Assembly
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
ἐκκλησία names an assembly or congregation, and in the New Testament it most often names the people Christ gathers as His church. In the Pastoral Epistles, the word is not an abstract institution or a building.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐκκλησία (G1577) · Open the biblical lexicon
ἐκκλησία names an assembly or congregation, and in the New Testament it most often names the people Christ gathers as His church. In the Pastoral Epistles, the word is not an abstract institution or a building.
The BSB source-word alignment has 114 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include church (62), churches (34), [the] church (7), assembly (4), [the] assembly (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 16:18. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (23), 1 Corinthians (22), Revelation (20), 2 Corinthians (9).
This entry includes 2 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
ἐκκλησία names an assembly or congregation, and in the New Testament it most often names the people Christ gathers as His church. In the Pastoral Epistles, the word is not an abstract institution or a building. The church is God’s household, the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth, and the community whose vulnerable members must be cared for wisely.
The wider canon adds that Christ builds His church, loves her, gives Himself for her, purchases her with His blood, and rules as head of the body. This word therefore helps readers hold together gathering, belonging, truth, ordered care, and Christ’s ownership without reducing the church to an event, a platform, or a human organization.
ἐκκλησία moves from the ordinary idea of an assembly into the New Testament’s rich name for Christ’s gathered people. In 1 Timothy, the church is God’s household, the church of the living God, and the community that must be cared for by qualified leadership and responsible members. The word carries local shape, visible conduct, mercy toward widows, truth-bearing witness, and ultimate belonging to Christ.
For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how can he care for the church of God?
Paul ties household management to care for the church of God. The church is not an ownerless group; it is God’s household, and leadership care must be tested in visible stewardship.
In case I am delayed, so that you will know how each one must conduct himself in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
The church is the household of God, the church of the living God, and the pillar and foundation of the truth. Conduct in the church is shaped by God’s presence and by truth-bearing responsibility.
If any believing woman has dependent widows, she must assist them and not allow the church to be burdened, so that it can help the widows who are truly in need.
The church’s mercy must be ordered so that those truly in need receive help. The word includes communal responsibility, not merely gathered worship.
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
Jesus promises to build His church, and death’s gates will not prevail against it. The church’s existence begins with Christ’s promise, not human strategy.
Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
The church belongs to God and was purchased with His own blood. Oversight and shepherding are weighty because the flock is blood-bought.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her
Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. The church is interpreted by Christ’s self-giving love, not by institutional usefulness alone.
And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence.
Christ is head of the body, the church, and must have preeminence in all things. The church’s identity is bodily and Christ-governed.
In the LXX, ἐκκλησία renders קָהָל (qahal), the assembly of Israel called together before God. This is the covenantal gathering — the people summoned by God for worship, instruction, and response. Stephen in Acts 7:38 calls Israel in the wilderness the ἐκκλησία, and the author of Hebrews cites Psalm 22:22 with the same word. The NT church takes this identity as its own: a people called out by God, gathered around His presence, constituted by His word.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Called-out assembly of Christians, both local congregations and the universal body of Christ.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 115 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
an assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read versean assembly, congregation, church
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 8 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 114 lexical occurrence verses.
ἐκκλησία is built from these roots:
Shows the local, gathered expression of Christ’s people.1 Timothy 3:14-16
Used ironically for a disorderly civic gathering.Acts 19:28-41
The gathered believers belong to the living God and represent Him in the world.Romans 16:1-16
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
ἐκκλησία should not be handled as a bare religious label. In 1 Timothy, the church is the household where conduct matters because the living God is present and truth is being upheld. The same letter shows that church care includes qualified oversight and practical mercy toward widows. The broader New Testament keeps this from becoming merely administrative. Jesus builds His church.
Christ loves the church and gives Himself for her. God purchased the church with blood. Christ is head of the body, the church. The word therefore gathers local order, covenantal belonging, gospel truth, costly redemption, and visible care. It gives shepherds and teachers language for the church that is more substantial than organization and more concrete than invisible spirituality.
1Tim.3.15
ἐκκλησία is a feminine noun that can refer to an assembly or congregation. Context determines whether the focus is a local congregation, the whole people Christ gathers, or an assembly in a wider biblical sense. The word does not itself prove every doctrine of church order; the surrounding passages govern those claims.
The Old Testament assembly of God’s people prepares readers to see that God forms a people for His presence, word, worship, and obedience. The New Testament centers that gathered people in Christ, who builds the church, gives Himself for her, and rules as her head.