When was the first time the word church was used in a religion?

[monavis]

I understand that After Constantine called the Council in the 300+AD the word Church was used, but since the usage for the Jewish religion's building it was called a temple. I am wondering then, why the Christian religion used the word Church and what the origin of the word meant in the first century.

[kanicbird]

Church means group of believers, and the church is the body of Christ by marriage. It refers to people, not a building. As God now chooses to dwell inside us, not the temple structure.

The word church in that context was given by Jesus to Peter, and the word repeated in the context above in the NT.

[psychonaut]

Originally Posted by kanicbird

Church means group of believers, and the church is the body of Christ by marriage. It refers to people, not a building. As God now chooses to dwell inside us, not the temple structure.

The word church in that context was given by Jesus to Peter, and the word repeated in the context above in the NT.

Which word? κυριακόν, ἐκκλησία, or βασιλική? Only the first of these is the etymon of the English word "church".

[Dr. Drake]

Originally Posted by psychonaut

Which word? κυριακόν, ἐκκλησία, or βασιλική? Only the first of these is the etymon of the English word "church".

In a Christian context, though, the second also gives the Latin word for church, which descends into modern European languages (French église, Welsh eglwys, etc.). Both curia and basilica are used of buildings in Latin, but I don't know if curia comes from Greek or if it's a cognate, and I don't think the latter is necessarily a church. In any case none of them are templum or fanum, which is what the OP is asking.

[JRDelirious]

Originally Posted by psychonaut

Which word? κυριακόν, ἐκκλησία, or βασιλική? Only the first of these is the etymon of the English word "church".

But there lies another thing that needs to be clarified about the OP. Is it referring to using "The Church" to describe the community of the faithful, its institutions, or a subset thereof (e.g. the Church Militant, the Christian Church, the Catholic Church, Church property, Church lands) or more likely, due to the reference to "temple", as used to refer to the place of worship?

"Kuriakon" and "ecclesia" as used in various parts of the New Testament (1st century usage) both get translated as "church" (and its equivalent in other modern languages -- often a derivative of the first in Germanic languages and of the second in Romance languages) and usually understood to mean it in the sense of the congregation. The usage to mean the actual building probably just grew through association and in order to differentiate from "temples" being associated with the pre-Christian institutions. BTW, many Christian churches do call some of their places of worship "temples", sometimes formally (e.g. the Templo de la Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona) and other times just as a thesaurus alternate.

[HeyHomie]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that the concept of a building used specifically for Christians to worship in didn't come about until a few hundred years after the New Testament, and that in NT times Christians worshiped wherever they could - houses, synagogues, outside, etc.

[BigT]

Originally Posted by HeyHomie

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that the concept of a building used specifically for Christians to worship in didn't come about until a few hundred years after the New Testament, and that in NT times Christians worshiped wherever they could - houses, synagogues, outside, etc.

You're correct. It comes from the Greek κυριακη (kuriakē), which means "of the Lord" and was not used of buildings until the fourth century, more common in the east. It is supposed to be a shortening of either κυριακὴ οἰκία (kuriakē oikia, "house of the Lord") or ἐκκλησία κυριακή (ekklēsia kuriakē, "congregation of the Lord"). Due to the dual nature of the word, I tend to lean towards the latter, with the word also being applied to the building after dedicated buildings started to become the norm. But it's possible both constructions were in use, and κυριακὴ became the form of both.

The use of dedicated buildings is a good sign that the religion was becoming more accepted. Just like today, it's rare for a new religion or sect to get their own building at first.

[HeyHomie]

Do other languages have one word that means both "community of Christians" and "building where Christians worship"?

FTR, I know that in most Romance languages they're one and the same (viz, Spanish iglesia, etc.).

[monavis]

Originally Posted by BigT

You're correct. It comes from the Greek κυριακη (kuriakē), which means "of the Lord" and was not used of buildings until the fourth century, more common in the east. It is supposed to be a shortening of either κυριακὴ οἰκία (kuriakē oikia, "house of the Lord") or ἐκκλησία κυριακή (ekklēsia kuriakē, "congregation of the Lord"). Due to the dual nature of the word, I tend to lean towards the latter, with the word also being applied to the building after dedicated buildings started to become the norm. But it's possible both constructions were in use, and κυριακὴ became the form of both.

The use of dedicated buildings is a good sign that the religion was becoming more accepted. Just like today, it's rare for a new religion or sect to get their own building at first.

Thanks, this is quite a bit of how I understood the word to be, that is why i wondered why Jesus was quoted as saying,"On this rock I will build my church" and it has caused me to wonder why the quote would be attributed to him? Why would he use the word church if it was not in use during his life time.Would the Jewish people have used that expression or know what a church was?

[Wendell Wagner]

First of all, if Jesus did indeed say that, he said it in Aramaic, since that's what he spoke. It was translated into Greek in the New Testament, since that's what the New Testament was written in. So at most all we know is the Greek word that appears in the New Testament which is the translation of the Aramaic of that time. And we don't actually know precisely what the Aramaic of that time was like. We have present-day Aramaic and several other languages which are related to it, and we can more or less reconstruct the Aramaic of Jesus's time, but that's a difficult matter.

And, of course, as some more of the more skeptical people on the SDMB are likely to point out, this assumes that what Jesus said was accurately recorded in the New Testament, that this particular event happened at all, that Jesus did anything like what the New Testament claims, that Jesus existed at all, that the world of 30 A.D. existed at all, that anyone else on the SDMB is anything other than an elaborate trick to fool you, that the present-day world exists at all, etc.

[Dr. Drake]

Without being quite so negative, you can at least talk about that particular quote. The Greek text is here, and the word variously translated as 'church' or 'assembly' is εκκλησιαν (ekklêsian), the accusative case of εκκλησια (ekklêsia). I'll leave it to the Biblical scholars to decide whether first-century Greek meant a building or a group of people by that phrase.