Luke’s Use of Koinonia

Luke’s Use of Koinonia

Scott Jackson

In Acts 2:42, Luke uses the word koinonia as one of his key terms for describing the vitality of life in the early church. Considering that Luke wrote almost one-third of the New Testament, it is significant that the word koinonia appears only here in his writings. It seems that Luke carefully and strategically chose this word to assist his readers in understanding what had taken place in the Jerusalem church. So, what exactly happened and what did Luke mean by the term?

The immediate context of the early chapters of Acts helps one to answer these questions (Acts 2:42-47). The context reveals that the early believers were participating together in worship activities such as listening to the apostles’ teaching, partaking of the Lord’s Supper, praying regularly, and experiencing praiseful worship. Additionally, they were sharing their possessions with each other, which included selling land and giving the money to the apostles to distribute to those in need, extending hospitality by hosting people in their homes, and sharing food through common meals. These common participation's resulted in the early church experiencing miracles, salvation, and unity. All these events and experiences seem to be illustrating Luke’s koinonia.

Also, koinonia was a familiar word in Greco-Roman society. It was a word often used in religious, familial, and social contexts. It was a word that Greco-Roman writers used to reflect some of their society’s highest ideals of intimacy, sharing, interconnectedness, friendship, and unity. Thus Luke appears to borrow this word from Greco-Roman culture and society in order to explain and illustrate the special relationships that had developed within the early church—relationships that actually achieved the highest ideals of the Greco-Romans.

The word koinonia comes from the Greek root word koinos, which means “common.” Based on this root and that Luke illustrates his koinonuz by describing very specific common participation's modeled by the early church, it seems best to define his koinonia as “participating together in life led by the Spirit” (i.e., sharing in the Spirit’s common life). Based on the testimony of the early church, this life promotes ethnic and social equality. It is a life that is abundant, miraculous, hopeful, and joyful. It is a life among friends in the family of God. It is a life in which people overcome hardships together. It is a life of faith. It is the best life possible. It is life in the Spirit. May God’s church today continue to seek, embrace, and experience this life of koinonia.

Ref; The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook - New Testament