エピソード

  • Ekklesia | Not Church Building. Political Assembly

    Ekklesia | Not Church Building. Political Assembly
    2026/09/10
    Your Bible says “church.” Ekklesia (ἐκκλησία) is the Greek word behind it, and it never meant a building. In Greek city-states, an ekklesia was the assembly of citizens, summoned to show up and decide the city’s actual business: war, law, and money. Luke uses the same word for a rioting mob and for the “real, lawful” assembly that a town clerk redirects them to; instead, in the same scene in Acts 19, the same word is used for two very different gatherings. The Greek Old Testament translates qahal, Israel’s own word for assembly, as ekklesia, including the assembly gathered at Sinai to receive the Law, a link Stephen makes explicit in Acts 7:38. When Jesus first says the word (Matthew 16:18), he’s standing at Caesarea Philippi, a city built around Roman emperor worship, declaring a rival assembly, not a prayer group. And the earliest ekklesia never met in a building at all, it met in homes, repeatedly run by women: Lydia, Nympha, Chloe, Phoebe, and Junia, whose name English Bibles quietly turned male for centuries.This is the last of the 13 word studies! Thank you for showing up all season. Next week: a wrap-up episode, pulling it all together and talking about what’s coming next.Theology Unleashed is a summer series of short Greek and Hebrew word studies from Jesus, Justice + Mercy. Justice-rooted, seminary-informed, and considerably less scripted than usual. Dogs present.See the full series at kristenabrock.com/theology-unleashedFor the Word Nerds• Ekklesia comes from ek (“out of”) + kaleō (“to call”), but resist the popular “called-out ones” reading. In everyday Greek, it was simply the ordinary word for a formally summoned public assembly, not a term loaded with “set apart from the world” theology.• It appears around 114 times in the New Testament, almost entirely in Acts, the letters, and Revelation. Only twice in the Gospels (Matthew 16:18 and 18:17).• In the Septuagint, it appears 77 times, almost always translating the Hebrew qahal, Israel’s own word for assembly.• The English word “church” isn’t even related to ekklesia. It comes from a different Greek word, kyriakon (“the Lord’s house”), which began to be attached to buildings around the 3rd century. The building sense was baked into English before translators ever got to the Greek text.• For centuries, many English Bibles rendered the name in Romans 16:7 as the male “Junias” rather than the female “Junia”; there’s no manuscript basis for the change. Paul calls her “outstanding among the apostles.”Bible Verses & Passages Covered• Matthew 16:18 — “I will build my church,” spoken at Caesarea Philippi, a center of Roman emperor worship.• Matthew 18:17 — a dispute brought “to the church” for an actual decision.• Acts 7:38 — Stephen calls wilderness Israel at Sinai “the ekklesia in the wilderness.”• Acts 19:32, 39, 41 — the Ephesus riot; ekklesia used for both a civic assembly and a rioting mob.• Deuteronomy 4:10; 9:10; 18:16 — Israel’s assembly (qahal) at Horeb, rendered ekklesia in the Septuagint.• Acts 16:14–15, 40 — Lydia’s house church.• Colossians 4:15 — “the church in her house” (Nympha).• 1 Corinthians 1:11 — Chloe’s household reports a church dispute to Paul.• Romans 16:1 — Phoebe, deacon, likely courier of the letter to the Romans.• Romans 16:7 — Junia, “outstanding among the apostles.”Archive CallbacksChoose This Day Who You Will Serve: Faith at the Altar of Power (S2 E8) The Comfort We Called Holy: How White Christian Nationalism Formed Us (S3 E6) Pulpit Fiction: The Women They Renamed, Silenced, and Forgot (S3 E18) For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:Text this episode to a friend who might need itLeave a 5-star rating and reviewSubscribe so you don’t miss future episodesWrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start? Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.RESOURCES:www.kristenabrock.comJustice Coaching options!
    続きを読む 一部表示
    10 分
  • Ruach | Not Presence. Power that Disrupts

    Ruach | Not Presence. Power that Disrupts
    2026/09/03

    Your Bible probably says "Spirit", capital S, calm, an inner feeling you carry gently. Ruach (רוּחַ) is the Hebrew word behind it, and it does three jobs depending on context: wind, breath, or spirit. It appears 387 times throughout the Hebrew Bible, and in its most dramatic scenes, it isn't calm at all. In Genesis 1:2, it's already moving over the chaos before creation has any shape. Across Judges and Numbers 11, it rushes on people with no standing to claim it: Samson, Gideon, Jephthah, and seventy ordinary elders in the wilderness. In Joel 2:28–29, God promises to pour it out "on all flesh," including the enslaved household servants at the very bottom of the status ladder, a promise Peter says is fulfilled, loudly and publicly, at Pentecost (Acts 2:17–18). In Ezekiel 36–37, it's summoned by name to raise a valley of dead bones into "an exceedingly great army." And in 1 Kings 19, it tears a mountain apart, and the text says plainly that's not where God was.

    For the Word Nerds

    · Three Hebrew letters, resh, vav, chet, carry all three meanings. Nothing in the word itself tells you whether it means wind, breath, or spirit; only context does.

    · Ruach is usually grammatically feminine, a detail that gets flattened completely once it lands in English.

    · The word shows up in the plural too, rûḥôt, "four winds," in Ezekiel 37:9, same word, same disruptive force, multiplied.

    · Samson alone accounts for three of the "ruach rushes" citations (Judges 14:6, 14:19, 15:14), more than any other judge in the book.

    · The root sense, "air in motion," covers an enormous range: the air that can't slip between Leviathan's scales (Job 41:16) and the violent blast of tyrants (Isaiah 25:4) are the same word doing very different work.

    Bible Verses & Passages Covered

    • Genesis 1:2 | ruach elohim moving over the chaos and the deep, before creation has shape.
    • Judges 6:34 | ruach clothes/takes possession of Gideon, the self-described weakest son of the weakest clan.
    • Judges 11:29 | ruach comes to Jephthah, an outcast.
    • Judges 14:6, 14:19, 15:14 | ruach rushes on Samson, three times.
    • Numbers 11:17, 25 | ruach falls on seventy elders in the wilderness.
    • Joel 2:28–29 | ruach poured out "on all flesh," naming sons and daughters, old and young, male and female servants.
    • Acts 2:17–18 | Peter quotes Joel at Pentecost.
    • Ezekiel 36:26–27 | God promises a new ruach.
    • Ezekiel 37 | the valley of dry bones; ruach called from the four winds.
    • 1 Kings 19 | Elijah; ruach tears the mountains; God was not in the wind.
    • Job 41:16 | root sense of ruach: air that can't slip between Leviathan's scales.
    • Isaiah 25:4 | ruach as the violent blast of tyrants; God as refuge for the poor and needy.

    Archive Callbacks

    S3 E20 | Unlocked: Pentecost for Doubters, Deconstructors, and the Depleted

    S3 E19 | Inside Out: A Mental Health Theology Big Enough to Hold the Dark

    S3 E7 | Faith in the Wilderness You Didn't Choose

    Theology Unleashed is a summer series of short Greek and Hebrew word studies from Jesus, Justice + Mercy. Justice-rooted, seminary-informed, and considerably less scripted than usual. Dogs present.

    See the full series at kristenabrock.com/theology-unleashed

    For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

    If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

    • Text this episode to a friend who might need it
    • Leave a 5-star rating and review
    • Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
    • Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start?
    • Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

    Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

    RESOURCES:

    www.kristenabrock.com

    Justice Coaching options!
    続きを読む 一部表示
    9 分
  • Koinonia | Not Fellowship. Shared Life

    Koinonia | Not Fellowship. Shared Life
    2026/08/27
    Your Bible says "fellowship." Koinonia (κοινωνία) is the Greek word behind it, and in Acts 2 and 4, it's the word Luke uses for a community that redistributed what it had so that no one among them was needy.In Acts 2:42, the earliest church devoted itself to koinonia right alongside the apostles' teaching, the breaking of bread, and prayer, not a sense, a practice. Two verses later, and again in Acts 4:32, Luke describes believers holding "all things in common" (koina, same root as koinonia). The result, Acts 4:34 says plainly, there was not a needy person among them. None of it was mandated. Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) were judged for lying about what they gave, not for keeping some of it back. Paul later stretches the same word across distance and years, applying koinonia to the collection he spent nearly a decade organizing for the poor in Jerusalem (Romans 15:26; 2 Corinthians 8–9), with the Philippian church singled out as the one congregation that stayed in ongoing financial partnership with him (Philippians 4:15–16).For the Word NerdsKoinonia comes from a small family of related Greek words, all built on the same root: koinos ("common"), koinoneo ("to share/participate"), koinonos ("partner"), and koinonia ("fellowship/partnership") itself.It shows up close to 20 times in the New Testament, 20 times in some Greek text traditions, 19 in others, depending on the edition.The King James Version alone renders it six different ways: "fellowship" most often, then "communion," "communication," "distribution," "contribution," and "to communicate", a lot of range packed into one English word.A fun distinction for the detail-oriented: the actual noun koinonia is what Acts 2:42 uses for "the fellowship." The famous "had all things in common" language two verses later (Acts 2:44), and again in Acts 4:32, uses a different, closely related word, koina ("common"), the adjective form of the same root. Same family, technically not the same word.Even more particular: the most quoted line in this whole story, "there was not a needy person among them" (Acts 4:34), doesn't use any form of the koinonia word at all. Luke names the word twice (2:42, 4:32), then simply shows you, in different vocabulary entirely, what living it out produced.Bible Verses & Passages CoveredActs 2:42–45: koinonia named as a core practice of the earliest church, alongside teaching, breaking bread, and prayer.Acts 4:32–35: "all things in common," and the outcome: not a needy person among them.Acts 5:1–11: Ananias and Sapphira: judged for lying about what they gave, not for holding some of it back.1 Corinthians 10:16: koinonia narrowed to "communion," the cup.Romans 15:26: koinonia as "contribution," the collection for the poor in Jerusalem.2 Corinthians 8–9 (esp. 8:4), "the fellowship of ministering to the saints"; the Jerusalem collection in full. Philippians 4:15–16: the Philippian church's ongoing financial partnership with PaArchive CallbacksS2 E13 | Holy Sawdust: Building the Kingdom Gets Messy TranscriptS1 E10 | Justice Envisioned: Untangling the Threads of Faith and Action. TranscriptS1 E11 | Radical Restitution: The Revolutionary Vision of Jubilee TranscriptTheology Unleashed is a summer series of short Greek and Hebrew word studies from Jesus, Justice + Mercy. Justice-rooted, seminary-informed, and considerably less scripted than usual. Dogs present.See the full series at kristenabrock.com/theology-unleashedFor women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:Text this episode to a friend who might need itLeave a 5-star rating and reviewSubscribe so you don’t miss future episodesWrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start? Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.RESOURCES:www.kristenabrock.comJustice Coaching options!
    続きを読む 一部表示
    9 分
  • Go'el | Not Optional. Obligated

    Go'el | Not Optional. Obligated
    2026/08/20

    Your Bible probably says "Redeemer." The Hebrew word go’el (גֹאֵל) means something far more concrete: the nearest eligible kinsman, under legal obligation, not moral option, to act for a vulnerable relative.

    This week traces go'el across its Torah uses: redeeming family land sold under hardship (Leviticus 25:25–28), redeeming a relative sold into debt slavery (Leviticus 25:47–49), and the go'el hadam, the “avenger of blood,” a structured justice mechanism rather than an open-ended blood feud (Numbers 35:19–21). In Ruth, the nearer kinsman initially agrees to redeem Naomi's land, but when he learns it also entails marrying Ruth to carry on the family line, he declines rather than risk his own inheritance (Ruth 4:4–6). Isaiah goes further, claiming go'el as a title for God himself, obligated to Israel by relationship rather than sentiment (Isaiah 41:14, 59:20).

    Then the stakes: flattening "Redeemer" into a one-time spiritual transaction strip out redemption's structural, ongoing, obligatory shape, real go'el work costs something concrete, and Torah never treats it as optional charity from whoever happens to feel moved. That reframes a modern question too: who is functioning as kinsman for people carrying debt, land loss, foreclosure, eviction, or displacement right now, and is that treated as charity, or as what’s owed?

    For the word nerds: the root ga'al (גאל) covers redeem, reclaim, and act as kinsman; go'el is the organizing word of Ruth and a recurring divine title in Isaiah 40–66. The Greek Old Testament renders it ho agchisteuōn, "the one with next-of-kin right"; the New Testament’s apolytrōsis(Ephesians 1:7, Titus 2:14) carries the idea forward, and 1 Peter 1:18–19 makes the echo explicit, redeemed “not with silver or gold... but with precious blood,” the same redemption-price logic as Leviticus 25.

    Related episodes:

    S1 E9, Justice Renewed: Redemption through Resurrection

    S1 E11, Radical Restitution: The Revolutionary Vision of Jubilee

    S3 E8, Starting in the Rubble: Reconciliation That Holds.

    Theology Unleashed is a summer series of short Greek and Hebrew word studies from Jesus, Justice + Mercy. Justice-rooted, seminary-informed, and considerably less scripted than usual. Dogs present.

    See the full series at kristenabrock.com/theology-unleashed

    For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

    If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

    • Text this episode to a friend who might need it
    • Leave a 5-star rating and review
    • Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
    • Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start?
    • Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

    Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

    RESOURCES:

    www.kristenabrock.com

    Justice Coaching options!
    続きを読む 一部表示
    10 分
  • Ptochos | Not Poor. Utterly Destitute

    Ptochos | Not Poor. Utterly Destitute
    2026/08/13

    Your Bible probably says “poor.” The Greek word Jesus actually used, ptochos, means something far more specific: utterly destitute, reduced to nothing, completely dependent on someone else's mercy.

    This week traces how Jesus treats the ptochos across the Gospels, good news preached to them with no qualifying clause (Luke 4:18), an invitation to the table specifically because they can't repay it (Luke 14:13, 21), the obligation placed on the wealthy instead of the destitute (Luke 18:22, 19:8), and how Paul uses Christ's own descent into ptochos-status as his best fundraising argument for the Jerusalem church (2 Corinthians 8:9).

    Then the other side: how institutions from the first-century temple system (Mark 12:38-40) to the modern American church-built worthiness tests Jesus never asked for, including where the “welfare queen” myth and the socialism/communism framing actually come from.

    For the word nerds: Hebrew has several distinct words for different kinds of poverty, and the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) leans on ptochos to carry most of them into Greek. ʿAnav/ʿAni (עָנָו / עָנִי), the afflicted, humbled, or crouching poor, sits behind Isaiah 61:1, the text Jesus reads in Luke 4:18. Evyon (אֶבְיוֹן) is the destitute, begging poor, dependent on charity, the closest material match to ptochos's own “dependent beggar” sense. Dal (דַל), the lean or reduced poor, is more often rendered as "penes" instead. And rush (רוּשׁ), to be stripped or made destitute, shows up concentrated in Proverbs' economic warnings.

    Related episodes:
    S1: E8 Justice Embodied: Mercy Matters with Luke's Gospel
    S1: E13 Threads of Inequality: Exploring Poverty through a Christian Lens
    S2: E11 Half a Gospel is No Gospel at All: Liberation for the Poor, Resisted by the Powerful

    Theology Unleashed is a summer series of short Greek and Hebrew word studies from Jesus, Justice + Mercy. Justice-rooted, seminary-informed, and considerably less scripted than usual. Dogs present.

    See the full series at kristenabrock.com/theology-unleashed

    For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

    If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

    • Text this episode to a friend who might need it
    • Leave a 5-star rating and review
    • Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
    • Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start?
    • Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

    Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

    RESOURCES:

    www.kristenabrock.com

    Justice Coaching options!
    続きを読む 一部表示
    10 分
  • Metanoia | Not Sorry. Turned Around

    Metanoia | Not Sorry. Turned Around
    2026/08/06

    Your Bible says "repent," and to most ears raised in church, " repent " means feeling bad. Guilt, tears, the altar call moment. But metanoia was never asking about your feelings. It's the Greek word behind John the Baptist's preaching and Jesus's own opening line in Mark's Gospel, and it's directional, not emotional: a change of mind, not a change of mood.

    This episode traces metanoia from its 4th-century mistranslation as "do penance" through the Reformation correction to "repent” and argues that even "repent" doesn't finish the job. Turning is only step one. Real metanoia moves through lament, then repair, and only then reconciliation, a sequence institutions (and individuals) love to skip past on the way to "moving forward."

    Scripture & Passages Referenced

    ● Mark 1, Jesus's opening call to metanoia at the start of his public ministry

    ● Deuteronomy 30, shuv (turn/return) language

    ● 1 Kings 8, Solomon's temple prayer, turning back to God

    ● Jonah 3, Nineveh's turn from its ways

    ● Joel 2:12–13, "Return to me with all your heart... rend your heart and not your garments"

    Archive Callbacks

    ● S 3, E 8 Starting in the Rubble: Reconciliation That Holds, reconciliation without repair

    ● S 2, E16, Reread, Repent, Repair: Exegesis for Everyday Disciples, repentance as practice

    ● S 3, E 5, The Cost of Staying Awake: How Long, O Lord?, lament, moral exhaustion, grief

    Theology Unleashed is a summer series of short Greek and Hebrew word studies from Jesus, Justice + Mercy. Justice-rooted, seminary-informed, and considerably less scripted than usual. Dogs present.

    See the full series at kristenabrock.com/theology-unleashed

    For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

    If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

    • Text this episode to a friend who might need it
    • Leave a 5-star rating and review
    • Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
    • Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start?
    • Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

    Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

    RESOURCES:

    www.kristenabrock.com

    Justice Coaching options!
    続きを読む 一部表示
    10 分
  • Navi | Not Fortune Teller. Truth Teller

    Navi | Not Fortune Teller. Truth Teller
    2026/07/30

    Navi | Not Fortune-Teller. Truth-Teller.

    "Prophet" often gets read as someone who predicts the future; end-times charts, crystal balls, supernatural knowledge of what's coming. But the Hebrew word navi never meant that. This week we trace it back to Exodus, where Aaron becomes Moses' navi to Pharaoh, not by predicting anything, but by speaking with full authority into a room he wouldn't otherwise have access to. We dig into Deuteronomy 18's "job description" for a true prophet, where only one of five tests has anything to do with prediction. We follow the word into Greek, where the Septuagint's prophētēs carries the same meaning straight into the New Testament through Peter's temple sermon in Acts 3, and John the Baptist's confrontation with Herod. And we ask the harder question: who gets authorized to speak for God today, and who gets called divisive for naming the exact same harm?

    Scripture referenced: Exodus 6:28–7:2, Deuteronomy 13: 1-4, Deuteronomy 18:9–22, Acts 3:22–23, Luke 3:19–20, Luke 7:26

    Archive callbacks:
    Prophet? Please: Rethinking Prophecy, Courage and how to follow love's voice in fearful times ( S2, e17),
    Ready or Not: The Year Courage Stops Being Optional (S3, e1))

    Theology Unleashed is a summer series of short Greek and Hebrew word studies from Jesus, Justice + Mercy. Justice-rooted, seminary-informed, and considerably less scripted than usual. Dogs present.

    See the full series at kristenabrock.com/theology-unleashed

    For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

    If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

    • Text this episode to a friend who might need it
    • Leave a 5-star rating and review
    • Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
    • Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start?
    • Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

    Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

    RESOURCES:

    www.kristenabrock.com

    Justice Coaching options!
    続きを読む 一部表示
    10 分
  • Nachalah | Not Ownership. Sacred Portion

    Nachalah | Not Ownership. Sacred Portion
    2026/07/23

    Nachalah: Not Ownership. Sacred Portion.

    Almost every English Bible translates nachalah as "inheritance", and inheritance, in English, means an asset. Yours to keep, sell, or pass down however you choose. But nachalah is something closer to a sacred portion: land assigned by God, held in trust, and returnable by design.

    This week traces that portion logic through the tribal land allotments in Numbers and Joshua, the Jubilee land-return law in Leviticus 25, Zelophehad's daughters petitioning for their portion in Numbers 27 and 36, and the Levites who receive no land at all because God himself is their portion (Numbers 18:20). Then we follow the same word logic into the New Testament, where the Greek klēronomia picks up the same "assigned, not earned" DNA and widens it to include everyone in Christ (Ephesians 1–2, 1 Peter 1).

    We also name plainly what gets lost when "inheritance" theology gets used to bless permanent land theft, from the Tulsa/Greenwood massacre to the broken 1868 treaty with the Lakota over the Black Hills. Season 4 goes deeper on land, reparations, and repair. This episode is a first plant of that seed.

    Scripture referenced:

    Psalm 24; Leviticus 25; Numbers 27; Numbers 36; Numbers 18:20; Deuteronomy 4:20; Ezekiel 47 (callback); Ephesians 1–2; 1 Peter 1

    Archive callbacks:

    Radical Restitution: The Revolutionary Vision of Jubilee (S1 E11) · Over Before it Started: Power, Oppression and the Systems That Decide Who Wins (S2 E7)

    Theology Unleashed is a summer series of short Greek and Hebrew word studies from Jesus, Justice + Mercy. Justice-rooted, seminary-informed, and considerably less scripted than usual. Dogs present.

    See the full series at kristenabrock.com/theology-unleashed

    For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

    If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

    • Text this episode to a friend who might need it
    • Leave a 5-star rating and review
    • Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
    • Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start?
    • Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

    Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

    RESOURCES:

    www.kristenabrock.com

    Justice Coaching options!
    続きを読む 一部表示
    10 分