Talk:Mosiah 25:21-24

From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.

What is the point of the remark that the bodies of believers were called churches?

To me, the word 'church' suggests an interpersonal organization. I've heard many complaints about organized religion (and I've made complaints myself!). However, the alternative seems to be only a very weak notion of religion. It is the interaction with each other as believers and our joint interaction with God that makes religion meaningful and effectual.

Some related x-refs include:

• Rom 12:4ff "For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another."
• 1 Cor 12:12ff "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many."

The word 'body' has interesting useages in English. "Bodies of believers" (as in "the body of the senate"). "The body of Christ." Is it the same in Greek? Thinking about the church as a body provides a rich analogy suggesting how believers should interact with each other. Not just that we need to interact and get along, but that we each have our function (e.g. what service we do in the ward) and our place (e.g. deferring to Priesthood authority).

--RobertC 16:13, 10 Oct 2005 (CEST)

Yes, it looks like it's the same in Greek. See Strong's Concordance. (The word is soma, which is the root word of English words such as the second half of "psychosomatic.") I suspect, but don't know, that "body" came to have the expanded meaning because of New Testament influence. --User:Eric

It is interesting that as the word is used here there seems to be some ambiguity between calling the overarching organization the church and each congregation a church. Comparing that today it is like calling the church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a church and calling wards churches. It wouldn't be too strange to do this today but we don't normally call each ward a church--though we do call the building they meet in a church so it may amount to about the same thing.

Verse 21 tells us that each church has their own priests and teachers. This suggests that each congregations has its own hierarchy of those with authority to lead and teach the church. This is also a characteristic that their churches share with our wards.

I also think it is interesting to contrast the use of the word church here with Mosiah 21:34. There it says Limhi's people did not form themselves into a church. In that case it seems they are talking about a single overarching body--not congregatoins. But still it is relevant for understanding the word church here to understand why what the level of religious instruction they did have wasn't considered a church. Note that Mosiah 21:31 tells us that they had taken on themselves a covenant. For the whole people to have taken on themsevles a covenant suggests that some form of religious instruction and discussions was going on among Limhi's people. Clearly then gathering together for religious instruction is not intself for a church--as the word is used in the Book of Mormon. Mosiah 21:33 seems to connect the fact that they weren't baptized with the fact that they didn't form a church. I'd like to spend more time looking through the references to church in the Book of Mormon. My guess is that the meaning of a church means that there is a formal organization with its own leadership/teachers. --Matthew Faulconer 15:37, 10 Oct 2005 (UTC)