Category:Congregation

Con`gre*ga"tion, n. Etym: [L. congregatio: cf. F. congrégation.]

1. The act of congregating, or bringing together, or of collecting into one aggregate or mass. The means of reduction in the fire is but by the congregation of homogeneal parts. Bacon.

2. A collection or mass of separate things. A foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. Shak.

3. An assembly of persons; a gathering; esp. an assembly of persons met for the worship of God, and for religious instruction; a body of people who habitually so meet. He [Bunyan] rode every year to London, and preached there to large and attentive congregations. Macaulay.

4. (Anc. Jewish Hist.)

Defn: The whole body of the Jewish people; -- called also Congregation of the Lord. It is a sin offering for the congregation. Lev. iv. 21.

5. (R. C. Ch.) (a) A body of cardinals or other ecclesiastics to whom as intrusted some departament of the church business; as, the Congregation of the Propaganda, which has charge of the missions of the Roman Catholic Church. (b) A company of religious persons forming a subdivision of a monastic order.

6. The assemblage of Masters and Doctors at Oxford or Cambrige University, mainly for the granting of degrees. [Eng.]

7. (Scotch Church Hist.)

Defn: the name assumed by the Protestant party under John Knox. The leaders called themselves (1557) Lords of the Congregation.

- ---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Congregation - (Heb. kahal ), the Hebrew people collectively as a holy community (Numbers 15:15). Every circumcised Hebrew from twenty years old and upward was a member of the congregation. Strangers resident in the land, if circumcised, were, with certain exceptions (Exodus 12:19; Numbers 9:14; Deuteronomy 23:1), admitted to the privileges of citizenship, and spoken of as members of the congregation (Exodus 12:19; Numbers 9:14; Numbers 15:15). The congregation were summonded together by the sound of two silver trumpets, and they met at the door of the tabernacle (Numbers 10:3) These assemblies were convened for the purpose of engaging in solemn religious services (Exodus 12:27; Numbers 25:6; Joel 2:15), or of receiving new commandments (Exodus 19:7, Exodus 19:8). The elders, who were summonded by the sound of one trumpet (Numbers 10:4), represented on various occasions the whole congregation (Exodus 3:16; Exodus 12:21; Exodus 17:5; Exodus 24:1). After the conquest of Canaan, the people were assembled only on occasions of the highest national importance (Judg. 20; 2 Chronicles 30:5; 2 Chronicles 34:29; 1 Samuel 10:17; 2 Samuel 5:1; 1 Kings 12:20; 2 Kings 11:19; 2 Kings 21:24; 2 Kings 23:30). In subsequent times the congregation was represented by the Sanhedrin; and the name synagogue, applied in the Septuagint version exclusively to the congregation, came to be used to denote the places of worship established by the Jews. (See CHURCH.) In Acts 13:43, where alone it occurs in the New Testament, it is the same word as that rendered "synagogue" (q.v.) in Acts 13:42, and is so rendered in Acts 13:43 in R.V.