Get Your Pretense On!

138 • Get Your Pretense On!

people in the household where they resided (e.g., Mark 5.19; Luke 19.9). The apostles shared the news of Christ with their brothers and relatives, their friends and associates, in the context of their relationships and life together (John 1.41-45; John 4.53). Cornelius is a prime example of the role of oikos household in evangelism, the subject of extended treatment by Luke in Acts 10-11. In one sense, all of the ancient cultures had terms to describe the concept of family, which, more or less, referred to the same social units. Oikos (Greek) referred to the same unit as bayit (Hebrew) as well as to familia (Latin). Oikos does not refer to our typical Western notion of the family as mother, father, and children (i.e., our nuclear family idea). Rather, oikos took on a broader scope, understanding “family” as all the members of a person’s “household as social unit,” including blood relatives of the head of the house, as well as other dependents (i.e., slaves, employees, and “clients” [freedmen, friends, and others who looked to the head of the household for patronage, benefaction, advancement, or protection]). Correspondingly, the term oikia (plural of oikos ) is also used in the New Testament to signify the property or substance of a particular household (Mark 10.29; Mark 12.40). When I refer to the term oikos in this book I interpret it to mean that entire network of relationships that we have in our immediate and extended families, our friendships, those connected to our web of contacts and associations . I am referring to our oikos closer to the sense it is used in the Scriptures, rather than our typical way of understanding family as our immediate, nuclear family. ( Oikos ) and The Gospel in the NewTestament One of the most exciting ways to understand the power of oikos is to see how the Gospel spread through family, friends, and associates through networks that followed oikos relationships .