Eklegomai – Chosen

“You didn’t choose Me, but I chose you…”

This word was use 22 times by New Testament writers. Each time, it is translated something like “choose” into English. Strong’s Dictionary calls it NT1586, and says that it is a compound word that is built from “Ek” (Strong’s NT1537) which means something like “out of” most of the time, and “lego” (Strong’s NT3004) which refers to speaking in various ways. “I called you out,” is a paraphrase.

“Ekklesia” is another compound, from “ek” and NT2564, “kaleo.” It is almost always translated “church” in English. Its compound meaning, though, is “called” “out” “with a purpose.” The typical way it was used in the context of life in the first century is as Luke used it to describe a riot in Ephesus, in Acts 19. It was used normally to denote a group of people who had been called out of a larger group, with a purpose in mind.

In Ephesus, it described the crowds of confused people who were being called together by a silversmith to stir up animosity against Paul and his friends. Paul was evangelizing Ephesians, and teaching them in the process that worshiping Diana, the patron goddess of the city, was demon worship, and quite wrong. This put fear in the hearts of people who made their livings off the business of idol manufacture. They called out an “assembly” of the citizens of Ephesus to start a fight that they hoped would end with the destruction of Paul’s ministry.

If “church” means “religious building,” it can’t be a proper translation of “ekklesia.” If “ekklesia” means a group assembled from a larger group for a purpose, it could describe a meeting of believers, if their meeting has purpose. In Matthew 22:14, Jesus said that “…many are called, but few are chosen.” “Chosen” = “eklektos,” NT1588, a word that is derived from NT1586 – “eklegomai.” Modern, religious uses of the word “church” rarely resemble Scriptural uses of the word “ekklesia.”