great part as real preachers and missionaries: Stephen and Philip. The
elders appear a little later in Jerusalem . They received the collection made
by Barnabas & Paul at Antioch . They were the chief residents belonging
to the church. They collaborated with the apostles when the latter were
present and assumed the direction in their absence.
According to Acts, elders existed in the churches founded by Paul,
although Paul himself doesn't use the term. Acts calls the Ephesian elders
guardians or bishops. Paul calls the ministers at Ephesus “pastors” and
“teachers”; ministers doing the same work at Philippi are called bishops
and deacons. In fact, “to feed the church of the Lord” is to nourish spiri-
tually the believers with the true apostolic teaching. The same pre-emi-
nent ministry of the word was entrusted to elders, according to the book
of Acts, and to teachers and bishops, according to the Pauline letters.
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Paul salutes the Philippian “bishops & deacons,” but he does not
state what their duties consist of. The bishops are those who watch over
the church in order to make sure that the members are persevering in
the teaching from the apostle. The bishops and deacons make their
appearance also later in the Pastoral letters. Philippi was the model
church. Consequently, the simple organization of bishops carrying out
the ministry of the word and deacons taking charge of all matters of
assistance might have been the organization answering most nearly the
desires of Paul.
The situation was very different in the Church of Corinth
had great difficulties there, & reminds them of the need for organized
ministry. “God has appointed in the church 1st apostles, 2nd prophets,
3rd teachers, . . .” along with 5 other ministries. He first mentions the
three ministries of the word, & he numbers them in order to mark their
hierarchy and their importance; these are the indispensable ministries.
The apostle comes in at the head of the list, because it is he who founds
the church by his testimony. The prophets are inspired preachers, who
express themselves in clear & comprehensible language. And the tea-
chers' task here seems to be to interpret the Christian message, to show
its relation to the Old Testament, and to bring to light all its riches.
Paul also gives a list of spiritual gifts; these gifts are doubtless
spontaneous & sporadic manifestations of the Spirit. According to Paul,
the Spirit pours out its gifts on certain believers in order to enrich the
life of the church. A church without these gifts would still be a church,
but it could not be formed without the testimony of the word from an
apostle.
In the letter to the Ephesians, a new term added to the “essential”
list is “evangelist,” which has the same function as the apostle, namely
to spread the gospel where as yet it has not been preached. Evangelists
are seldom mentioned in the NT, and only two by name: Philip, one of
the 7, and Timothy, companion to Paul. In the Letter to the Romans, a
church Paul did not found, Paul names the following gifts: “prophecy
. . ., service . . ., he who teaches . . ., he who exhorts . . ., he who contri-
butes . . .[etc.].” This list too gives an important position to prophets
and teachers.
In the later church Paul has vanished from the scene, and we
have a far more advanced organization than in Paul's time. His disciples
ples Timothy and Titus appear in the letters we have as the apostle's
agents, whose task is to supervise the good organization of the church,
and to specify the duties of the four different ministers.
1st, the deacons must have strong moral and practical qualities.
These qualities are the only indications we have as to the type of duties
they have, namely works of assistance and administration. 2nd, the
elders must be of irreproachable character. They occupy a governing
office, but some of them take up the work of preaching and teaching.
We see, moreover, that the elders are remunerated, which implies they
devote at least part of their time, if not the whole, to their ministry.
3rd, the bishop is always spoken of in the singular. It therefore
seems likely that in the time of the Pastoral Letters there was only one
bishop. It was the bishop who provided hospitality to travelers, & who
represents the church in the eyes of the other churches & also in the eyes
of the Gentiles. What is more, the bishop does not confine himself to
teaching like the elders; he must also be able to urge all to follow the
sound teaching & to correct those who disagree with it.
The 4th ministry was that of Timothy and Titus themselves; it ex-
tended over a whole province, and involved securing the link and unity
between the various churches of one district. Thus the function of these
apostolic delegates were quite distinct from those of the bishop, the
elders, & the deacons; it too must be continued in the church.
3 facts are clear from descriptions of ministries in the NT. 1st,
all believers were active members of the community and in this sense
fulfilled a service. 2nd, God himself gave ministers to the church, &
primarily the apostleship. Third, the ministry which is of first necessity
is always that of the word, whereby the gospel & the apostolic tradition
continue faithfully to nourish the church. The NT contains very few
precise indications of the church's organization. In the first century,
there was really no general, uniform organization of the church.
The appointment of ministers began with the twelve apostles
and with Paul, all chosen by God. In the appointment of the Seven the
first step is made by the apostles, who recommend that “men of good
repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom,” be elected. Barnabas & Paul
are sent out as missionaries by the Spirit. Similarly, the elders in Ephe-
for the disciples in every church, through the process of discerning by
prayer the will of God. It is by virtue of this same capacity that Paul
chose Timothy and Titus. And, at the moment the apostle disappears
from the pages of history, his power is not handed on to the church, but
to men who have assumed a certain ministry.
C-43
In passing on the ministry, the apostle was only acting as the
agent of Christ or of the Spirit. Prayer is the genuine Christian rite of
ordination; there is nothing mechanical in the ministry's transmission in
the church, and the new minister receives in truth his charge from the
Spirit. In the NT, the imposition of hands is always done by the apostle
or by the minister of the word who has received the laying-on of hands.
Jesus chose his own apostles. Subsequently, apostles presided
with prayer over the choice & ordination of the new ministers required
by the church. The believers were consulted but the ministry was not
transmitted by the church. It was given from on high, & it transmitted
by those who had already received it; the Spirit was at work in this trans-
mission. This is an absolutely original system. The church in the NT is
not a democracy, in the sense that the power is in the hands of the peo-
ple. Neither is the church in the NT an oligarchy, in the sense that the
apostles are capable themselves of designating their successors with
authority. Christ is the head of the church, which he rules through his
Spirit. Power in the church belongs neither to the ministers nor to the
community itself, but to Christ.
CHURCH, WORSHIP OF. (See Worship in the New Testament, Christian)
on southeast coast of Asia Minor .
called Cilicia Tracheia and has a forbidding mountainous appearance.
The terrain was mostly steep and rocky, both along the coast and inland,
which made agriculture unprofitable. Communications were difficult,
and traffic naturally followed the coast as well as it could. The second
part of Cilicia , the region east of the Lamus River
Pedias. It was sub-tropical & well watered by several rivers. The plain
was a vast expanse of rich land. Communications are rapid & easy with
this region. Ancient roads connected it with the countries to the north
and east. The northern pass through the Cilician Gates and the eastern
Beilan pass could provide passage or could be easily closed.
The eariliest inhabitants of Cilicia Pedias lived in villages and
towns all over the plain. Prehistory begins in the Neolithic period
(6000 B.C.). Contact with the interior and coastal navigation began to
develop. After 2000 B.C., Cilicia entered history under the name of
Kizzuwatna as an independent country. Sometime shortly after 1400
B.C., they were part of the Hittite Empire and remained so until the Hit-
tites’ downfall around 1200 B.C. Next, Cilicia was overrun by the Sea
People. Small groups of Greeks began to colonize this area. In the
course of the 600s, Cilicia emerged again as an independent kingdom.
The Cilician king mediated between the Lydian & Median King in 585.
The use of Greek had become common and remained so in the Persian
period.
In the Greek period after Alexander the Great, Cilcia came under
Seleucid rule. The rival Greek group, the Ptolemies, seized several cities
after 246 B.C. Under the Seleucid Antiochus III (223-187) these cities
were reconquered, but this monarch had his territory reduced by the
Romans in 188 B.C. In Cilicia Tracheia, a local dynasty of priest kings,
Teucrids, maintained itself in the mountains.
The coastal zone became a paradise for robbers and pirates, who
used the small harbors to escape detection and terrorize coastal shipping.
A first campaign was conducted in 102 B.C. without lasting results. The
major blow against the pirates was struck by Pompey in 67 B.C. He de-
feated them & resettled the better elements in cities of Cilicia . Both the
eastern and western parts of Cilicia were annexed as a Roman province,
with Tarsus as its capital.
However, the two parts were not ruled as a unified district. Cilicia
Pedia (Eastern) was attached to the province of Syria
(Western) was first given by Antony to Cleopatra (36 B.C.), and later by
Octavian to King Amyntas of Galatia . The last monarch with Greek roots
to rule over Tracheia was Antiochus IV of Commagene (38 A.D.-72).
His abdication in 72 led to Cilicia's final unification of Tracheia & Pedias
as a Roman province known as Cilicia under Vespasian. Paul's travels in
his native country aren't specific, but he clearly followed the ancient road
from Antioch to Tarsus (his hometown) and north through the Cilician
of exploring the wide range of ruins found, from prehistoric to Roman.
CINNAMON (קנמון (kin neh mon); kinnamwmon (kin na mow mon)) The
fragrant bark of an oriental tree. In the Old Testament, it was used for
holy oil, perfume, & as praise of the bride in the Song of Songs [Solomon].
In the New Testament, it was listed as a trade item for Babylon, which was
a symbol for Rome in Revelation.
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CIRCUMCISION (מולה (moo law); peritomh (pe ri to meh)) The act of cut-
ting off the foreskin of the male genital. This was a Hebrews religious cere-
mony, performed on the 8th day after birth. Not only Israelite children were
circumcised, but also slaves owned by Israelites. Circumcision was widely
practiced in antiquity and was by no means unique to the Hebrews; it was
practiced by the Egyptians and by most ancient Semites.
The origin of circumcision is lost in the mists of antiquity. Neither
the biblical entries or the theory of the Greek historian Herodotus is satis-
factory, in view of the widespread practice in antiquity. Mention of the prac-
tice using flint knives speaks for a pre-Mosaic origin. It is probable that in
the early period of Hebrew history circumcision was performed at the
onset of puberty or at marriage.
It isn't known when the rite was transferred by the Hebrews to in-
facy. By New Testament times (NT), naming of the child on the 8th day
accompanied the rite. Circumcision must have been widely practiced in
the pre-exilic period, although Deuteronomy doesn't require it, but speaks
only of “circumcision of the heart.” (See also the entry in the Old Testament
Apocrypha / Influences Outside the Bible section of the Appendix.)
Circumcision was a source of contention in Christianity of the NT
period. Some Judean Christians taught that circumcision was necessary.
The Jerusalem council reached the decision that circumcision was not
obligatory for Christians. While Paul was circumcised, he was a leader
among those who denied the necessity of physical circumcision & gave
the word a spiritual meaning. While he insisted upon circumcision of
Timothy, who had a Jewish mother, Paul taught that circumcision is a
heart & a spiritual matter. In Christianity it hasn't usually been observed
as a religious rite, except in the Abyssianian and Coptic Churches.
We must first distinguish between the original meaning & purpose
of circumcision, and the interpretation given to the developed form of
the rite. We can only guess at circumcision's original purpose, as the
workings of the primitive mind remain a mystery. The 1st theory is that
it was performed for physical reasons, such as to prevent disease, to
prepare for marriage by facilitating intercourse, or for reasons of general
hygiene.
2nd, it may have been a form a sacrifice, perhaps of the reproduc-
tive powers to a fertility god. There is no evidence that Hebrews ever
considered it a sacrifice. The 3rd theory of circumcision is that it was
an act of initiation, either into membership in the community, or into the
duties of manhood. For the later Hebrews circumcision was indeed an
act of initiation into the covenant people.
It is probable that a combination of the above views is necessary
to explain the original purpose of circumcision, especially the 1st & 3rd
theories. From the biblical perspective, it was an act of initiation into
the covenant community; it was the removal of impurity and thus was
an act of purification; and it was an ordinance of divine origin. Circum-
cision is used figuratively as a means of “cutting away” that which
prevents a complete love of & obedience to God. Moses uses the phrase
“uncircumcised lips” to describe his own lack of eloquence and persua-
siveness. Jeremiah uses the phrase “uncircumcised ears” to describe the
Israelites' inability to hear the word of the Lord.
CISTERN (באר, בור, bore) A pit or hole dug for holding water. The difference
between “well” & “cistern” often is not apparent. Pits dug in Palestine's
porous limestone were not satisfactory for water storage until lime plaster
became common around time of the Conquest. The cistern brought a
measure of comfort & security & eased the labors of women. The cisterns
in the cities were fed by water channeled from the roofs into the cisterns.
Cisterns were often roughly bottle-shaped and irregular. The mouth was
sometimes finished with a prepared rim and was covered with a stone.
Sometimes a small settling basin was placed beside the rim. In nearly
every one under the mouth lay a heavy cone of everything from broken
vessels to jewelry to skeletons.
CITADEL (ארמון (ar mone); akra (ak ra)) The stronghold of a city for pur-
poses of defense or domination. David conquered Jerusalem by first
taking the citadel of the city. The last citadel of Jewish Jerusalem, the
Antonia of the Herodian temple, fell under the Roman attack led by Titus
in 70 A.D.
C-45
CITIES OF THE VALLEY (ככר ערי (ay ree ka kour)) The 5 cities of Sodom
and the Dead Sea . Except for Zoar, they were destroyed by God.
CITIZENSHIP The state of being a citizen, whether of a Greek city-state or
of the Roman Empire . Caesar gave it to all the physicians and teachers
of liberal arts at Rome. Under Claudius, native auxiliary soldiers became
citizens upon their discharge from the army; the emperor's wife later sold
the privilege. Most likely citizens carried something akin to passports.
The rights of citizenship meant that a citizen couldn't be punished without
a trial. A citizen could not be examined by scourging, or even bound.
Most important of all was the right to “appeal to Caesar” and be tried at
Rome. The emperors gradually extended the citizenship until in 212 A.D.
it was given to all free inhabitants of the Empire.
The apostle Paul was a Roman citizen because he was born with
this status, and a citizen of Tarsus, where he was born. This suggests that
his father was among the pro-Roman provincials who were given citizen-
ship in the last years of the republic. Paul's ethnos or nation was Jewish,
& his citizenship was dual, namely that of Rome and Tarsus. Paul's status
as Roman citizen was one of the factors which fitted him to become an
apostle to the Gentiles.
CITY (עיר (aw yar); poliV (po lis)) None of our modern terms, like “city,”
“town,” & “village,” covers exactly the same area of meaning or suggests
the same mental picture as do the words of any ancient language. Cities
varied among themselves in ancient as in modern times, probably much
more in ancient times than today. As isolated as each city was, the city
and the region around were largely self-sufficient, and much more at the
mercy of local conditions than now. Proximity to the sea, the steppe, and
to caravan routes, or a site on mountain or plain were modifying factors
that produced a different look in each city. But all cities needed to pro-
vide for shelter, food, drink, security, civic and cultic functions, business
and economic life.
The cities of Palestine bore little resemblance to Nineveh, Babylon,
Ephesus, Corinth, Alexandria, or Rome. The primary distinction between
the city and the village was that the former was walled. And the gate of a
city was extremely important, not only in the defense of a city, but also in
its social functions. The city was a place of refuge, and had villages or
“daughters” which looked to the city for protection.
The sale of houses was treated differently in a village than in a city.
A house in a village could not be permanently separated from the original
owner, but must be returned in the year of jubilee. A house in a walled
city, on the other hand, could only be redeemed by the original owner in
the first year after the sale only. The usual Palestinian city served an
agricultural population, both in the city itself and in its villages.
In ancient Palestine, trees were scarce. There were, aside from
caves, two solutions of the problem of housing: the tent and the building
of stone or mud brick. A “tent city” of great size might easily spring up
overnight on the edge of the steppe in Transjordan or the Negeb when
different sections of a tribe came together. In selecting a site for a village
or city, as actual practice shows, proximity to cultivable land was naturally
a first consideration, but it was sometimes overridden by the desire to be
on a hilltop and near a spring.
Old Testament (OT) Jericho's mound is a unique example of a
walled city, the oldest yet discovered. Already before 7000 or 8000 B.C.,
in a Neolithic period when pottery was not yet known, it had a strong wall
connected with a massive round tower. Among other city sites that have
been excavated are the ruins of what is most likely Mizpah. It was first a
little border city (1200-900 B.C.) and was then turned by King Asa into a
strong border fortress (900-850 B.C.), while still serving as a market town.
After the exile, it served as a local administrative center.
In contrast, Megiddo is more like a walled village in size. As else-
where, the limestone strata of the hill were in horizontal layers. The walls
were built on the projecting strata, whose contours ranged from 819 to 826
meters above sea level. The main period's great wall was still standing to a
height of 6.5 meters or more, and was built on a foundation of large flat
stones projecting slightly beyond the wall's face. The city's circumference
of the was about 840 meters. The casement style wall was formed by
connecting two adjoining parallel walls with cross-walls at right angles
to them.
C-46
The wall was made crudely out of rubble, and was usually 2 stones
in thickness and reaching a width of about a meter, or rarely two meters.
Two heavily built towers were placed on either side of the gate, each
having two rooms. On the outside, from the surface of the ground, the
wall was often overlaid with a thick coating of hard yellow plaster up to
5 or 6 meters high to discourage scaling. The average height of the wall
was estimated to have been 13 to 15 meters above the foundation.
The wall wasn't constructed very methodically; most likely separate
gangs worked on separate sections, with little coordination or merging of
one section into the next. The stones were only hammer trimmed and
laid in irregular, ill-fitting courses in clay mortar, some of them large
enough to require three men to lift them; small stones were used to fill up
the chinks. Towers were placed at irregular intervals along the wall.
Usually city gates were placed in the opening between the two ends
of the wall. The gate at Mizpah differs from this in several respects. The
wall comes in from the north and slightly higher than the wall from the
south. They were continued until they overlapped one another about 13
meters. There is 13 meters between the two walls, making for a square
area; the gate itself took up 5.5 meters. There were two sets of gate piers
with an opening of 4.5 meters between them.
The overlapping gates of Mizpah provided an unusually strong
defense for the gate. A parallel has not yet been discovered elsewhere.
The method of finishing the wall above the gate can't be positively
determined. Heavy wooden lintels over the gateway may have carried
the wall, but the arch is probable. Another gate was also found at Miz-
pah, further south in the eastern wall; it was an indirect-access gate with
three pairs of piers. This type of gate was maintained at many cities; two
of Jerusalem's gates are of this type.
A small fortress city, such as Mizpah, may or may not have had a
further interior defense; there is no evidence either way. The citadel, or
acropolis was usually combined with the palace. Two positions were
preferred, either the northwest corner, for the sake of the cool winds from
that quarter, or a place by the city gate. In the smaller cities, the gover-
nor's headquarters occupied this position. In Hebrew Palestine no storage
cities that can be distinguished as such have been excavated. Presumably
they were of imperial design & construction & connected with provision
for the Persian armies that invaded Egypt.
There were cities of still other types besides those mentioned in
either the OT or the New Testament. The seaports were: Tyre, Sidon,
Joppa, and Ezion-geber (the latter was also an industrial city). As to
caravan cities, the well-known international routes through Syria deter-
mined their sites & their character, even though they weren't mentioned
in the Bible as such. Gaza, Tyre, Damascus, and Petra are known as
caravan cities, both from their locations & from written & archaeologi-
cal records. The principal seaports in New Testament times were Joppa,
Caesarea, Stratonis, and Ptolemais.
In general, Palestinian cities were not planned but merely grew.
At Samaria and Tell Beit Mirsim the houses often used the inner wall of
the casements as their back wall. At Mizpah, on the other hand, there is
a space of from 4 to 10 meters between the houses and the wall. Cities
on Palestinian hills were usually crowded in order to bring as many
families as possible within the walls. A striking feature of cities in the
Near East is the immense labor spent on provisions for water. Long
shafts & tunnels became common in the Late Bronze Age (around
1550). Cisterns came into use at about the beginning of the Iron Age
(1200 B.C.), when the use of lime plaster became known.
Another striking feature was the gate's importance in Hebrew
social life. For the ancient Hebrew, the city gate was much more than
a means of exit & entrance, & much more than an important part of the
city's defenses. It was also the “center” of the city's social, economic,
and judicial affairs. Since the “judges sat in the gate,” the one place
where there was room and everybody congregated, “gate” stood for
justice. “They were crushed in the gate,” is thus a figurative way of
describing injustice.
The concept of streets was slow in developing in Hebrew cities.
In the Hebrew language the word for “street” actually means merely
“outside” the house or the city or any enclosure. The ordinary streets in
Hebrew times received no paving, but they did accumulate potsherds
and small stones, which were trodden down and gradually became a
very unsatisfactory kind of macadam. In larger cities, where there was
a much-visited temple or a king's palace to be reached, room was taken
for a “broad way,” often with an enclosed courtyard before the temple
or palace. There were also special sections of streets, with copper and
iron workers in one place, jewelers in another.
C-47
The Greco-Roman city is much better known than that of the Orient
because of the closer connection of the western world. Also, whereas
Judaism & the gospels had a distinctly agricultural background, Chris-
tianity almost immediately gravitated toward the city. Jesus was a man
of the country; Paul of the city. This began with Alexander the Great
and his successors taking the Greek city to the Orient. All around the
Mediterranean, Alexander and the Seleucids were vigorous builders.
The people still lived in their country villages & spoke Aramaic, while
the cities put on an alien veneer.
The typical Greek city, which came into fashion in the 400s B.C.
is called a Hippodamian city. The ideal city plan was oriented to the 4
points of the compass, but in practice the terrain decidedly affected the
direction and the regularity of the city plans. This city is marked by: its
(fairly) rectangular form; its agora, or marketplace; its open-air theater;
a smaller roofed theater, called an odeum; a gymnasium; an amphithea-
ter; & various temples. Most notable is the agora, whose most obvious
function was as a market place. It also fulfilled the role as a civic cen-
ter, taking over the city gate’s role. No street passed through it, but a
city street ran along 1 side, while the other 3 sides were occupied with
city office buildings, meeting halls, and temples.
The Roman city superficially followed the Hellenistic city plan.
Streets crossed at right angles, usually near the center of the city, and
ran from a gate on one side through the city to a gate on the other side.
The forum took the place of the agora as sites for the display of statues.
The bath was a necessary feature of the Roman city.
Usually Greek and Roman cities exhibited great care in providing
for water by aqueducts and underground tunnels and pipes, as well as pro-
visions for drainage and sanitation. Walls were still built, but with less
attention to detail as with other aspects of the city. The gates were largely
ornamental, and often a triumphal arch preserved the name of some donor
who had dedicated it to the emperor, as well as inscriptions to governors,
the imperial family, and benefactors of the city. A street of tombs outside
the city along a prominent road was a standing feature.
CITY AUTHORITIES (politarcai (po lit ark ahee)) A term occurring in
Acts 17 only, referring to the politarchs of Thessalonica. The title poli-
tarch was mainly the Macedonian title for the non-Roman city magi-
strate. The number of politarchs in a town varied with its importance;
Thessalonica had six. When Macedonia was conquered by the Romans
in 168 B.C., it was divided into four districts, with Thessalonica the
capital of the second district.
In 146, the whole of Macedonia was reduced to a single province
with Thessalonica as its chief city. In turn Thessalonica was made a “free
city” by Octavius and Antonius and was ruled by its own assembly and
magistrates. The politarchs are in full charge and responsible both to the
city and to Rome. Paul was accused of proclaiming another king (i.e.
Jesus), which was not something the politarchs could permit, as the free-
doms of the city did not include the right to recognize another king.
CITY OF DAVID (See David, City of)
CITY OF MOAB
meet Balaam.
CITY OF THE PALM TREES
place mentioned as a part of Jericho . Since Jericho was in ruins from
the Conquest to Ahab, the term probably refers to a nearby grove.
CITY OF REFUGE
appointed to receive and give asylum to accidental manslayers. Among
many peoples of antiquity certain shrines or sacred precincts were regar-
ded as providing absolute security to fugitives, who passed beyond the
reach of revenge and justice alike upon attaining sacred ground and
claiming the protection of the deity.
But biblical law restricted the right of asylum to the accidental
homicide alone, because ensuring the safety of the accidental homicide
and avoiding the shedding of innocent blood was in the vital interest of
the whole community. The book of Numbers prescribes that 6 Levitical
Cities, three on each side of the Jordan, are to be appointed as asylums.
C-48
Both the view point and the procedure for dealing with the man-
slayer vary from source to source. In Numbers the manslayer is tried by
the “congregation,” and if found innocent of murder is “rescued” by the
congregation and returned to the city of refuge, where he must remain
until the death of the (local?) high priest. If he leaves before then, he may
be slain by the avenger. Deuteronomy stresses the responsibility of the
community to establish easily accessible asylums for manslayers, and to
keep murderers from enjoying immunity in them. Joshua is a combina-
tion of Numbers and Deuteronomy. The elders of the city of refuge pass
upon the fugitive's right of asylum; the congregation tries him; if innocent
he must remain in the city until the high priest's death.
It is commonly held that the cities of refuge were conceived of by
Deuteronomy as a replacement of the local altars, which were abolished in
the Deuteronomic reform. Banishment was used elsewhere in the ancient
world, but was not a biblical penalty. The Israelite alternative could only
have been an enforced exile of the manslayer from his home town. It
secures the life of the manslayer for an indefinite period while at the same
time providing for the expiation of his guilt by a kind of banishment and
by the death of the high priest.
The asylums were presumably priestly towns containing important
shrines. The United Monarchy is the time period when all 6 cities were a
part of Israelite territory, and also the most likely time for such a national
program for regulating blood revenge to have been conceived. Although
there's no mention of the cities of refuge outside the laws, it appears likely
that the laws take their departure from an earlier living custom.
reference to Heliopolis in Egypt.
CNIDUS Asia Minor . It
COLOSSAE Asia Minor , Colossae is
CLAMP (מחברה (mekh ab ber ah)) An iron instrument among the materials
prepared by David for use in the construction of the Jerusalem temple.
CLAN (משפחה (mish pah khah)) The word “clan” is used to distinguish a
kin group more extensive than the family. The father's house and kindred,
the “whole family” of a widow's husband, and a clan united in the Passover
sacrifice are examples of biblical usage. It also indicates a technical divi-
sion of the tribes of Israel.
CLASPS (קרס (keh res)) Gold or bronze fastenings by which linen curtains
and goatskin hangings in the tabernacle were held together. Clasps were
also used on veils surrounding the most High Place in the tabernacle.
CLAUDIA (Klaudia) A Christian woman, probably a Roman, mentioned in
II Timothy as sending greetings.
CLAUDIUS Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus, successor of Caligula as
Roman Emperor (41-54 A.D.). He is mentioned in Acts 11, and is most
likely referred to in Acts 17.
Claudius was born in 10 B.C. Partly paralyzed & considered stupid
by Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula, he came to the throne only because
the praetorian guard proclaimed him. Before his reign, he had developed
an intense interest in Roman history. He invaded Britain, and suppressed
the Druid religion, and while at first he sought to curb the anti-Jewish
activities which Caligula had favored, he later “expelled from Rome the
Jews, who were constantly rioting under the leadership of Chrestus.”
Actually, Claudius forbade their assemblies in Rome because of Jewish
turbulence, which for a devout Jew amounted to the same thing. There
were Christian Jews in Rome during Claudius' reign; Paul's friends Aquila
and Priscilla were also expelled.
In 54 A.D. the emperor was reviewing the succession problem and
reached the conclusion that his own son Brittanicus should succeed him,
rather than Nero, his step son. Claudius was poisoned by Nero's mother.
In spite of fiscal reforms & some military successes, Claudius' reign was
marred by marital infidelity, a good deal of conspiracy, and the emperor's
own ineptness.
CLAY (חסף (khas af), baked clay; חמר (kho mer), clay mud; phloV (pay
los), clay mud) The Hebrew is very skillful in its use of the various Hebrew
terms for “clay,” although the English translations do not always bring
this out. Clay was used for the making of both sun-dried and kiln-fired
brick; a certain kind was also used as a cheap plaster, a floor surface, and
especially as a roof covering to shed water. Jesus used clay when healing
the blind man. The most skilled craftsman in clay was the potter, who
made dishes, toys, idols, cult objects, etc. Potsherds were a common
writing material when ink was used. Clay was not only used as a mold in
metal castings, but also, when fired, as a crucible.
CLAY TABLETS. The normal material for writing in Mesopotamia . It was
available in large quantities and, unlike papyrus in Egypt, inexpensive.
When dried or baked, the tablets became hard and almost indestructible.
Initiated by the Sumerian, the use of clay tablets soon passed to other
Western Asiatic people (e.g. Hurrians, Hittites, Elamites, and Canaanites).
CLEAN AND UNCLEAN (טהר (tah hore or tah hare), clean; kaqarizw (kah
thar its oh), clean; טמא (tah may), unclean; akaqartoV (ah kah
thar tos), unclean) To be unclean means to be contaminated by a phy-
sical, ritual, or moral impurity; the absence of such impurities constitutes
cleanness. These words appear over 500 times in English translations of
the Bible.
Old Testament (OT) laws of clean & unclean are applied to persons,
foods, places, and objects. Human beings become unclean principally by
contact with the dead or with the discharge of one of the body fluids.
Places and objects are usually clean in themselves & become unclean by
contact with something impure. Hebrew priestly tradition regarded the
laws of cleanness as part of the Mosaic covenant, and essential to the
survival of the nation, since violation of them was offensive to God's
holiness of and estranged him from his people. Impurity due to leprosy
and to demon-possession are New Testament (NT) themes, but the main
direction of NT thought is an almost exclusive emphasis on moral purity,
& a repealing of the dietary laws, which was necessary in order to include
the Gentiles in the church.
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Terminology and General Consideration—Altogether the linguistic
picture shows that questions of cleanness and uncleanness were major
concerns of the biblical writers, especially those who held closely to the
priestly tradition. An important part of the priestly function was “to distin-
guish between unclean & the clean.” Fundamentally, to be unclean means
to be contaminated by some impurity.
In Hebrew there is a close relationship between sin and unclean-
ness; both represent contamination of the true nature by an alien element.
Cleanness thus appears as a negative condition, as a passive state which
can't be transmitted, while uncleanness can be. The New Testament (NT)
employs concepts of cleanness and uncleanness in ways which closely
parallel the OT, but concepts of cleanness & uncleanness occur relatively
infrequently in the NT.
The clean & the unclean take an important place in the religions
of tribal societies, and the emphasis continues in modified & developed
form in all the religions of humankind. Primitive people make no real
distinction between animate & inanimate nature, but regards the whole
universe as infused with a personality or personalities akin to their own.
Since the nonhuman powers may be hostile, the survival of the group
demands exclusion from it of potentially destructive elements. Certain
things & events introduce an alien element into group life. Such things
are unclean, and contact with them renders a person unclean.
Although self-preservation is the fundamental reason for laws of
cleanness, a wide variety of secondary reasons may account for any par-
ticular object's being unclean. Anything repulsive, abnormal, or distor-
ted was likely to be regarded as unclean. Those having a blemish could
not serve as priests, and the pig was unclean for the Hebrews probably
because of its extensive use by the Canaanites as a sacrificial animal.
When a religion possesses a pantheon of gods, uncleanness is
defined in relation to the will of these supreme beings. The priesthoods
tend to systematize the laws and practices of clean and unclean. The
OT priests related them to the covenant theology by placing their origin
in the Mosaic period and making them an integral part of the events
which called Israel into existence and defined her nature.
When the gods of a nation become concerned for the moral
conduct of their worshipers, the concept of “cleanness” inevitably
broadens to include ethical purity. Moral uncleanness is an act of
rebellion arising from an inner defect of the heart. Both prophets and
priests recognized that God demands ethical purity, and that sinfulness
is a form of uncleanness. Since a holy person, place, or thing is set
apart for the god's use, it is removed from common use. The holy thing
is removed from ordinary life and hedged around by ritual protections
similar to those governing an unclean object. It is isolated because it is
so close to the god, while the unclean is isolated because it is so remote
from the god.
Laws of Uncleanness and Purification Rituals—Since in
priestly thought uncleanness was infectious, a human being might incur
it by contact with any unclean person or thing. The appearance of
swellings, eruptions, and raw sores indicated to the ancient mind that
evil powers or divine judgment of sin was at work. The horrible effects
of leprosy and the disfiguring nature of many skin diseases, which
Hebrews also described as “leprosy,” produced an uncleanness which
lasted until a cure was found, or the sufferer died. Frequent NT referen-
ces to the healing of lepers show that OT ideas of the disease continued
virtually unchanged into NT times.
The discharges issuing from the body—blood, semen, menstrual
flow, and excretions accompanying childbirth—caused in ancient man
irrational revulsion. A woman's menstrual flow, with its monthly occur-
rence, relationship to fertility, and its relationship to blood, made it a
potent source of uncleanness. It produced an impurity of seven days
duration in the woman and any man who had intercourse with her. Any
bodily fluid's uncleanness could be transferred to objects and people by
contact.
The dead body of a human being is an object of horror. Any
contact caused uncleanness and made necessary elaborate purification
rituals. The need to bury the dead meant that this source of impurity
could not be entirely avoided. A demon, one of the cosmic powers
opposed to God, is an “unclean spirit.” Pagan idols & the cult practices
belonged to the sphere of the anti-god, and rendered Israel unclean.
The concept of ritual uncleanness did not gradually give way to a
higher, moral conception of purity. In fact, both grew together and in
close relationship with each other. Both reached their highest level of
strictness in the postexilic Jewish community. The NT, on the other
hand, repudiated the whole corpus of purity laws; the food laws were
rejected most vigorously of all.
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Since food is taken into the body, it represents a potential source
of uncleanness. The writers of Genesis differ as to when the distinction
of clean and unclean animals was made. The Yahwist writer wrote that it
existed at the time of Noah. The Priestly tradition held that the main
body of food laws was given by divine revelation during the Mosaic
period. OT food laws declared unclean any animal which died of itself
or was torn by beasts; meat that had blood in it, or that had touched an
unclean thing was unclean. In addition, the law described those animals
which were unclean in themselves. Beasts which did not both divide the
hoof and chew the cud were unclean. All unclean animals produce
uncleanness when they are eaten, or when their carcasses are touched or
carried.
The fact that the food of all Gentile nations was unclean posed a
difficult problem for Jewish communities living in foreign environments.
Jesus led the way by stating that defilement could not be caused by any
external agent. Peter's vision of the sheet lowered from heaven and con-
taining all types of animals, all of which the divine voice pronounced
clean, provided the church with a mandate to abandon the food laws.
The Council of Jerusalem settled on the formula: Abstain from meat
offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, & from fornication.
Paul's position was that “nothing is unclean in itself” but that being
Christian meant being sensitive to those to whom such things mattered.
In the matter of clean & unclean places, the OT writers are chief-
ly concerned to prevent intrusion of the unclean into localities made
holy by the presence of Yahweh. The entrance of the unclean into the
temple, where it would come directly into the presence of the holy God,
was the most serious invasion of the holy. The impressive annual ritual
of the Day of Atonement removed the sacred place's pollution which
the sins and impurities of Israel during the past year had caused. The
same concern to protect the holy from the unclean appears in the require-
ment that remnants of sacrifices be disposed of in a clean place.
An object is not unclean in itself, but it becomes unclean by
contact with impure persons or animals. Exceptions were houses,
garments of wool or linen, and leather, which sometimes had greenish
or reddish spots that spread. If a 14-day quarantine and replastering did
not work the house was destroyed. After 14 days without a cure, all
garments were burned. The carcasses of unclean swarming creatures
defiled any object they touched, except water in a cistern or spring.
Pottery and clay ovens contaminated by an unclean person were broken.
Booty captured in war, coming from a foreign environment, was consi-
dered impure. The Bible also describes objects as clean or unclean in a
non-ritualistic sense.
A complete purification ritual consists of 3 elements: a waiting
period; a cleansing agent (i.e. fire, water, blood, or a priestly mixture
called “water for impurity”); and a sacrifice specifically for that type sin
or guilt offering. Secondary infections—i.e. those which didn't originate
in the person himself but were acquired by contact with uncleanness—
were usually unclean until the evening. Waiting periods of 40 & 80 days
were reserved for mothers of a newborn, during which time they must
stay away from holy things.
Water is symbolic of cleansing throughout the Bible, and blood
has the same symbolic value in more intense form. Cedar wood, scarlet
thread, and hyssop dipped in blood were used for cleansing lepers and
leprosy in houses. The same mixture with red heifer ashes mixed with
spring water became “water for impurity.” Sacrifices, often combined
with or preceded by ritual washing, were part of the purification follo-
wing discharges, childbirth, and leprosy. An interesting feature of some
rituals is the transference of human uncleanness to an animal, which is
sent away and takes the uncleanness with it.
Theology of Cleanness—The questions of cleanness and unclean-
ness were of pressing theological concern to those OT writers most closely
associated with the priesthood. A pervasive principle of OT theology is
that Israel should reflect in her community life the character and activity
which she ascribes to God. Since God is holy, the nation must be holy.
Holiness and uncleanness are as incompatible as light and darkness, and
there is nothing casual or optional in the demand for cleanness.
The concern for cleanness is, thus an essential part of Israel's re-
sponse to Yahweh’s holiness. Uncleanness in Israel makes Yahweh turn
away the Lord's face. To profane Yahweh by bringing uncleanness into
the Lord's presence is to negate Israel’s holiness, and to forfeit Yahweh's
protecting presence. The distinction between holy and unclean is both a
religious and a cosmic division, running through the whole universe.
The priestly literature does not distinguish moral wickedness from
impurity. The ritual of the Day of Atonement removes simultaneously the
accumulation of guilt for both sin & uncleanness. The Israelite cult didn't
claim the power to remove the source either of sin or of uncleanness by
ritual means. Moral iniquity is a form of uncleanness of which the source
is the inner life of the sinner, and unless God forgives the sin, the source of
defilement remains. Deliberate and unrepentant sin renders purification
rituals useless.
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When, however, the originating cause has been removed, a stain is
left which continues unless and until taken away by the prescribed ritual.
Because the Jewish priests couldn’t deal with the source of impurity,
which was God's prerogative, they had no need to draw a sharp line be-
tween sin & ritual impurity. The cultic purifications fulfilled an important
psychological function by relieving worshippers of debilitating guilt.
The mighty act and indicator of God's holiness was the deliverance
of Israel from Egypt and the covenant at Sinai. Priestly theology thus
projected the Holiness Code, the Priestly Code, and Deuteronomy back to
the Mosaic period, and made them secondary to the covenant. The struc-
turing of cleanness laws into the covenant theology made them absolutely
binding on Israel. They were part of the constitution of Israel's national
life, and their observance was an absolute necessity if the obligations of
the covenant were to be met.
In the NT, concepts of cleanness and uncleanness are peripheral
and used as metaphors. Paul reversed the OT view that uncleanness was
contagious while holiness was not. In a Christian marriage, therefore, the
Christian consecrates the unbeliever. Since the NT eliminates the concept
of ritual uncleanness and concentrates on moral impurity arising from
within, uncleanness is reduced to a minor aspect of the doctrine of atone-
ment. OT cleansing agents foreshadow the water of Christian baptism.
In the letter to the Hebrews, Christ as the perfect High Priest, sprinkles
the heart clean from an evil conscience and washes the body with water
that remains eternally pure.
CLEMENT (KlhmhV (kleh mes)) An individual living in Philippi ; one of Paul's
fellow workers in the establishment of this Paul’s 1st church in Europe .
From the way Paul wrote about him, Clement occupied a place of special
esteem in Paul's memory of his days at Philippi. It is unlikely that this
individual is the same as the Clement of Rome, because the Clement of
Philippi was probably old around 50 A.D. and would not have lived until
the end of the century when Clement of Rome was active. Also, the name
is so common that identifications need to be supported by evidence other
than the name.
CLEOPAS (KleopaV) One of the two disciples who were confronted by the
risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus. He could be the same as Clopas, but
the connection is not certain.
CLOAK (מעיל (meh ‘eel); imation (im at ee on); profasiV (pro fas is)) The
translation of several words referring to outer garments.
CLOPAS (KlwpaV) The husband, son, or father of one of the women who
stood at the foot of the cross. There is no certain way to link him with the
Cleopas on the road to Emmaus. Ancient sources do mention that Joseph
had a brother Clopas. This opens the possibility that the woman at the
cross was the sister (-in-law) of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
CLOSET (לשכה (lish kah); חדר (kheh der); תאה (tah ‘ah); tameion (ta
my ee on)) The King James Version uses “chamber.”
CLOTH (בגד (beg ed); שמלה (sim lah); rakoV (ra kos); sindwn (sin
done)) Because fabrics disintegrate in wet climates, not many of those
made in Bible times have survived in Palestine, and the Bible references
to cloth give us a very hazy notion of what was made and almost no idea
of how it was made.
The most interesting question still to be answered concerns the
type of garment made by Jacob for Joseph. Since Jacob lived in the
Bronze Age, the wool still had to be plucked from the sheep. A great
portion of plucked wool was sorted, dyed, and made into felt, as spun
wool fiber had not come into its own. Based on what we know so far, it
seems logical to assume that Jacob made Joseph a garment of leathers or
wool felt, with a woven binding to keep it from tearing.
The dimensions given for the different curtains for the tabernacle
suggest that 4 cubits, or 2 meters was a standard width for curtains. The
fabric used in these curtains were fine twined linen, blue and purple and
scarlet stuff, and goats' hair. For holy garments, gold was added to the
other materials. Many cloth samples have been found in the dry climate
of Egypt, and some of them may have come from Palestine. There are
textiles made of linen and textiles made of wool. Plain and patterned
specimens have been found of both. The method of weaving was uniform-
ly simple.
C-52
Fibers Used—Flax and cotton are vegetable fibers, which people
have been spinning since the Stone Age. The fact that plant fibers turn
or twist naturally in a certain direction may have suggested the idea of
spinning to early humans. And the people who cultivated them had to
stay in one place long enough to sow and reap. Flax was the longer fiber,
so it was easier to spin. Wool began to be spun in the Bronze Age, but
the practice became much more common in the Iron Age.
Flax grew abundantly in Egypt. The Pharaohs gave as gifts gar-
ments of fine linen, which was very comfortable to wear. This pliability
seems to have been produced by steeping or retting the flax in running
water to decompose the woody parts of the stem and liberate the linen
fibers. Some flax grew in Palestine, and the linen of Galilee compared
favorably to Egyptian linen.
The Bible mentions cotton fabrics in Assyria. The cotton tree was
introduced into Assyria around 700 B.C. Over 200 years later we find
“cotton curtains,” both white & blue in Susa. Cotton grew in many lands,
but seems to have been spun only in countries with a damp or humid
climate, which kept the short fibers together during spinning. In earlier
times, as in the Roman period, linen & cotton were used undyed. Cotton
could be dyed indigo easier than linen, which was occasionally decorated
with blue threads woven into the fabric.
Of the animal fibers used for cloth, silk and wool, the silk at our
period was confined to the Far East. The economy of Bible lands, except
for Egypt, was based on wool. Sheep raised at high altitudes grow a
special undercoat of fine wool to keep them warm; those at sea level may
not grow this undercoat, because they don't need it. The samples of wool
that archaeology has provided us show that wool in Asia Minor is clear
white; in the Caucasus and Upper Mesopotamia it contains a series of
colors from clear white through yellow, tan, and chocolate brown to dark
brown.
The many natural colors in wool could be separated or used toge-
ther, and they affected the color one got when the wool was dyed. Indigo
dye used on white wool could give a light or medium dark blue; when
used on gray wool, it would be darker still; on yellow wool, it produced
green. In fact, with a blue dye and a red dye, and the natural colors in
wool itself, the weaver had at his disposal a complete palette. The habit
of dyeing wool before spinning gave yet another method of achieving
gradation of color, for wools of various natural shades, or that were dyed
differently were often spun together to make a desired effect.
Looms and Weaving Custom—Three kinds of looms were in
common use in Bible times, two vertical & one horizontal. The Egyptian
vertical loom, which was used only by Egyptians, had two beams, one at
the top holding the vertical threads, and one at the bottom holding the
cloth. A weaver stood at each side of the loom; the two would pass the
shuttle back and forth through alternating threads. The horizontal thread
was then packed down with those already woven to form the cloth; gra-
vity helped pack these threads tightly.
The vertical Greek loom was used mostly for weaving wool. It
had the cloth beam at the top and loom weights on the warps' bottom.
The weaver stood in front of this loom and beat the horizontal threads
upwards. These threads were woven or embroidered past 5 or 6 vertical
threads at a time, rather than all the vertical threads at once. This made
it easier to weave colored patterns.
The horizontal loom was an easy type for nomadic people to carry
with them. It consisted of 2 beams held in place by 4 pegs driven into the
ground. Both wool and linen were woven on this loom. The type of loom
on which fabrics were to be made seems to have been implied by the phra-
ses used to describe the process. Fabrics to be made on a Greek vertical
loom were to be “embroidered”; those to be made on a horizontal loom
were to be “skillfully worked.”
The specifications for the curtains of the tabernacle show us that 4
cubits or 2 meters was a standard width for both linen and wool material.
The hangings for the court were to be 45 meters long. The inner curtains
were to have linen lengthwise threads with wool patterns woven into them.
The hangings for the court were to be plain linen, and the tent was to be
plain goats' hair.
Garments were woven on the same types of looms as the curtains;
long warps would suffice for many garments. For a robe, the weaver began
his work on enough center vertical threads to make a sleeve, leaving the
threads on either side bare. The full loom or length of the robe would be
woven once the sleeve had been woven up to the shoulder line. The head
opening was made by weaving 1/2 the area he wanted to weave at a time
to separate back and front of the tunic. Then the weaver would weave the
other shoulder and sleeve.
The robe was then cut from the loom and the raw ends finished.
When a tunic was woven on a narrow loom, it was made in three pieces.
The center section was woven as on a wide loom from cuff to cuff, with a
head slit in the middle. When a circular garment was to be woven the
weaver would widen the area he was weaving one or two lengthwise
threads at a time, instead of all at once.
C-53
When narrow tapes were woven which had to be strong, two yarns
were quite often used together instead of a single yarn of larger size. As
with the hangings, expensive materials & methods were used for important
garments. The materials available in Palestine were linen, wool, goats'
hair, and gold. In the Bible linen was referred to as “fine twined linen.”
Wool was mentioned as “blue and purple and scarlet (stuff).”
Gold thread preparation was a rare technique, and is described in
the Bible, but the Bible description does not match what archaeology has
found. The Bible method uses gold leaf, hammered out and cut into
threads; Archaeology has not found any evidence of gold leaf being used
in Near Eastern fabrics. Instead there is evidence that drawn wire was
beaten thin and cut into strips. Leviticus 19 prohibits "garments of cloth
made of 2 kinds of stuff." Apparently the cloth itself may not be spun
using 2 different kinds of fiber, because the description of the girdle, robe,
breast piece, and ephod called for a combination of wool, linen, and gold.
The questions we have been able to answer make it clear that Bible
references to textiles & garments alike were meant for a civilization well
acquainted with all weaving and tailoring processes. Therefore, the refe-
rences point to techniques & customs without feeling any need to explain
the process.
CLOUD (ענן (ah nawn), thunder-cloud; עב (awb), thick cloud; nefelh (ne
fe lay)) There was of course the “pillar of cloud” of Exodus 13; the cloud
and darkness of Exodus 14 was probably a dust storm of a sirocco or east
wind. The cloud covering the tabernacle in Exodus 40 was morning mist
or a cloudy sky.
Cloud is used figuratively in the New Testament. “To come with
(or in) clouds” as in Mark 13 and Revelation 1 refers to Christ coming as
the instrument of divine justice.
CLUB (תותח (toe thawkh), King James Version uses “dart”; מפץ (may
feets); xulon (ex oo lon)) A weapon used in war. In the New Testament
it was carried by the crowd that came with Judas to seize Jesus at Geth-
semane (Matthew 26; Mark 14; Luke 22).
was colonized by Dorian Greeks in territory which even attracted prehis-
toric settlers from the Aegean area. The point of land extending into the
sea at Cnidus is about 64 km west to east, with rugged mountains to the
East, and some fertile territory in coastal plains to the West, with a narrow
strip of land in the middle. Ancient Cnidus probably lay at the center, and
was later moved to the site near Tekir on the western tip of the peninsula in
the 300s B.C. Paul sailed by Cnidus on his way to Rome.
COAL (גחלת (gah kheh leth); anqrakia (anth rak ee ah)) True mineral coal
has not been found in Palestine , whose geological formation is too recent.
Biblical references are to charcoal, which was used for heating, cooking,
& smithing.
COAST The King James Version uses this word, which once included the
meanings of “border,” “boundary,” “territory,” and “region,” along with
its modern day meaning of land along a body of water.
COAT, COAT OF MAIL (כתנת (koot toe neth); citwn (khee tone); שריון
(shir yone), coat of mail) Both the Hebrew and the Greek word refer to a
long, shirt-like inner garment, worn under the outer garment. The Revised
Standard Version uses the term almost exclusively for the priests' under-
garments; the King James Version uses it more frequently.
A coat of mail is a protective vest worn from the neck to the girdle,
probably formed of two pieces of leather joined below the arms. Goliath
wore such a coat, reported to weigh 5,000 shekels, 57kg or 125 lbs., while
David refused to wear Saul's because of its weight.
COCK (alektwr (al ek tor)) The Hebrew words which might be translated
as “cock,” are still in dispute among scholars. In Proverb 30:31, where
the Revised Standard Version uses “cock,” the King James Version uses
“greyhound.” In Mark 13, the third watch (12 am to 3 am) is “cockcrow.”
COCKATRICE (צפע (tseh fah), viper) A fantastic reptile alleged to be hatched
by a serpent from a cock's egg, and having the power to kill by a glance.
In the King James Version usage it is only a venomous serpent.
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COCKLE (באשה (bash aw), bad plant, weed) Word used in King James
Version to translate the Hebrew word. Revised Standard Version trans-
lates as “foul weed.”
CODE A term used for various collection of Old Testament legal materials.
CODEX The earliest book form. The term came to be used for wooden leaves
or tablets, & eventually for books consisting of leaves laid on one another.
COFFER. King James Version form of “Box.”
COFFIN. See Burial.
COHORT (speira (spi rah)) One tenth of a legion. The paper strength of a
cohort was 6 centuries or 600 men. The troops stationed in Palestine were
auxiliary troops, which had a paper-strength of 760 infantry & 240 cavalry.
They were usually posted on the frontiers in small forts, four to eight acres
in area.
COL-HOZEH (כל־הזה, every seer) An ancestor in the tribe of Judah who
gave his name to a clan.
COLLAR ( a.)פה (peh), opening; b.) ענק (aw nawk), necklace; c.) צינק
(tsee noke), pillory, stock) a.) Used in Exodus 28 to describe the ope-
ning for the head in a priestly garment. b.) A decorative ornament, with
pendants, which Midianite camels wore around their neck (Judge 8).
c.) A pillory into which a person's head was placed. In Psalm 105,
the Hebrew phrase “neck in iron,” suggests a “collar of iron,” which is the
way that the Revised Standard Version translated the phrase.
COLONY Roman colonization began as Julius Caesar's practice of providing
land & employment for the lowest, working class of Rome , & for veterans
of his legions at a low cost to the state. Most colonies were established in
the western provinces (Corinth and Philippi are two eastern exceptions),
thus relieving the over-crowded city of Rome, while strengthening the
Roman element outside of Italy. Augustus also established colonies in
Africa, Sicly, Macedonia, Spain, Achaea, Asia, Syria, Gallia, Narbonesis,
Pisidia, & 28 in Italy. Other communities were given the status of Roman
colonies in order to honor their inhabitants and strengthen their ties with
Rome.
The colonies possessed autonomous government, in some cases
immunity from taxation, & use of Italian legal procedure. The magistrates
included praetors who in colonies could deal with civil or criminal cases.
They could impose floggings by the lictors, but not in the case of uncon-
demned Roman citizens.
COLORS The Old Testament has no word for the abstract concept of color.
Where “color” is used in the Bible, the word actually has another basic
meaning. For example, Joseph's “many-colored” coat was actually “long
with sleeves.” In the New Testament, the word “color” does not occur in
Greek.
When one turns to the names for the individual colors, one is struck
both by the relative poverty of terms and by the lack of precision in their
definition. The clearest terms are for manufactured colors; natural colors
are rarely used in descriptions. It has also so been noted that the Hebrew
are more concerned and clear about how somber or bright a color is, than
they are about the color itself. Colors are often used symbolically, but
there is no evidence that colors were employed in the actual decoration of
the tabernacle or temple. In later ages, however, the colors were seen to
represent other things: white represented earth; purple stood for the sea;
blue was for air; and red was for fire.
a city with a non-Greek name that was altered to make it “more Greek.”
Of the three major Christian cities in the Lycus district, Colossae is the
earliest to have achieved city status. Xerxes stopped there during his
expedition to Sardis in 481 B.C., when the city was mostly Phrygians
speaking their native language and worshipping their great goddess. It
was a large and prosperous city when Cyrus the Younger stopped there
in 401 B.C.
C-55
Competition arose from nearby Laodicea and Hierapolis, nearby
cities developed by the Greeks after Alexander the Great. Colossae must
have become more Greek and eventually more Roman in a gradual pro-
cess of assimilation to its neighbors. On the north bank, there is a collec-
tion of rock-cut and partly built graves. A Byzantine church was also
built on this side of the river for Saint Michael; the church was destroyed
in a Turkish raid at the end of the 1100s; the ruins are still there. The
site of the city of Colossae was abandoned in the 700s.
COLOSSIANS, LETTER TO THE A letter from Paul and Timothy to the
Christians of Colossae, carried by Tychicus and Onesimus, the slave of
Philemon. It is now the 12th book in the New Testament (NT). Its notable
features are its advanced Christology in Chapter 1's hymn, & its refuta-
tions of a dangerous heresy combining Christianity with another belief.
Colossians is also the primary source for the letter to the Ephesians.
As to the time and date of writing, the evidence of Acts indicates
that Paul could have met Onesimus the runaway at Caesarea (57-59) or
Rome (61-62); Colossians could have been written during the Roman
period. Some have proposed Ephesus, but there is no solid evidence to
support this theory. Colossians was accepted as part of the NT and as
Paul's writing by 200 A.D.
The main controversy surrounding Colossians was its relationship
to the letter to the Ephesians. There is some belief that the source of
Ephesians was a similar, shorter letter; it all depends on how much Paul's
disciples edited his work. This article supports the theory that the letter to
the Colossian we have today is Ephesians' source. But Ephesians comes
off as ponderous and dull, whereas Colossians is lively with personal
feeling, and gives one the sense of being a genuine and original letter.
Colossian has some unusual vocabulary; it has 34 words that are
not found elsewhere in the NT. It shares 15 words with Ephesians that
appear only in other letters not written by Paul, & 10 words in Colossians
are found in Ephesians but nowhere else. No doubt, the unusual Colos-
sians crisis & heresy is responsible for the introduction of unusual words.
Colossians lacks the Pauline words “righteousness,” “fellowship,” &
“law.” In terms of style, the grammar and long sentences used can be
found elsewhere in Paul's writing and especially in Ephesians. There
have been long-standing, major difficulties in the translation of Chapter
2: 18, 23, and minor difficulties with 3 verses of Chapter 1, 3 verses of
Chapter 2, and 1 verse of Chapter 3.
The things Philemon & Colossians share in common also support
authenticity, and while Philippians has a different tone than Colossian, it
does share words and ideas in common. The different tone can be traced
to intimate connections Paul has with the church at Philippi, as opposed
to Colossae, where Paul is following up on Epaphras’ work. The heresy
Paul dealt with at Colossae could certainly belong to Paul's day.
The apostle wrote with 4 goals in mind. 1st, he wrote to establish
the Colossians in the true faith by exposing the heretical teaching's deadly
nature. 2nd, he wrote to instruct them in the Christian way of life. 3rd, he
wrote to encourage them to promote mutual love and harmony. And 4th,
he wrote to give them news of the company at Rome and send greetings
to his friends.
The heresy with which Paul was dealing was apparently a mystery
cult in which visions played a part. They apparently sought to blend
pagan and Jewish sources with Christianity, and turn it into a faith based
on obtaining “secret knowledge” in order to gain entrance to Paradise.
The heretics attacked Christianity as an immature faith and denied the
sufficiency of Jesus Christ as divine healer and redeemer from sin. The
angelic powers were to be worshiped as well as Christ. Angels were seen
as beings with power to negotiate between the holy, transcendent deity,
and the material world where people live. Certain forms of self-denial
and practice in worship were regarded as essential to salvation.
Paul's answer was that Christ is the beloved Son of God & Savior,
and that he ruled over the angelic powers. Paul's position on self-denial
or abasement is that mortification does not promote spiritual health, that
it leads rather to self-indulgence. He also vigorously objected that Colos-
sians were creating a new and negative legalism, and were denying the
reality of faith union with the living Christ, the container of “all the trea-
sures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Colossians is brilliantly conceived & written, with Paul at his diplo-
matic best. He graciously recognizes Epaphras' work & perhaps Timothy's,
yet he fights almost fiercely for the true faith of the crucified & risen Lord.
God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is at once the invisible and
the knowable, revealed in his Son, the perfect Image, whom he raised from
the dead. God's plan to redeem the sinful and the fallen world is a mystery
that was hidden from all eternity, but has been revealed to his holy ones.
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Like Philemon but unlike Philippians, Colossians lacks teaching
about the Spirit of God. Jesus is the Messiah and the Lord. He was put
to death, but raised by God to reign at his right hand; he is the beloved
Son, the Savior of the universe. Moreover, he was the divine agent at
Creation, the eternal head who directs every process of life and energy.
3 propositions sum up Colossians' high Christology: a.) Deity in its
fullness chose to dwell in Christ bodily; b.) Christ is Lord over all angels;
c.) Christ is the head of the church, his body, both as Creation’s mediator
& as Savior. The salvation offered by such a Christ isn't a mere prepara-
tion, in need of the secret teaching and regulations of another discipline.
Because the “substance” is in Christ, he is not only the clue to ultimate
reality, he is also the judge of every religion and the standard by which all
morals are judged.
In Paul's ethics, Christ's example is held up for imitation. Hence,
love is the greatest virtue; the bond of unity, the motive for mutual for-
giveness. This love is Christian charity, compassionate, tender, gracious
and Christ-like. Christ's redemptive work, man's response in faith and
baptism, bring the church into being as the body of Christ.
This church is to become united in love, & ought to grow in wis-
dom, as each member becomes mature. The inferior groups (wives, chil-
dren, and slaves) are told to be submissive, as befits the Christian com-
munity; but Paul fails to advise them to love their superiors. Slavery isn't
condemned, presumably because the hope that the Second Coming will
be soon is strong. And Christ is the Head who operates through his ser-
vants; implying the teaching of Roman 12. Clearly this doctrine is what
the 100s A.D. saw as being catholic (universal).
COLT (בן (ben), son; עיר (ah yeer); pwloV (poe los)) The young of the
horse or of animals like the horse. In the Old Testament, “colt” is used
for the young of camels, the tamed ass, and the wild ass. In the New Testa-
ment, polos is used for the animal Jesus' disciples found for their Master's
entry into Jerusalem .
COMFORT (נחם (naw kham); parakalew (par ah kal ee o) While the Greek
may also mean “to call (somebody) to one's side,” it is also used of calling
or speaking to someone else by way of comfort, encouragement, entreaty,
or exhortation. It is a key word in the gospel, going back to the words of
comfort that begin Isaiah 40. II Corinthians can be called the letter of
comfort, so repeatedly does Paul strike this note in it. Those who enjoy
the comfort of God are best able to comfort others.
In Jesus' teaching, those who mourn are congratulated because
they are to be comforted. “Comfort” was used more often in the King
James Version than in the Revised Standard Version, because its range
of meaning was wider in Old English than it is today. It means “to streng-
then,” as well as “to aid,” console, encourage, refresh, relieve, and soothe.
COMFORTER (paraklhtoV (par ah klay tos)) King James Version transla-
tion of the Greek. (See Paraclete).
COMMANDMENT (פה (peh); מצוה (mits vah); entolh (en to leh), order,
appoint, commission) In the Old Testament (OT), & often in the New
Testament (NT) as well, the commandments of God generally refer to
those found in the first 5 books of the OT or Torah. In the NT, the com-
mandments are summarized by Jesus in the command to love God and
neighbor.
COMMENTARY Originally it meant sketchy notes as in a pupil's notebook
or a speaker's outline, then a book of unpolished history, and finally a
book of notes explaining some earlier work. A biblical commentary
takes a section of scripture and seeks to make its meaning clear. The
comment must deal to some extent with textual, grammatical, and trans-
lation problems of the original; more satisfactory commentaries strive to
outline the author's thought, to relate each part to the aim of the whole,
and to see it against the religious, cultural, and political background in
which it developed. Others place greater emphasis on exegetical history
and the writing's bearing upon present religious needs.
COMMISSION, THE GREAT A way of referring to Jesus' command in
Matthew 28 that his disciples should go into all the world & “make dis-
ciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, & of the
Son, & of the Holy Spirit." There are many questions surrounding this
commission's origins, about whether it was actually direct from Jesus, or
from experience. The present text is attested by other evidence, and its
joining of Father, Son, and Spirit appears in other primitive confessions.
C-57
COMMON (חל (khole), profane; koinoV (koy nos)) In Old Testament priestly
literature “common” is the opposite of “holy.” Although in the Old Testa-
ment the common is ritually neutral, and may be either clean or unclean,
in the New Testament koinos is synonymous with “unclean.”
COMMON LIFE The distinguishing characteristic of the Spirit-possessed
community of the Christian body, expressing that fellowship between men
which results from corporate communion with God and transcends secular
divisions. For Luke, offenses against the common life are directed against
the Holy Spirit.
COMMONWEALTH (politeuma (po li too ma), community) Paul wrote to
the Philippians: “Our commonwealth is in heaven.” Paul implies the fol-
lowing in this statement: a.) our (i.e. Christian) commonwealth is dis-
tinct from all others; b.) “Commonwealth” implies community; c.) the
conduct of Christians is to be appropriate to their commonwealth citizen-
ship; d.) only the miracle of the Savior coming from the commonwealth
in heaven will establish the fulfillment of the community's life.
COMMUNION (koinwnia (koy no nee ah); fellowship) In the Old Testament,
the entire notion of the covenant involves & implies of communion between
God and human. The covenant involves the closest fellowship between
God and God's people, without compromising the divine lordship or the
fundamental truth that the whole relationship is based upon the sovereign
grace of God. There can be no tendency in the covenant theology of the
Bible to suggest the possibility of the human's absorption by the divine.
There can be no union which would obscure the basic distinction
between Creator and creation. Within the terms of the relationship of grace
& obedience, communion of a close & intimate kind is established between
humans and God. Certain individuals are granted a special and peculiarly
close relationship to God; Moses communed with God directly, “speaking
face to face, as one would to a friend.” Prophets, on the other hand were
men to whom the word of the Lord came, to whom God revealed the
meaning of God's acts in history.
The hope of Israel included the expectation that in the age of fulfill-
ment all God's people, and not merely a selected few, would be admitted to
a similar intimate, personal knowledge of, and communion with God. As
Jeremiah put it, “No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each
other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to
the greatest. . .(Jeremiah 31:34).”
Under the old covenant's system it could not be fully realized. The
sacrifices themselves were intended to supply a means toward communion
with God. In particular, the peace offering was evidently thought of as
constituting a communion meal in which God & the worshiper were brought
together in a mutual participation in the dedicated offering. Certainly, the
apostle Paul describes “the practice of Israel” this way in I Corinthians 10.
Paul believed that to partake of the sacrifice makes the worshiper a partici-
pant, either in fellowship with God in the case of the sacrifices of Judaism,
or in fellowship with demons in the case of offerings consecrated to pagan
deities.
In the Christian dispensation, the God/human communion has been
established in a new and deeper sense through Christ. Human commu-
nion with God is now in & through Christ. The vocation of those who are
converted by the apostolic preaching is a calling “into the fellowship of
God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” This calling involves union with Christ
in his death, and resurrection; the state of being “always with the Lord,” in
a complete & final sense, belongs to the future hope.
The union is experienced now in a very personal communion with
Christ. The Christian has died with Christ, believing that one will also live
with him. The personal experience of Paul himself was of rejecting all that
had seemed valuable to him in his unconverted days & accepting righte-
ousness from God through communion with Christ in death & resurrection.
This communion with Christ is not merely an individual experience.
The community is a body within which dwells the Spirit, so that it can, in
one aspect, be virtually equated with Christ. The effective sign of incorpo-
ration into Christ is baptism. The communion of the church with Christ is
a union through him with the Father. It is effectively signified & expressed
in the Eucharist. It brings the community into present union with the ascen-
ded Christ.
In Eucharistic communion, there are gathered up ideas underlying
the commemoration of Christ's death, the Last Supper's re-enactment, fel-
lowship meals, and “breaking of the bread.” Present communion with
God in Christ, and dedication of the believer to God through Christ is to
be perfected when the future hope of total redemption is fulfilled. This
“dedication” of the believer signifies chiefly participation in the future life,
which is the life of God.
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COMMUNITY OF GOODS. In the Jerusalem church’s first days, believers
taught by the apostles, united in a communal life in which they joyfully
and generously shared spiritual and material possessions. The origins of
this community of goods may be found in the example of Jesus and his
disciples. Because of Marxism today, “communism” isn't a suitable term
for the communal life of the first Christians. Their community of goods
was voluntary. It was not equality of property or of production. It resulted
in the first dissension in the church. It soon faded out, but its influence
continued in the church’s communal monastic orders.
COMPASSION, PITY (ﬧחם (raw kham) חמל (khaw mal) splagcnizomai
(splag kheh nih zo mah ee) eleew (el eh eh oh)) The Hebrew and Greek
words above can be translated “compassion,” “pity,” or “mercy.”
CONANIAH (כונניהו, Yahweh has established) 1. A Levite and chief officer
over the collection of contributions and tithes in King Hezekiah's reign.
2. A chief of the Levites in the reign of King Josiah.
CONCUBINE (פילגש (pee leh gesh); pallax (pal laks)) A slave girl who
belonged to a Hebrew family and bore children. They were acquired by
purchase, captured in war, or taken in payment of debt. Her son might
become a co-heir; her name was remembered because of her offspring; a
barren wife might have a son through her. She had the rights to sabbath
rest, food, clothing, and sexual intercourse.
CONCUPISCENCE A word used in the King James Version & other older
New Testament versions, meaning “sexual desire.” The word isn't used
in the Revised Standard Version & other modern versions, because it has
since acquired different meaning through the Catholic Church's theology.
CONDEMNATION (רשע (raw shah); katakrinw (kah ta kree no); krima
(kree ma)) The condemnation concept appears primarily in Job, Psalms,
& Proverbs. God will condemn one who breaks a trust, one of evil de-
vices, & the unrighteous. God won’t condemn any who take refuge in
God; God saves the needy from those who condemn them. Job con-
demns himself, & God asked him whether he will condemn God.
In the New Testament (NT), the root of the 2 Greek words given
above meant originally “to separate or distinguish”; then “to pass a judg-
ment on”; & finally “to pass unfavorable judgment on.” In the NT, God is -
sometimes the source of condemnation. But God sent his Son, not to con-
demn the world, but that the world through Christ might be saved. People
also condemn one another, but in Luke they are forbidden to do so. Jesus
was condemned to death.
CONDUIT (תעלה (teh aw law)) A water channel or tunnel.
CONFESSION (ידה (ya dah); תודה (toe dah); omologew (oh mol og ee oh))
An aspect of the worship of God. It involves acknowledgement of sin &
helplessness, the declaration of God's acts by which man is rescued from
his troubles, & praise & thanksgiving to the mighty, merciful God. Con-
fession is 1st the proclamation of the deliverance wrought by God. 2nd,
it is the acknowledgement of sin and helplessness, and recognizing that
God is in the right. 3rd, it is the praise of God, who rescues God's people.
In the New Testament (NT), John the Baptist emphasizes strongly
the importance of confessing sins. But the centrality of the Jesus' person
caused significant modifications in the act of confession. The NT confes-
sion focuses on Jesus as God's redemptive deed. Jesus is the great exam-
ple of confession. The disciple is also required to make confession; it is
a public event. The disciple commits himself in loyalty to Jesus. Jesus
confronts his disciples with necessity of choice: they can't serve both God
and mammon.
The apostolic church recognizes the necessity of confessing Jesus
in the saying: “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe
in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” In the
life of the early church 4 factors influenced the development of confession.
1st, there was the need for catechetical instruction as preparation for bap-
tism. 2nd, the worship of the early church also influenced the forms of con-
fession. There are several examples of confessional formulas in the Bible;
even the Jewish worship tradition of the Shema has probably influenced
the confession.
C-59
3rd, persecution also played a role. Jesus himself made the good
confession before Pontius Pilate, and the Christian was obliged to confess
his name before Roman authorities also. 4th, the growth of heresy influ-
enced confessions. Some of the NT confessions show sharp reaction to
false teaching.
Confession is an affirmation of the historical character of God's
redeeming deed in Jesus Christ; commitment to Jesus' lordship, with all
its risks; and rejection of all intellectual, moral, & mythological misinter-
pretation of the Christ event. While confession of Christ in its controver-
sial setting is most prominent in the NT, confession as praise isn't absent.
CONFIRMATION The church rite of confirmation's beginning is found by
some scholars in Acts 8 and 19. In both cases, the new disciples were
baptized and received the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, by Peter
and John in the first case, & by Paul in the second case. Different expla-
nations of the origin of confirmation have been proposed by scholars.
The most probable seems to be the following: With the mission in
Samaria the gospel passed over to non-Jews for the first time. The solemn
intervention of the apostles must then underline the fact that a great step
had been made toward the fulfillment of the Lord's command. Both narra-
tives may be considered as precedents of confirmation.
CONFISCATION Appropriation of private property to the public use.
Confiscation, not mentioned in biblical law, came into vogue in Israel
with monarchy’s rise. As a judicial punishment, Ahab's appropriation of
Naboth's property was interpreted as an exercise of the royal right to
confiscate the estate of state offenders.
CONGREGATION, ASSEMBLY (a.) עדה (ay dah); b.) קהל (kah hawl);
c.) מועד (mo awd), appointed time or place; d.) עצרת (‘ats eh reth);
e.) ekklesia (ek klay see ah))
(a.) This word designates a company assembled by appointment,
and may be applied to any gathering, group, or class viewed collectively,
especially the wicked (e.g. “company of the godless” (Job 15), “company
of evildoers” (Psalm 22), “band of ruthless men” (Psalm 86).
In combination with other words it describes the “congregation
of the righteous” (Psalm 1), which refers, perhaps, to a judicial assembly
rather than to the righteous in general. The phrase “congregation of
Israel,” may be used to explicitly identify the community; the word was
frequently used as a designation of the body politic. Frequently the word
is simply determined by the definite article, “the congregation.”
The Hebrew word as a technical term applied to Israel is characte-
ristic of the part of the first five books of the Old Testament written by
the Priestly Writer. Those parts written by the Deuteronomist, Jahwist,
and Elowhist do not use this term. As used by the Priestly Writer, the
term appears to designate the responsible element of the nation, the full
citizens who have the rights and duties of looking after the affairs of the
nation.
(b.) This word comes from the root-word qol (kole), which
means “speak,” & is used to designate various sorts of human gatherings.
When it is not used in the general sense of “multitude,” the term is not
found much outside of the writings by the Deuteronomist. In his writings,
it is the regular designation for the gathering of the nation for religious
purposes. The term sees frequent use in Deuteronomy, Chronicles, Ezra,
Nehemiah, and Psalms. The distinction, if any, between 'adah and kahal
is difficult to determine. In general the terms are used synonymously,
without perceptible difference, to designate the cult community of Israel.
(c.) This Hebrew word is used of sacred seasons and appointed
feasts. By extension, the term may also designate the assembly that cele-
brates the festival, the place of assembly, or any assembly.
(d.) Etsereth is a technical term for certain cultic assemblies. It is
applied to an assembly for the worship of Baal (II Kings 10), and specifi-
cally to the assembly of the 7th day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
and the 8th day of the Feast of Booths.
(e.) In the New Testament, ecclesia is applied to the community
of Israel in Stephen's speech, but synagoge became the normal term to
distinguish Israel from other nations. It was only natural that the Christian
movement dispensed with the term synagoge, because of its Jewish asso-
ciations, in favor of ecclesia.
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CONSCIENCE (suneidhsiV (sun i day sis)) Generally, it is a witness within
a person which condemns that person's sin. Other more specific meanings
are given below.
Background and General Use of the Term—The conscience
concept was not derived from the Old Testament. For Hebrew thinking,
the obedience demanded by God was revealed to humans in the Law and
the Prophets. It wasn't self-knowledge, but the fear of the Lord, that was
the beginning of wisdom. Hence, there was no urge or interest in exami-
ning the inner motives of human behavior, even though they may have
been aware of this concept.
Thus, the emergence of the term “conscience,” with a moral signifi-
cance, seems to points to the Greek world as its source. Greek history of
this term begins with Democritus (460-361 B.C.), whose philosophy was
akin to that of Epicurus. He describes the concept of conscience as a
consciousness of wrong-doing, which causes one to spend one's days in
fear and anxiety. The term next appears in Chrysippus, a celebrated Stoic
philosopher born around 280 B.C., he uses it to designate self-awareness
in all creatures, not only of humans. Several other Greek philosophers
use “conscience” with a moral component in the years before Christ.
In the first 100 years after Christ, Epictetus is supposed to have
In the first 100 years after Christ, Epictetus is supposed to have
used the term in the following passage: “When we were children, our
parents handed us over to a nursery slave who should watch over us
everywhere lest harm befall us. But when we were grown up, God hands
us over to the conscience implanted in us, to protect us”; this passage may
not be authentic Epictetus. And while it is popular to credit Stoicism with
the term “conscience,” there's no reason at all, to judge from Greek sour-
ces, to assume that the term is peculiarly Stoic, especially since it involves
undertones of anxiety and fear that do not fit well in Stoic philosophy.
If the apostle Paul's time, the term was found in writers of Greek,
such as Philo & Josephus, with a moral connotations. Roman writers used
it more frequently than the Greeks, and linked it to several different Greek
philosophies. The Latin writers do not reveal in Stoicism an emphasis on
conscience, nor do they support the view that moral conscience was an
idea peculiar to Stoic doctrine. What they do suggest is that, in its Latin
form at least, conscience was a concept much employed in literary circles.
The use of “conscience” by Latin Stoic writers suggests that the needs of
moral guidance overrode the purity of philosophy. While it was not in use
in the technical language of the “schools” of philosophy, it was well esta-
blished perhaps in more popular teaching among Epicureans, Cynics, and
Stoic that blended together philosophy and moralism.
The term “conscience” is to be understood in conjunction with a
number of similar words & phrases. Of particular importance is the phrase
autw suneidenai ti (aw toe soo nie den ah ee tee), which means “to
share knowledge with oneself,” “to know with oneself,” “to be a witness
for or against oneself.” By the time of the New Testament, suniedasis was
the most popular term to express the meaning of this phrase.
An examination of pertinent Greek passages suggests the following
meanings for “conscience:”
a.) It is a faculty implanted in humans as part of their very nature, so
that it functions as an expression of their very constitution.
b.) This faculty is a necessary characteristic of every one.
c.) Often the implanting of conscience is traced to God. Democritus
asserts that conscience is connected with punishment, presumably at the
hands of the gods after death. Euripedes sees conscience as the work of
the Eumenides, the gods of vengeance and punishers of the wicked.
d.) Conscience becomes active in connection with a person's deeds.
e.) Primarily, it is a person's own acts which concern conscience; it
“automatically” bears witness.
f.) While it is conceivable that conscience could mean a constant
state of criticism of a person's character, it is specific acts of wrongdoing,
and not a continual habit, that call forth conscience.
g.) Stirred into activity of necessity by wrongdoing, conscience
emerges as a pain. For, as Philo wrote: For every soul has for its birth-
fellow and house-mate a monitor whose way is to admit nothing that calls
for censure, whose nature is ever to hate evil and love virtue, who is its
accuser, and its judge in one. . . If conscience has the strength to per-
suade, conscience rejoices and makes peace. But if conscience cannot,
then conscience makes war to the bitter end. Or, as Euripides wrote: “My
conscience, since I know I've done a dreadful deed, like an ulcer in the
flesh, leaves behind it in the soul regret which ever continues to wound
& prick it. For the other pangs reason does away with, but regret is caused
by reason itself.”
h.) The passage from Philo depicts conscience also as an agent cap-
able of inflicting pain.
i.) Conscience is said to suffer pain. Perhaps the most widespread
concept of conscience was that expressed in the quote wrongly attributed
to Epictetus already cited above.
In the New Testament (NT)—The NT usage of suniedasis further
attests to the fact that its meaning grows out of its development by popular
Greco-Roman philosophy. On the one hand, in the four gospels which are
primarily Hebraic or Palestinian, the term does not occur. On the other
hand, suniedasis appears thirty times in the rest of the NT, with Paul using
it 14 times.
The term first occurs in I Corinthians 8, where the issue of offering
food to idols is addressed. “Strong” Christians, who knew such offerings
were meaningless, were tempted to ignore their weaker brethren who
refused to eat such food. But Paul insists that for the “strong” to do so
would submit the weak to conscience pains, so the “strong” shouldn't
eat meat sacrificed to idols. I Corinthians 10 takes up this issue again,
saying that the strong are not to be fettered by those of weak conscience.
As a general rule then, one should be guided by freedom; but one should
pay respect, not to the weak brother's opinion, but to his conscience pains.
Paul thus recognizes a variety in conscience. The weak conscience
may be due to lack of knowledge or force of habit; the weak conscience
does not have the strength to act according to knowledge. The sages are
strong; in their strength, they are tempted to become presumptuous. This
contrast of weak and strong con-sciences can be found in the writings of
Latin authors.
It is difficult to tell whether conscience refers strictly to reaction
to a wrong-doing occurring in the present moment, or to guidance which
avoids future wrong-doing Unless we are to draw a very rigid distinc-
tion between the scruples one feels before an act, and the pain which
follows, we are left with the conscience affecting future as well as present
actions. In Romans 13, Paul argues that, for the sake of conscience, sub-
mission to the state is a necessity. Under the assumption that the state's
power is derived from God & thus commands a rightful obedience, future
wrong-doing and pangs of conscience are avoided through obedience.
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Perhaps the difficulty of clarifying the conscience's possible future
references arises from Paul's failure to clarify the distinction between “con-
science,” “mind,” or “reason.” In Romans 2, 3 things are distinguished:
all are presumed to have a law written on the heart; all have a conscience;
and all have reason. Elsewhere in Romans, “mind” seems to have taken
the place of the conscience as found in I Corinthian 8. In I Corinthians,
Paul has not been careful to distinguish between reason and conscience.
The effect of the inconsiderate conduct of the strong is to defile the
conscience of the weak. If one is persuaded to ignore one's conscience, to
lay oneself open deliberately to its pains & not try to avoid them, then one
develops a resistance to them. In I Corinthians 10, the implication is that
conscience passes judgment, not on the subject's own acts only, but on
those of other also. The blinded minds of unbelievers might be a synonym
for the “perished consciences.”
Paul's usage of suniedasis seems to fall well within the Greco-
Roman usage. Certain of Paul's usages are unique and noteworthy. In
Roman 2 & 13, “conscience” is a property of humans by nature or neces-
sity, & its operation, at least in part, may be regarded as the inner counter-
part of the process of “wrath” which Paul found at work in the external
world's natural order and in society. In several places, Paul makes clear
that the conscience is subject to the Holy Spirit and to Christ. Paul makes
it clear that conscience is not his ultimate court of appeal; Christ is. Open
to corrupting influences as it is, conscience is to be stimulated by the
Spirit and enlightened by Christ.
Outside Pauline letters, “conscience” emerges in I Peter, Pastoral
Letters, and Hebrews, all of which probably use the term the same way it
is used by late Greco-Roman philosophers. In I Peter 2 and 3, suniedasis
probably means simply “consciousness” (Chapter 2), or refers to con-
sciousness of innocence of any misconduct which might justify criticism
of outsiders (Chapter 3).
Noteworthy in the Pastoral Letters is the emergence of the phrase “a
good conscience,” and the association of conscience & loyalty to the faith.
In I Timothy 1, in particular, the conduct of the Christian life is dependent
upon having both faith & a good conscience. And while in Paul, a tolerant
attitude is advised on the ground of their conscience, in the Pastoral Letters
the attitude of the “weak” is condemned outright.
In both I Timothy 1 and Titus 1, a “good conscience” implies a
positive loyalty to the truth. The corruption of the mind & the conscience
is discussed, & a sharp distinction is made between the two. This distinc-
tion limits the directive function that conscience may have had, by making
the rational process of the mind which directs action separate from the
intuitive process of the conscience. In the Pastoral Letters, “conscience”
has become domesticated in this world. Living a Christian life means deve-
loping an ethic for citizenship on earth, and it means fighting a battle, with
conscience tied to the faith.
In Hebrews, “conscience” again merely means “consciousness.”
Throughout Hebrews, conscience is directed towards God; it isn't primarily
a moralistic, but a theological concept. The author is sure that, in the parti-
cular situation facing him, he is not at fault. But he is faced with the neces-
sity to act honorably in all things as the proper response to God's truth, as
befits a Christian.
CONSECRATE, CONSECRATION (a.) קדש (kaw dash), to separate, set
apart; b.) יד מלא (meh law yawd), to fill the hand; c.) נזר (nay zer),
to separate, dedicate; d.) agiazw (ah gee ah zoe), to separate, set apart)
To set apart dedicate, or sanctify a person or thing to a sacred purpose
related to the service and worship of God, giving them or it a character of
holiness. Consecrate was used for the ordination &hallowing of persons
to sacred office or service.
a.) This word is the most prominent of the Hebrew words which
convey the idea of “cleanliness” or “holiness.” The original meaning of the
word isn't clear; most scholars hold the view that the fundamental meaning
was one of separation.
b.) This phrase's origin, which literally means “to fill the hand,” are
somewhat obscure. In the most ancient practice the offerings were placed
in the hands of the priest; by this symbolic act, involving contact with the
holy offering, the priest was consecrated.
c.) This word was occasionally translated “consecrate,” but its most
common translation was “separate.” The Nazirites derived their name from
this word.
d.) In a few instances, this word is translated “consecrate,” but
generally “sanctify” is used.
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CONSOLATION (paraklgsiV (par ah klay sis)) Comfort. (e.g. “consola-
tion of Israel” (Luke 2); “son of consolation” (Acts 4)) For the second
example, the Revised Standard Version uses “encouragement” instead.
CONSUMPTION ( 1.) שחפת (shakh eh feth); 2.) כליון (kil law yone))
1.) Judging from context, it is probably a disease involving fever,
swelling of the joints, neuralgic pain, etc.
2.) The King James Version translation of the word in Isaiah 10 and
28. In both passages widespread destruction, rather than specific disease
is being portrayed.
CONTENTMENT (autarkeia (aw tar kie ah)) The acceptance of “things
as they are” as the wise & loving providence of a God who knows what
is good for us.
In the Old Testament (OT), contentment is of this godly sort.
Moses had a sort of contentment, even after his disappointing inability
to enter Canaan. Occasionally such contentment may appear reactionary
to modern social reformers. Yet neither in the OT or New Testament
does the proper contentment of godly people eliminate the possibility of
divine discontent with injustice and wrong.
Jesus himself calls for being content in the Sermon on the Mount,
which sees the love of money as a great enemy of true contentment. For
the Christian, however, contentment is not self-regarding. Paul assures
the Corinthians that God provides in abundance, so that they might give
in abundance. Paul also writes of the innermost secret of this carefree,
generous, contentment that lies in the Christian life with God. “I have
learned, in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased,
& I know how to abound; in any & all circumstances I have learned the
secret of facing plenty & hunger, abundance & want. I can do all things
in Christ who strengthens me.” The Christian's all-conquering content-
ment comes from knowledge of Christ and communion with Christ.
CONTRITE (דכא (dak kaw)) The religious sense of the word is indicated
by the words or phrase with which it appears in parallel. It belongs to
vocabulary of later postexilic Israel, for which, as the result of the humi-
liating experiences of the Exile, such qualities as humility, lowliness,
meekness, had come to seem essential marks of the truly religious man.
CONVERSATION (דרך (deh rek), manner, custom; anastrofh (an as trof
ay), mode of life, conduct; politeuma (po li too ma), administration of
commonwealth). As used in King James Version, the Old English
meaning is that of manner, custom, mode of life, conduct. This word is
not used in modern English translations.
CONVERSION ( שוב (shoob), turn back; epistrefein (ee pi sir ef ine),
conversion) In biblical usage, a turning or a returning. The Old Testa-
ment (OT) uses the term frequently; the New Testament (NT) uses it
only once.
In the OT, nouns and verbs are found with the physical meaning
of “turn” or “return.” The most characteristic use is to describe God's
“turning back” in respect of man. God's turning is not fickleness, but
part of God's unchanging pursuit of human salvation. When humans
turn from God, that is rebellion. On the other hand, turning to God, or
“conversion,” is thus more than a change of mind, more than under-
going some experience; its is a concrete change to a new way of life.
In the NT, the literal meaning of “turning” is found, but the NT
does not speak of God's “turning.” It is used a few times to speak of
turning away from God, but more often it is used of one's turning to
God. The biblical emphasis is thus not upon a subjective psychological
experience, but upon an objective change in people. True turning to
God follows upon repentance and belief, and it leads not only to an
observable new way of life, but to a spiritual transformation as well.
CONVICTION (plhroforia (play ro fo ree ah), firm persuasion) Full
assurance, certainty.
CONVOCATION, HOLY (קדוש מקרא (mik raw kaw doshe)) A term
which refers to the Solemn Assembly and is virtually synonymous with
it. It stresses the summons to an assembly where Israel, in a state of
special holiness, is called to fulfill its sacred functions. It is a central
aspect of each of the 3 great feasts & of the Day of Atonement, which
were days of rest, and in later times were known as sabbaths. At the
end of this age, the hope of Israel is portrayed in a vision of great convo-
cations (Isaiah 4).
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COOK AND COOKING (תבח (tab bawkh)) One who prepares and serves
food. Usually the women were the cooks, but men also cooked. The
cook often had to butcher & boil the meat. Some cooked professionally.
The women of the house did the cooking except in the palace or
in wealthy homes, where servants were employed. Baking of bread was
often done during the day, but most of the cooking was done for the
evening meal, which for the poor was often the only one.
In the average home the courtyard served as the kitchen. In Bible
times bread was the most important food. The major grains used were
wheat and barley, but their flour could be mixed with millet and spelt.
The rich used wheat, the poor used barley. Bread was often dipped in
olive oil and then in some ground spice or herb. Cakes were not only
baked in the oven but were also made by frying in deep fat, often olive
or sesame oil. Another common method of eating grain was in porridge.
The 1st opportunity for cooking grain came in the harvest field
itself. Grain was an item of food so appreciated that it appears in the
Levitical law of first fruits. The poor person's variant for bread and
porridge had to be vegetables and fruits, since they could seldom afford
meat. Various kinds of lentils and beans were especially valuable. The
Hebrews weren't great meat eaters; the use of meat was a sign of wealth.
For the poor, meat was a rare item reserved for religious occasions and
special. There was no easy way to preserve meat, so the whole animal
had to be consumed the same day it was killed. Meat was roasted,
boiled, cooked in oil, or used on a spit or griddle. Boiling was the most
common method of cooking.
Food was made more palatable by the addition of salt. Common
flavoring agents were onions, leeks, & garlic. Condiments were various
whole or ground seeds. Herbs and nuts were also used. The place of
these flavoring agents in the ancient diet cannot be overemphasized, for
these gave the poor the variety in their menu. Honey was the sugar of
antiquity.
COOKING UTENSILS The Hebrews used several varieties of cooking
pots. The most common form was wide and shallow and made of clay.
Copper kettles and pans were much more efficient, but they were also
very expensive. The oven for baking bread looked like a large inverted
bowl with the bottom missing. The fire was built inside the oven; then
when only the embers were left, the thin bread was placed inside on the
oven walls. In the large cities there were public bakeries to which the
housewives brought their bread for baking.
COPING (טפח (tay fakh), handbreath) The meaning of this architectural
term is obscure.
COPPER (נחשת (nekh o sheth); calkolibanon (kal ko li ban on), King
James Version uses “brass” for the Hebrew and Greek word. Revised
Standard Version uses “bronze” for both.) The King James Version uses
“brass” to translate these words because in the 1600s, “brass” meant any
combination of copper & another metal. Actual brass (copper and zinc)
was unknown in Biblical times.
After gold and meteoric iron, copper was the next metal used by
humans, first for ornaments, & then for tools. In Palestine, copper adzes
dating from the 3300s or 3400s have been found at Meser. From the
Early Bronze Age (3000-2000 B.C.) came a few daggers & one ax head
found at Jericho. With the dawn of the Middle Bronze Age around 2000
B.C., copper became much more abundant. Copper continued to be used
extensively even after the introduction of bronze, especially for objects
that did not require casting.
COPPERSMITH (calkeuV (kal key us)) A worker in bronze, then general-
ly a blacksmith, a brazier. The only New Testament use of kalkeyus
indicates the occupation of a certain Alexander. Apparently, he strongly
opposed the Christian message, and Paul warns Timothy against him.
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