Was The Church Born at Pentecost?

- December 15, 2021

Hello dear Friends and Readers! As I endeavor to study the book of Revelation, I have a new question today. When was "The Church" born?

Seems an easy one, right?! A quick internet search will give us an answer: Pentecost.

But, can we trust that answer?

Come Seek With Me!

Chapter 1 of Revelation states that Yeshua has written letters to the "7 churches." The churches are named, and we can look them up on a map quite easily. They are all located in what today is known as southwest Turkey.

Okay. That seems easy enough.

As I studied the chapter, I began to look up words in the original Greek. It will come as no surprise that the word used for "church" in Revelation is the Greek word "ekklesia" (Strong's Concordance # G1577).

Okay. Still fairly predictable.

Then, a question began to form...

Is there a Hebrew equivalent for the Greek word "ekklesia?"

My hypothesis was that there would not be. After all, the church / ekklesia was born at Pentecost...right?

Imagine my surprise when a little digging indicated that there IS a Hebrew equivalent for the word church / ekklesia!

So what Deb? The Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek. Wouldn't we expect that?

Well, perhaps, yes. But, if the church was born in Acts Chapter 2...at Pentecost...as a mystery...then why would it have been mentioned in the older Hebrew portion of the Bible? Why would there have been a Hebrew word for "church?"

Are you following my thought train?

Now, it is at this point that I feel that I must share with you that my methods for digging are not scholarly. I do not have a degree in Bible study, and I do not own any expensive Bible study software. What I do have is a working knowledge of how to use a Strong's Concordance and a good friend who taught me how to find Greek/Hebrew equivalents using Thayer's Greek Lexicon. (Thank you K.T.!) I say this to tell you two things:

1) Do your own homework. What if I'm wrong? I share with a pure heart, but I share as a human just trying to figure stuff out and sharing what I find along the way. So, this is an instance where "fact checking" is a must!

2) You can do this, too! The resources I use are free and available on the internet. I am going to show you how to study this out.

So, if this interests you, get your notepad out and your computer fired up because I am going to be back soon to invite you to....