The Greeks have a word – or two – for it: 56, ναός (naos), ἱερός (ierons), a church

The blue-domed churches of Santorini in a poster at Souv-Lucky Day in Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I was discussing the other evening how the Greek word εκκλησία (ekklesia) is used in the New Testament to speak of the church as an institution or organisation, as opposed to a church as a building or place of worship and liturgy.

The word εκκλησία (ekklesia), is used in Greek for the Church as an institution, so that, for example, the Church of Greece is Ἐκκλησία τῆς Ἑλλάδος (Ekklēsía tē̂s Helládos), the Church of Crete is Εκκλησία της Κρήτης (Ekklēsía tē̂s Kritis), and the Church of Cyprus is Ἐκκλησία τῆς Κύπρου (Ekklisia tis Kyprou).

But separate words are used in Greek when we speak of the church as a local church, a parish church or building, as opposed to, say, a church in a monastery.

As for those other two words used in modern Greek for the church as a building, ναός (naos) and ἱερός (ieros), I promised to look at them separately.

The Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens … the word ναός (nāós) refers to the sanctuary in a temple housing a statue of the deity, while ιερός (hieros) means the entire precincts of a temple (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The word ναός (nāós) was used in classical Greek for a temple. The word means ‘dwelling’, and these temples were built to house statues of the deities within sanctuaries. The temple interiors were not meeting places as the sacrifices and rituals dedicated to the deity took place outside them, within the wider precinct of the sanctuary. Temples were also used to store votive offerings.

A sanctuary or cell of a temple like this, where the statue or image of the god was placed, was also called δόμος (domos) σηκός (sekos), the dwelling or enclosure, to distinguish it from τό ἱερόν (ieron), the whole temple or the entire consecrated enclosure.

In the Septuagint Greek version of the Bible, the word ναός (naós), ναοῦ (naou), ὁ ναίω (naíō, to dwell) is used to translate the Hebrew word הֵיכָל (hekhál), which is used for the Temple in Jerusalem, but only for the sacred edifice or sanctuary itself, consisting of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.

And so, the Biblical use of the ναός (naós) refers to: the Temple in Jerusalem, but only the sacred edifice (or sanctuary) itself, consisting of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies; any heathen temple or shrine; and, metaphorically, for the spiritual temple consisting of the saints of all ages joined together by and in Christ.

This distinction is found in the New Testament (see, for example, Matthew 23: 16-35, 27: 40; Mark 14: 58, 15: 29, 38; Luke 1: 9-22, 23: 45; John 2: 19-21; 1-19). The word ναός (naós) is used specifically of the Holy Place where the priests officiated, and also in the visions in Revelation of the temple of the ‘New Jerusalem’.

But it is also used in the Acts of the Apostles: ‘The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines (ναοῖς, naois) made by human hands made by human hands’ (Acts 17: 24); and to refer to miniature silver temples modelled after the temple of Artemis of Ephesus, ‘A man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines (ναούς, naous) of Artemis, brought no little business to the artisans’ (Acts 19: 24).

The word also appears in four Pauline letters, (I Corinthians 3: 16-17, 6: 19; II Corinthians 6: 16; Ephesians 2: 21; and II Thessalonians 2: 4).

On the other hand, in Biblical references, the word ιερός (hieros) refers to a sacred place and to the entire precincts of a temple, such as the Temple in Jerusalem, and embraces both the sanctuary itself and the surrounding courts, porticoes, and colonnades, while naos denotes the central sanctuary itself.

Delphi and the ruins of the Temple of Apollo (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The word ιερός (hieros) occurs 71 times throughout the New Testament.

Saint Matthew records Jesus’ early life framed by temple activity: during his public ministry, he healed in the temple (Matthew 21: 14), taught there (Matthew 21: 23), and drove out the money changers (Matthew 21: 12).

Saint Mark parallels these events, adding Christ’s refusal to allow merchandise to pass through the courts (Mark 11: 16) and his extended teaching ‘every day’ (Mark 11: 27).

Saint Luke places his presentation (Luke 2: 27) and later his youthful exchanges with the teachers in the Temple (Luke 2: 46). He emphasises Jesus’ steadfast pattern: ‘Every day he was teaching in the temple’ (Luke 19: 47), spending nights on the Mount of Olives but returning at dawn (Luke 21: 37-38).

John’s Gospel highlights two cleansings (John 2: 14-15; implied John 2: 19-21) and recalls Jesus ‘walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon’ (John 10: 23). John 7-8 depicts prolonged debate during the Feast of Tabernacles, climaxing with the claim, ‘before Abraham was, I am’, after which he left the Temple (John 8: 59).

In the Acts of the Apostles, following Pentecost, the apostles continue to gather ‘day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple’ (Acts 2: 46). A lame man is healed ‘at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate’ (Acts 3: 2), the apostles ‘stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life’ (Acts 5: 20). Saint Paul’s vows (Acts 21: 26), prayers (Acts 22: 17), and later accusations (Acts 24: 12, 18) show the hieron as both mission field and flash-point of persecution.

The Church of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon opened 50 years ago in 1975, and is known in Greek as Ιερός Ναός Αγίων Τεσσάρων Μαρτύρων (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

In general usage in Greek today, the two words are combined together, as Ιερός Ναός, often abbreviated simply as IN. So, my local parish church when I am staying in Rethymnon in Crete is the Church of the Four Martyrs, which opened 50 years ago in 1975, and it is known formally in Greek as Ιερός Ναός Αγίων Τεσσάρων Μαρτύρων.

In previous years, when I stayed in the linked asuburban areas of Platanias and Tsemes over a span of five or six years, they formed one parish district with two churches, ο Ιερός Ναός της Αγίας Τριάδος (the Church of the Holy Trinity) and ο Ιερός Ναός του Αγίου Νεκταρίου (the Church of Nektarios).

Back in the 1990s, during long lingering holidays in Piskopiano in Crete, my local church was the Iερός Ναός Μεταμορφώσεως του Σωτήρος (the Church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour).

The Church of the Holy Trinity in Platanias, east of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

I referred in my earlier posting to the etymology and Greek origins of the word ‘church’ in English, and its original meaning ‘of the Lord.’ Of course, there are other words for a church in Greek.

The word παρεκκλήσι (parekklísi) may refer to a chapel, often a side chapel or separate chapel with a monastery complex, while κηδεία is used for a funeral chapel.

The word καθολικόν (katholikon) can describe the cathedral of a diocese; the major church building in a monastery corresponding to a conventual church in western monastic foundations; or large church in a city certain important feasts are celebrated rather than in the local parish church.

The name katholikon derives from the fact that it is (usually) the largest church where all gather together to celebrate the major feast days of the liturgical year. A katholikon may have special architectural features, such as a kathedra (episcopal throne), or both an esonarthex (inner-narthex) and exonarthex (outer narthex), used for special services such as the Paschal Vigil or Vespers. An Eastern Orthodox diocese may have several katholikons, but only one is the bishop’s cathedral.

The Church of the Transfiguration (Iερός Ναός Μεταμορφώσεως του Σωτήρος) rises high above the mountain-side village of Piskopianó above Hersonissos in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Previous words in this series:

1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.

2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.

3, Bread, Ψωμί.

4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.

5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.

6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.

7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.

8,Theology, Θεολογία.

9, Icon, Εἰκών.

10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.

11, Chaos, Χάος.

12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.

13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.

14, Mañana, Αύριο.

15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.

16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.

17, The missing words.

18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.

19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.

20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.

21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.

22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.

23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.

24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.

25, Asthma, Ασθμα.

26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.

27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.

28, School, Σχολείο.

29, Muse, Μούσα.

30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.

31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.

32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.

33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.

34, Cinema, Κινημα.

35, autopsy and biopsy

36, Exodus, ἔξοδος

37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος

38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς

39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια

40, Practice, πρᾶξις

41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός

42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή

43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή

44, catastrophe, καταστροφή

45, democracy, δημοκρατία

46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end

47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse

48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha

49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric

50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις

51, Bimah, βῆμα

52, ἰχθύς (ichthýs) and ψάρι (psari), fish.

53, Τὰ Βιβλία (Ta Biblia), The Bible

54, Φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (Philoxenia), true hospitality

55, εκκλησία (ekklesia), the Church

56, ναός (naos) and ἱερός (ieros), a church

57, series to be continued.

‘It is forbidden to enter the church indecently dressed (women in pants, shorts, etc). Issued by the church’ … a less-than-welcoming sign at a church in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 103, Thursday 21 August 2025

Waiting for a wedding reception at the Boot and Flogger in Southwark … we are all invited to the heavenly banquet, but are we ready to accept the invitation? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX, 17 August 2025).

I hope to be involved in a drama group meeting in Stony Stratford this evening. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘Go therefore into the … streets, and invite everyone you find to the … banquet’ (Matthew 22: 9) … empty tables at restaurants in the side streets in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Matthew 22: 1-14 (NRSVA):

1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” 5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” 10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 ‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.’

‘A Peasant Wedding’ (1620), Peter Brueghel the Younger, the National Gallery of Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

‘For many are called, but few are chosen.’

Sometimes, the ways I can behave as a snob can catch me off-guard and unexpectedly, and I shame myself.

When I was growing up, the snobberies and class distinctions of previous generations were challenged over 60 years ago in an old-fashioned way in the film My Fair Lady (1964), based on George Bernard Shaw’s earlier play, Pygmalion (1913).

But Pygmalion also inspired what I think is a much funnier film, Hoi Polloi (1935), with the Three Stooges, Larry, Curly and Moe.

Two professors are arguing about whether our social behaviour is caused by environment or heredity. It is a very funny take on the old Nature v Nurture argument.

To settle a bet, the two professors take three binmen – Larry, Curly and Moe – train and coach them for three months, dress them up, and send them off to a posh society dinner.

Their behaviour descends into farce, and it looks as if one professor has won his bet: our social behaviour is dictated by inherited class.

But then the tables are turned – literally. Everyone else at the party descends to the same riotous behaviour. At a base level, we are all the same, even if some refuse to accept it.

Nature or nurture? It was an important statement that we all share the same humanity, coming as racism and the Nazis were on the rise in the 1930s.

The title of the film, Hoi Polloi, is a way of expressing class-based social prejudice. It is a Greek phrase, meaning ‘the many’ and it was used in Victorian England by people who had the benefit of a classical education in English public schools and the universities, to describe the masses, who they presumed did not understand the phrase.

Gilbert and Sullivan use the phrase to mock those who used it in their comic opera Iolanthe. Later, it was used by English public schoolboys in the 1950s and the 1960s, when they referred to ‘oips’ and ‘oiks’.

The term hoi polloi also appears in a scene in the film Dead Poets Society (1989). Professor John Keating, played by Robin Williams, speaks negatively about the use of the definite article ‘the’ in front of the phrase.

Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero) raises his hands and speaks: ‘The hoi polloi. Doesn’t it mean the herd?’

Keating replies: ‘Precisely, Meeks. Greek for the herd. However, be warned that, when you say “the hoi polloi” you are actually saying “the the herd.” Indicating that you too are “hoi polloi”.’

This morning’s Gospel reading (Matthew 22: 1-14) begins with a very joyful occasion – a posh nosh, a planned wedding, and generous invitations to a lavish banquet. But, instead of the farce in that film with the Three Stooges, it quickly descends into very difficult images: slaves who are kidnapped, mistreated and killed; cities that are burned down; a man who is bound hand and feet and thrown into outer darkness.

The images of the wedding banquet and the wedding covenant are important ways of describing our relationship with God.

But the parable in this morning’s Gospel reading is particularly difficult.

The king has invited a long list of guests, but even after being repeatedly sought out, none of these guests comes to the banquet.

To refuse to come, to refuse a king’s command, is treason; to kill his slaves amounts to insurrection. So the king sends out troops to put down the rebellion.

The king then sends his slaves into the streets to find enough people to sit at the tables at the wedding banquet. The phrase translated as ‘the main streets’ (διεξόδους τῶν ὁδῶν, verse 9), means not the main fashionable, shopping streets in a chic part of a city centre. It refers to dirty, gritty, street corners and junctions, perhaps the main junctions outside the city gates.

This is the place where those who want to be hired as labour gather, where those who are refused entry wait without hope, this is where those who are on margins are found. Other translations catch these images when they talk about the highways and the byways.

And the king’s invitation, in verse 10, goes out to all people, ‘both good and bad.’

Yet, when the king sees that a man is not dressed appropriately for the event, the king throws him into the outer darkness. In this case, the robe probably symbolises the white robe worn for baptism.

Do we wear that robe all the time? In other words, do we live up to our promises of discipleship made at Baptism – summarised in the call to love God and to love others?

If you were to imagine yourself as one of the characters in this parable, who would you be?

And would you behave that way?

Are you the king, throwing a lavish wedding banquet?

Are you a wedding guest who has denied the generosity of the king?

Are you the bride or groom, sidelined and marginalised at our own wedding, incidental to all the power playing and role playing?

Are you one of the people brought in from the streets, but not prepared for the celebration about to take place?

Where do you find Good News in this parable?

What is meant by the many and the few here?

In our western way of thinking, the word many is a quantity much more than the majority, while few is many less than the majority. But in eastern thought, one less than 100% would be considered few.

We could put the Greek use of ‘few’ and ‘many’ by Christ in this parable in its cultural context. Pericles, in his ‘Funeral Oration’ in Athens, according to Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War, uses ‘the many,’ οἱ πολλοί (hoi polloi), in a positive way when he extols democracy in Athens.

He contrasts ‘the many’ with ‘the few’ (οἱ ὀλίγοι, hoi oligoi), the few who abuse power and create an oligarchy, rule by the few. Pericles demands equal justice for ‘the many’, ‘the all’, before the law, against the selfish interests of the few.

When we celebrate the Eucharist, we remember that Christ is the victim, and that he said his blood is shed ‘for you and for many.’ The word ‘you’ here means us, the Church, the few in this parable. But the phrase ‘the many’ here, οἱ πολλοί (hoi polloi), refers to the masses, the multitude, the great unwashed, who are called to the banquet too.

Christ’s invitation is not just to you and me, who know we are invited to the banquet. It is also for the many, the lumpen masses, all people, the ones who are not usually invited to the posh nosh, the Larry, Curly and Moe in our midst.

The invitation to come in, to celebrate at the banquet, symbolised in the Eucharist this morning, is not just for the few, the oligarchs. The many are invited to this banquet this morning.

Who are we to behave like a tyrannical despot and exclude them? For if we exclude them, we are in danger of excluding Christ himself.

‘Look, I have prepared my dinner … and everything is ready’ (Matthew 22: 3) … waiting for diners at the Black Horse in Great Linford, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 21 August 2025):

The theme this week (17 to 23 August) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Tell the Full Story’ (pp 28-29). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Dr Jo Sadgrove, Research and Learning Advisor, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 21 August 2025) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we pray for all trapped in modern-day slavery and exploited labour. Bring freedom, dignity, and hope to those who suffer, and help us be a voice for the voiceless.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
who sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and light of your Church:
open our hearts to the riches of your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love and joy and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious Father,
revive your Church in our day,
and make her holy, strong and faithful,
for your glory’s sake
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Those who had been invited to the wedding banquet … would not come’ (Matthew 22: 3) … empty tables at the Moat House on Lichfield Street, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

A grave in Kerameikós, Athens, where Pericles delivered his funeral oration (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)