What is the Church? (biblically)

ἐκκλησία = ekklēsia (Key) (ek-klay-see’-ah), feminine noun.

From a compound of ἐκ (G1537) and a derivative of καλέω (G2564).

The KJV translates Strong’s G1577 in the following manner: church (115x), assembly (3x). ἐκκλησία ekklēsía, ek-klay-see’-ah; from a compound of G1537 and a derivative of G2564; a calling out, i.e. (concretely) a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation (Jewish synagogue, or Christian community of members on earth or saints in heaven or both):—assembly, church.

1. a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly

   1. an assembly of the people convened at the public place of the council for the purpose of deliberating

   2. the assembly of the Israelites

   3. any gathering or throng of men assembled by chance, tumultuously

   4. in a Christian sense

      1. an assembly of Christians gathered for worship in a religious meeting

      2. a company of Christian, or of those who, hoping for eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, observe their own religious rites, hold their own religious meetings, and manage their own affairs, according to regulations prescribed for the body for order’s sake

      3. those who anywhere, in a city, village, constitute such a company and are united into one body

      4. the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth

      5. the assembly of faithful Christians already dead and received into heaven

The Church is the body of Christ

Colossians 1:15-18 – “¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by^[a] him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”

Ephesians 2:19-21 – “¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,^[a] but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”

Acts 7:38

”This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and withour fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:”

vs 37- ¶ “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel,fn ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren.Him you shall hear.’fn“. Moses said that Yeshua (Jesus) was with the Angel which spoke with him at mount sinai and also gave the prophecy as well

 

1 Corinthians 12:12-