[YP0534]

1Cr 14:23 If, therefore, the whole assembly comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

14:23 ἐὰν οὖν συνέλθῃ ἡ ἐκκλησία ὅλη ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ πάντες λαλῶσιν γλώσσαις εἰσέλθωσιν δὲ ἰδιῶται ἢ ἄπιστοι οὐκ ἐροῦσιν ὅτι μαίνεσθε

I've been interested in this verse for a few days now and thought to post it here.

I recently read something that took a strong position that "scattered saints" who met informally everywhere does not satisfy the New Testament definition of "ekklesia" and that, along the lines of Lee's doctrine derived from Matthew 18, the assembly must be a practical reality with a definite and focused embodiment.

The argument essentially went that Paul must have a place to send an epistle, that if you were to visit a city, there must be a way for you to hook up with the assembly, and that since after you discussed your brother's sin with two or three you then brought the problem before the assembly, the two or three were not legitimately to be considered the assembly but something else must be. The author of this piece actually went further and said some things about God's eternal purpose involving a corporate expression. (For clarity, this author is not and to my knowledge has never been associated with LSM or the Local Church.)

In any event, the verse above immediately came to mind. I thought the formulation "whole assembly" also occurred in Ephesians somewhere but I was apparently mistaken. This one is good enough for my purposes at present.

Here is the question I pose:
If the assembly is all the believers in a place, isn't it redundant to use the phrase "whole assembly"? The fact that Paul uses the word "whole" here implies that the assembly is also found where there is less than the "whole" in one place.

(As an aside in passing, I also note that in Jerusalem the assembly met from house to house, making it very difficult for Paul to have the post office deliver his epistle or for traveling saints to show up at the meeting hall.)

Good enough on that point I think for now. There is at least some evidence that something less than the "whole assembly" might be scripturally recognized as being "the assembly," for whatever that's worth.

But my interest has turned now to this interesting phrase "comes together."

G4905 συνέρχομαι synerchomai

Anyone have any thoughts on this term as I begin to dig into it further?