Acts 2:42: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

 

The Greek word Koinonia has captured the imagination of Western Christians for many years now.  The word is rendered as fellowship and it is such a cool sounding word in the Greek with an equally significant meaning that churches, church fellowships, youth groups, Sunday school classes, music groups and Christian organizations have adopted this as their name.

 

If you are looking for a different sounding name for  you church or Christian organization, one that has not yet been used, might I suggest this word for the name of  you Christian fellowship, it is Shauteph  (shaw-teph).  I know it doesn’t have the same ring as Koinonia but it does mean the same thing and much more. Shauteph is the word for fellowship in the Aramaic which was the language of the Jewish people during the first century church and very likely the word that the early Christians used to describe their fellowship.  When Jewish Christians got together they did not have Koinonia but Shauteph.

 

Koinonia means communion, joint participation; the share which one has in anything, participation, a gift jointly contributed, a collection, a contribution, etc. It identifies the idealized state of fellowship and unity that should exist within the Christian church, the Body of Christ.

 

So what more can you say about this type of fellowship that is enjoyed by believers?   Well, the Aramaic word Shauteph means just that and more or at least it draws a picture which gives a deeper understanding of Koinonia.

 

The word Shauteph is not found in the Old Testament and is only used in the New Testament in the Aramaic Bible the Peshitta. I had to turn to extra Biblical sources to find the origin of this word and trace it back to its Semitic roots.  Fortunately I live in Chicago which houses the University of Chicago where I could use some of their resources.  They are world renowned for its studies in Semitic languages and culture with the Oriental Institute.  If I could not trace the word Shauteph at the University of Chicago, I would have little hope of tracing it anywhere else.

 

After much research this is what I came up with and I present it to you for your consideration.  I discovered the word is related to a Hebrew word  found in Exodus 8:21 “Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms [of flies] upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms [of flies], and also the ground whereon they [are].”  Note that the word flies is in brackets.  That is because the word for flies is not found in the Hebrew text.  It is simply the word swarm or ‘arav which is also the word for servants. Now keep that word servants in mine because this gets very interesting as I lead you down this bunny trail. The word appears to be of Middle Egyptian origin where it was used for swarming insects.  In ancient times a classic sign of witchcraft was the appearance of swarming insects.  Many insects swarm including gnats, flies, mosquitos and ants.  So we really do not know what type of insect plagued Egypt during Moses’s challenge but I would vote for the ant.  More specifically the Pharaoh ant so called because many scholars believed this was the swarming insect mentioned in Exodus.  Still, I would disagree with that, I would suggest the fire ants.  These would not only swarm but carry a very painful bite. You see in the ant world there are workers, a queen and the reproductive ants.  The reproductive ants have wings.  They are cared for by the worker ants and when they reach maturity they will swarm both male and female to mate.  The male dies after mating as his job is done.  The female, a potential queen, searches for a place to nest and start her own colony.  However, it is a very treacherous journey and few females ever make it to the nesting.  Hence there must be millions of flying ants to insure that survival of the species.

 

So here is the neat thing about all this.  God has given the fire ants or the Pharaoh ants a natural instinct to survive.  When they swarm they fly very closely together.  There is safety in numbers and by swarming they stand a better chance of survival than if they flew alone. They serve each other, remember the Hebrew word means to serve.   The worker ants are even more amazing.  When the Nile river floods, the ants are easily washed away and they perish.  However, what they do is link themselves together, hundreds of thousands of them forming a raft.  Where on their own they would drown by clinging together they are able, by serving each other,  to form a raft and survive.

 

I believe there is evidence to show that this is the origin of the Aramaic word for fellowship Shauteph.  It is a joining and linking together, a united front, by serving each other to survive and fulfill their purpose and mission. Maybe Shauteph doesn’t sound cool like Koinonia, but if you have a Christian organization you are looking for a name give some consideration to the Pharaoh ants.