The Koine Greek word “eklegomai” is a word of particular significance to Christians who worship within the Reformed branch of the faith. The word, which is a verb, is generally translated as “choose.” It is most often used in the New Testament to refer to a specific choice made by God the Father or more often Jesus Christ to select a certain group, such as the disciples or Christians in general. The concept of God or Jesus choosing a particular group is an important point in Calvinism, as we shall see below.
Quick Overview
The word eklegomai first presents a basic problem: what word is it? Several scholarly sources spell it epsilon-kappa-lambda-epsilon-gamma-omicron-mu-alpha-iota, including the Liddel-Scott “A Greek-English Lexicon” and many recent Greek New Testament texts, while many others spell it with a chi in place of the kappa, including Arndt and Gingrich’s “A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature” and “The Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament.” For the sake of simplification, the word will be spelled eklegomai, with a kappa, in this paper.
The word is a verb in the middle voice. It is Strong’s word number G1586 and is derived from word G1537, which is the prefix/word “ek,” which generally means “out,” “from” or “out of;” and from word G3004, legw, which means “I speak” or “I say.” Based on this etymology, we see that eklegomai can be translated as “I say out… for myself” with the idea of an action being done for one’s self coming from the middle form of a verb. Better translated into English, this would read as “I call out… for myself.”
A word with a similar etymology is “eklectos” and “ekklesia.” Eklectos, Strongs’s 1588, is the noun equivalent of eklegomai and translates as the “elect” or the “choosen.” Ekklesia, Strong’s 1577, are the “ones called together,” particularly those called together to be a church or religious assembly.
The word eklegomai appears 19 times in the New Testament, nine of which are in the Lukan texts. The word appears 5 times in the Gospel of John, four times in the Epistles of Paul and once in the Epistle of James. The similar word eklectos appears once, only in the Gospel according to Mark.
The New Testament use of the word also harkens back to the use of “bachar” (Strong’s word 0977) as a relationship between God and the people of Israel in the Old Testament. In passages such as Numbers 16:5, Deuteronomy 4:37 and Isaiah 14:1 and 14:30, the author refers to the people who have been chosen by use of the word “bachar.”
Defining the word
According to Liddlell-Scott’s “A Greek-English Lexicon,” the word eklegomai was originally used as a word to “pick or single out” particular people for a job, such as to be soldiers or rowers. This later evolved into the concept of “to pick out for oneself.”
The great 18th century Presbyterian theologian Matthew Henry noted in his exhaustive Biblical commentaries that the key concept to the use of the word eklegomai in the bible indicates a decision or action that originates with God.
“The initiative lies with God,” Henry wrote.
Word Usage
A review of the usage of the word eklegomai in the New Testament quickly brings the observation that about half of the uses of the word can be attributed to one author: Luke, or the person who wrote the Gospel according to Luke and the book of Acts, which are almost universally ascribed to the same author. The word appears three times in the gospel of Luke and six times in the book of Acts, the most in any single book in the Bible.
Luke uses the term to apply both to a choice or selection made by God/Jesus and to a selection made by the church to do the Lord’s work. Most notably, the Gospel uses the word ekelgomai as the verb in the passage that describes the Lukan version of the calling of the 12 disciples. In this case, it appears that Jesus selected the 12 from among numerous disciples that were with him at the time. The 12 were specially selected by Jesus: they were chosen… for himself. They were now the elekectos, the elect. Luke also uses the term to describe a time Jesus selected a particular parable to tell, the choosing of a replacement for Judas, the selecting of seven deacons to serve the needs of widows in the church, the selection of Israel and the selection of missionaries for a particular mission. All instances when people or a thing were choosen into the service of the Lord.
Only once in all of the New Testament is the word eklegomai not used when the action is either initiated by God/Jesus or by the church to select a person(s) to do the Lord’s work. That instance also occurs in Luke. In Luke’s gospel, 10:42, Mary, the sister of Martha, chooses to do good in the world. In this lone instance, it appears that the act of eklegomai is initiated by a person of their own free will. I do not believe that Luke chooses to use that particular word lightly here. Just as each of the Gospels stress the fact that Mary Magdalene was the firs to witness the empty tomb, I believe Luke here intentionally seeks to empower an otherwise powerless woman by lifting up the level of choice she selected here.
In each instance that the word is used in John and the writings of Paul, it refers to a choice made by God/Jesus. John uses it to describe the calling of the 12 and both he and Paul use it several times to indicate it was God that first chose his people. Key among these instances is John 15:16, the key segment of which translates into English as this comment from Jesus: “You did not (eklegomai) me, but I (eklegomai) you.”
In James, the author writes about how God selected Israel as his chosen people. In Mark, the noun is used, in a passage in which Jesus talks about the elect – the ones chosen.
Theological Discussion
The Israelites believed that they were God’s chosen people because of the act of “bachar” – Hebrew for “choose” – made by God. Likewise, the new Christians viewed themselves as the eklectos, based on the eklegomai of Jesus, he chose them and called the people to him.
The idea of eklegomai is an important concept within the Reformed branch of the Christian family, that of predestination. According to the Expositor’s Bible, in Ephesians 1:4, Paul traces every blessing, including being among the ones “eklegomai” by Christ to having happened before Creation. Likewise, the same source indicates that in both the John and Luke versions of the selection of the 12, it wasn’t merely an impulse or a good idea on behalf of the disciples to follow Jesus. Rather, they were chosen by God and were among the ones selected for salvation, they were predestined according to Calvin, or part of the group enjoying Limited Atonement in the five tenents of Calvinism: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace and Preserverance of the Saints, also known as TULIP.
According to an article in the series “What Presbyterians Believe,” published by the Presbyterian Church in the USA – perhaps the largest Reformed body in the United States – the idea of eklegomai is essential to the theory of predestination.
“So the natural meaning of the verse (Eph. 1:4), is that God chooses his people from all humanity, before the foundation of the world by viewing them in relationship to Christ their redeemer,” wrote the Rev. Jane Dempsey Douglass, a professor of historical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in the September 1985 edition of “Presbyterian Survey,” a national denominational magazine.
The father of Reformed theology himself, John Calvin, suggested in his famous writings “Institutes of the Christian Religion” wrote “…the general adoption of the seed of Abraham was a visible representation of a greater blessing, which God conferred on the few out of the multitude.” In other words, God chose particular people, he eklegomai. This idea forms the basis then of the concept of predestination.
It is worth noting that in the various instances when Jesus eklegomai his disciples or some other group, no one ever rejected his choice. This would further the argument that there is a predestined select, eklegomai by Jesus.
Conclusion
The use of the word eklegomai by the biblical authors clearly seems to have been divinely inspired. It refers to more than just a simple selection. Even in the case of Acts 1:24, where the disciples select Matthias by drawing lots, the eklegomai happens only after the group prays together for guidance.
The connection of the word eklegomai with the idea of bachar in the Hebrew language is just one of the many, many links that strongly bind the overall message of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
While the concept of Limited Atonement or predestination is troubling to many, even many within the larger Christian family, the word eklegomai clearly strengthens the theological argument in favor of this concept. The Calvinists largely have Luke and Paul to thank for bringing light to this idea.
Bibliography
Arndt, William F. and Gingrich, F. Wilbur. “A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature.” University of Chicago Press. Chicago. 1957.
Balz, Horst and Schneider, Gerhard, editors. “Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament. (English Translation).” William B. Eerdmans Publishing. Grand Rapids. 1990.
Calvin, John. “Institutes of Christian Religion (1599 translation).” Westminster John Knox Press.Louisville, Ky. 1960.
Dempsey Douglass, Jane. “What Presbyterians Believe: Predestination” Presbyterian Survey, September 1985 edition. Presbyterian Church (USA). Louisville, Ky.
Liddell, Henry George and Scott, Robert. “A Greek-English Lexicon (Ninth Edition).” Clarendon Press, Oxford, England. 1940.
Multiple authors and editors. “Anchor Bible.” Yalepress. New Haven, Conn. Various years.
Multiple authors and editors. “Expositor’s Bible Commentary.” Zondervan. Grand Rapids. 1981.
