Different concepts of church.

1. kahal ekklesia

2. ἐκκλησία ekklésia:
an assembly,
a congregation
a gathering of
citizens called out
from their homes
into some public
place
Acts 19:39
The Riot at
Ephesus: [...] it shall be
settled in the
regular assembly.[...]

3. ‫ָל‬‫ה‬ָ‫ק‬
kahal
the assembly of the
Israelites as people
Second Temple
Judaism
1 Chronicles 29:1
[...] David the king said to
all the assembly [...]
Acts 7:38
Stephen citing Moses speaking to
the House of Israel ("out of Egypt")
in the wilderness: [...] This is the one
who was in the congregation in
the wilderness [...]

4. The Roman numeral acronym LXX refer to the legendary seventy
Jewish scholars who solely translated the Five Books of Moses as
early as the 3rd century BCE:
‫ל‬ָ‫ה‬ ָ‫ק‬
kahal
ἐκκλησία
ekklésia

5. The little house church
meeting
A local assembly of
Christians gathered
for worship
1
1 Corinthians 14:19, 35
Paul about prophecy and tongues:
[...] in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others,
than ten thousand [...]

6. Acts 5:42
Day after day, in the
temple courts and from
house to house, they
never stopped teaching
and proclaiming the good
news […]
1
συνέρχεσθαι ἐνἐκκλησία = come together as fellowship

7. Colossians 4:16
Paul to the church of Laodicea: [...] have
it [the epistle] also read in the church of
the Laodiceans [...] (Λαοδικέων)
2
All the
believers
of a
village
or city

8. All the
believers of
the world
(The Body -
the Whole)
3
Ephesians 1:22
Paul teaching about the Body as Christ’s church:
[...] he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things
to the church, which is his body.

9. Ephesians 4:16
1 Corinthians 12
Paul's teaching about the Body:
27: Now you are the body of Christ [...].
28: And God has appointed in the church [...]
From him the whole
body, joined and held
together by every
supporting ligament,
grows and builds itself
up in love, as each
part does its work.

10. Romans 12:4
For just as we have many
members
in one body
and all the members do not have
the same function,
so we, who are many,
are one body in Christ,
and individually
members one of another.

11. Constantinople
…was the largest and
wealthiest European
city and it was
instrumental in the
advancement
of Christianity
during Roman and
Byzantine times.

12. The head was
not Jesus
anymore,
but the Emperor
who then
controlled all
“churches” in
the Eastern
Mediterranean.

13. The ekklesia of
the followers of
Jesus of
Nazareth
became the
followers of the
Emperor who
controlled the
bishops.

14. Colossians 2:19
They have lost
connection with the
head, from whom the
whole body,
supported and held
together by its
ligaments and sinews,
grows as God causes
it to grow.