The church is the assembly of the “saints,” or holy ones, a people called out of the world by God. The early church was an urban movement. It held a world view that differed from that of the prevailing culture, yet it came to include people of all social classes in its radical fellowship.
Terms for the Church
The most common word for the church in the New Testament is ekklēsia, or “assembly.” It is a derivative of the verb kaleō, “call,” in the sense of those who are “called out.” The word was a general word for assemblies, but as used by the apostles it also has a theological significance. The church is the body of those who are called out from the “world,” or surrounding culture, but primarily from traditional Judaism, which the New Testament theologians considered to be unfaithful to the genuine thrust of the Lord’s covenant. Paul spoke of the new covenant community as the “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16); he asserted that not all those who are descended from Israel are really Israelites (Rom. 9:6). Unlike the earthly Jerusalem and its religious institutions, which are in bondage, the church is the “Jerusalem above” (Gal. 4:26), an image developed as the “heavenly Jerusalem” in the epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. 12:22) and in the Revelation to John (Rev. 21:2). Although today such ideas might sound anti-Semitic, they were given expression by Jews, at least one of whom defended his Jewish credentials to the hilt (Phil. 3:4–6).
The disciples of Jesus were first called Christians (Christianoi) in Antioch (Acts 11:26). By its opponents, the Christian movement was known as the “Nazarene sect” (Acts 24:5). Other designations were “the Way” (hē hodos, Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4), “the way of God” (Acts 18:26), and “the way of truth” (“genuine way,” 2 Pet. 2:2). New Testament writers frequently refer to the church as “the brothers” (adelphoi, Acts 15:36, 40; 16:2; 18:18; Rom. 12:1; 1 Cor. 16:11; 1 Tim. 4:6; 1 John 3:14; 3 John 5; Rev. 12:10). This term was borrowed from Jewish usage, as early Christian preaching illustrates (Acts 3:22; 7:37). In his letters to local churches, Paul addresses the assembly collectively as “the saints,” or holy ones (hoi hagioi), in the sense of those who belong to the holy God. It is not only the righteous behavior of Christians that makes them “saints,” but the fact that as God’s own people they share in that special aura of sanctity and mystery associated with the Lord’s presence, which is bound up in the Hebrew concept of holiness (qodesh). The author of Hebrews refers to the church as a worshiping body, using the term “festal gathering” (panēguris, Heb. 12:22 RSV).
Images, Concepts
The New Testament offers a panorama of images for the church that, while not sociological categories, nevertheless shed light on the way the institutional church was perceived by its spokesmen. This imagery is drawn from a wide spectrum of human experience. In a favorite metaphor of the apostle Paul, the church is a body, specifically the body of Christ, the continuing embodiment of his Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:4). From agricultural life come the images of the church as a flock protected by its Shepherd (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2–3), as the branches nourished by the vine (John 15:1–5), or as the olive tree (Rom. 11:16–21). In an analogy to urban life, the new covenant community is compared to a city, specifically Jerusalem (Gal. 4:26; Heb. 12:22; 13:14; Rev. 21:2). Domestic life contributes the description of the church as a household of faith (Gal. 6:10; Eph. 2:19) and the family of God, in which he is Father, as well as the arresting image of the church as the bride of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7; 21:2; cf. 2 Cor. 11:2). Israel’s religious heritage suggests the portrayal of the church as a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16–17; 2 Cor. 6:16). In cosmic perspective, the church is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The covenantal foundation of Israel’s faith stands behind the image of the kingdom of God (Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 4:20; Col. 4:11; 2 Thess. 1:5); though this expression has wider applications, it certainly includes the church. The covenant is also the framework for speaking of the Lord as Father, Shepherd, and Creator of his new people.
Evident in this pictorial language is the attempt to grasp a reality that can only be conveyed symbolically. There is a mystery and depth to the church as the community of the new covenant responding to the Spirit of Christ that flat sociological categories and theories of ecclesiastical polity cannot capture.
Social Character
When viewed as a social organization, the church of the first century exhibits certain traits that stand out as especially noteworthy. This discussion, while not a complete sociological analysis, treats some of these social characteristics.
An Urban Movement. Christianity began as an urban movement, spreading from city to city and only later infiltrating the rural areas. The history of the missionary expansion of the church is a narrative of activities carried out in an urban setting, and many books of the New Testament bear the names of prominent cities of the Greco-Roman world, some of which were quite large even by modern standards: Ephesus, Corinth, Rome. One factor accounting for this was the presence of Jewish congregations in these cities; usually a church was started as the result of the preaching of the apostles in synagogues of the Diaspora (Acts 13:14; 14:1; 17:17; 18:4). Paul, for one, was conscious of his urban heritage; being from Tarsus in Asia Minor, home of a major university, he termed himself “a citizen of no ordinary city” (Acts 21:39). He was also a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37; 22:25–26), which signified a relation to the city-state of Rome in an era before the modern nation-state had made its appearance.
A Countercultural Movement. Wherever it went, the church was a countercultural movement, espousing a worldview at odds with prevailing outlooks. In the Gentile environment, steeped in both Hellenistic philosophy and polytheistic fertility religions, Christianity proclaimed a God who was known not through speculation or mystical ritual but through his action in history to deal with the problem of human sin (Acts 17:30–31). Such a message did not fit the presuppositions of many hearers, for whom sin was not the burning issue. Within the Jewish milieu, the church’s proclamation of Jesus as the fulfillment of Israel’s covenant faith called into question the entire religious system, of which Jerusalem was the center. In their advocacy of the lordship of Christ, the apostles faced open hostility, mob action, and even imprisonment (Acts 5:17–18; 12:3–4). James, the brother of John, met death at the hand of Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:1–2). Stephen, one of the seven appointed to administer the common life of the Jerusalem congregation, was the first witness to die for his faith, being stoned by a mob stirred up by members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Acts 6:9–12). When Christian evangelists got into trouble with local authorities in other parts of the Roman Empire, it was not for their beliefs, but because of the civil unrest that ensued as the result of hostility toward their activities on the part of either Jews (at Damascus, Acts 9:23–25; 2 Cor. 11:32; at Corinth, Acts 18:12–13) or pagans (at Philippi, Acts 16:16–23; at Ephesus, Acts 19:29–31). Roman officialdom regarded the Christians as a Jewish sectarian movement; the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 18:14–17) records that Gallio, the Roman administrator at Corinth, refused to intervene in what he considered an internal religious dispute.
An Inclusive Organization. The infant church’s constituency included people from a broad spectrum of economic classes. In the early days following the resurrection of Jesus, the believers established a community of property, placing their funds at the apostles’ disposal to meet the needs of the congregation (Acts 2:45; 4:34–37). Evidently, this practice was not continued, but for a time at least the Jerusalem church operated a common food service for its membership (Acts 6:1). Such policies may have been intended to demonstrate the new values of the kingdom of God, where distinctions of wealth have no place. The Jerusalem congregation included both Aramaic- and Greek-speaking Jews (Acts 6:1). Expanding from Jerusalem, the church continued to be a cross-section of Greco-Roman society. All Christians were not poor, uneducated, or disenfranchised, as Paul’s comments show; though there were “not many mighty, not many noble,” there were some (1 Cor. 1:26). The church’s assemblies were frequented by the affluent as well as the poor (James 2:2–4), and special responsibility for liberal giving is laid on those able to do so (Rom. 12:8; 1 Tim. 6:17–18). As Paul’s letter to Philemon shows, the congregation included both slaves and their masters (cf. Eph. 6:5–9; 1 Tim. 6:1). Widows with limited income (Acts 6:1; 1 Tim. 5:9–10) worshiped alongside successful businesswomen such as Lydia (Acts 16:14–15). Some members were tradesmen such as Aquila and his wife Priscilla, who, like Paul, worked in leather goods (Acts 18:2–3). Jewish priests (Acts 6:7) and synagogue officials (Acts 18:8, 17) became Christians, along with Roman officers such as Cornelius (Acts 10), government officials (Acts 8:27–39), prison administrators (Acts 16:27–34), a former companion of Herod the Tetrarch (Acts 13:1), and even members of Caesar’s household (Phil. 4:22).
A Radical Fellowship. The first-century church did not crusade against social inequities or attempt to right the wrongs of its society. Its proclamation of the gospel was a radical enough stand as it was and had economic implications of its own, especially in relation to the industry connected with idolatrous worship (Acts 19:23–27). But while there was no outward thrust to call into question social conventions such as slavery or the often inferior status of women, within its own fellowship the church manifested a radical restructuring of traditional relationships. In Christ, Paul asserted, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, but all are one (Gal. 3:28). This indifference to cultural labels at the spiritual level had its impact at the social level as well. For example, women played a greater role in the leadership of the church than in the synagogue, functioning as prophets (Acts 21:8–9; 1 Cor. 11:5), praying in the assembly (1 Cor. 11:5), and giving private instruction in the principles of the faith (Acts 18:26). But this openness to new patterns was balanced by deference to traditional expectations; women were not to take authority, at least in Paul’s practice (1 Tim. 2:12), or to interrupt the assembly with questions (1 Cor. 14:34–35). The husband was viewed as the head of the wife, yet the husband was also under the headship of Christ (1 Cor. 11:3) so that the Christian marriage relationship was one of mutual respect, submission, and interdependence (Eph. 5:21–28; 1 Cor. 11:8–12). Even an unbelieving husband was “sanctified,” set apart as the Lord’s, through his wife, and vice versa (1 Cor. 7:14). Fathers were not to act toward their children in an overbearing manner (Eph. 6:4), as cultural expectations permitted.
Perhaps the most radical step, given the Jewish origins of the church, was the breaking down of the distinction between Jew and Gentile, so vigorously pursued by the sect of the Pharisees. The inclusion of Gentiles in the covenant was the “mystery” of which Paul considered himself a steward (Eph. 3:1–8) and was a cornerstone of his teaching. Peter had taken the lead in this breakthrough (Acts 10–11; Gal. 2:8), which occasioned considerable debate within the apostolic church (Acts 15:1–29; Gal. 1–2); the issue was resolved, to the apparent satisfaction of most parties, in a decision that Gentiles coming to Christ need not become Jews also, as long as they adhered to certain basic principles.