The Berean Codex™Scripture Research Project
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ἐκκλησία — Acts 19:39 lawful civic assembly

A reusable research record with provenance and relationships kept separate from the presentation layer.

SEMANTIC_USAGE_OCCURRENCEUSAGE_G1577_ACT_19_39

Competing interpretations

The exact institutional mechanics of the Ephesian assembly under Roman rule can be described with different levels of precision; the civic/legal setting itself is explicit.
Curation State
CURATED
Release Introduced
v44
Language
Greek
Lemma
ἐκκλησία
Strong Id
G1577
Lemma Keys
[
    "ἐκκλησία",
    "G1577"
]
Evidence Layers
[
    {
        "id": "BIBLICAL_HEBREW_GREEK",
        "role": "textual_corpus"
    }
]
Source Ids
[
    "SRC_SBLGNT",
    "SRC_KJV1769"
]
Source Reference
Acts 19:39
Date Range
{
    "label": "1st century CE composition context",
    "certainty": "broad"
}
Original Language
Greek
Attested Form
ἐκκλησίᾳ
Original Excerpt
ἐν τῇ ἐννόμῳ ἐκκλησίᾳ
Translation
{
    "text": "in a lawful assembly",
    "responsibility": "KJV-compatible public-domain rendering, normalized for the usage record",
    "alignment_note": "Phrase-level context only; this record does not create a new translation-token alignment."
}
Semantic Domains
[
    {
        "id": "civic_public_administration",
        "role": "primary",
        "classification": "documented fact",
        "rationale": "The immediate scene distinguishes the lawful civic assembly from the disorderly gathering."
    },
    {
        "id": "legal_judicial",
        "role": "secondary",
        "classification": "strong evidence",
        "rationale": "The adjective ἔννομος and the surrounding appeal to lawful procedure make the legal/public-procedure setting explicit."
    },
    {
        "id": "political_governmental",
        "role": "secondary",
        "classification": "strong evidence",
        "rationale": "The assembly functions within the city’s recognized public decision-making institutions."
    }
]
Evidence Strength
DIRECT_ATTESTATION
Context Summary
The town clerk redirects unresolved public matters to the recognized lawful assembly. The occurrence is not a Christian congregation reference.
Evidence Boundary
This occurrence demonstrates an attested civic/legal use of ἐκκλησία inside the New Testament. It does not imply that every New Testament occurrence carries that civic sense.
Scripture Reference
{
    "book": "ACT",
    "chapter": 19,
    "verse": "39",
    "edition": "sblgnt"
}