Church

Church I. The word Church. —

1. The origin of the word is uncertain. In the Germanic and Slavonic languages it is found as follows: Anglo-Saxon, cyrica, circ, cyric; English, church; Scottish, kirk; German, kirche; Low-German, karke; Frisian, tzierke or tziurke; Danish, kyrke; Swedish, kyrka; Bohemian, cyrkew; Polish, cerkiew; Russian, zerkow. The following derivations have been assigned to the word: (1) Heb. קַריָה and קָרָא; (2) Teutonic, koren, karen; (3) Celtic, cyrch or cylch, cyrchu or cylchu; (4) Latin, curia; Greek, κυριακόν (the Lord's house, from κύριος, Lord). The preponderance of opinion is in favor of the last derivation (Gieseler, Eccl. Hist. § 1; Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. 13; Pearson, On the Creed, Oxf. 1820, 1:504; and, the principal authority, Jacobson, Kirchenrechtliche Versuche, Konigsb. 1833, 8vo). On the other hand, Meyrick, in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible (in, Appendix, p. ci), argues at length against this derivation chiefly on the ground (1) that the Greek missionaries, who are supposed to have carried the Word among the Northern tribes, used ἐκκλησία, not κυριακόν; and that Ulphilas uses aikklesjo (Ro 16:23 et al.); (2) that the Roman Church (and the Romanic languages after it) adopted the Greek word ἐκκλησία, not κυριακόν, from its Greek teachers. His conclusion, after dropping the first derivation, is that "it is difficult to say what is to be substituted. There was probably some word which, in the language from which the Teutonic and Slavonic are descended, designated the old heathen places of religious assembly, and this word, having taken different forms in different dialects, was adopted by the Christian missionaries. It was probably connected with the Latin circus, circulus, and with the Greek κύκλος, possibly also with the Welsh cylch, cyl, cynchle, or caer. Lipsius, who was the first to reject the received tradition, was probably right in his suggestion, 'Credo et a circo Kirck nostrum esse, quia veterum templa instar Circi rotunda' (Epist. ad Belgas, Cent. 3. Ep. 44)."