How should ‘from house to house’ (Acts 5:42 ESV) be translated?

Textual matters
Written By David Gooding
 

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1994.

You ask about the early believers meeting in the temple and 'from house to house'.

The phrase to which you refer is kat'oikon. I myself would translate it 'at home'; the contrast is between 'in the temple' and 'at home', and it means in their various houses.

The same phrase is used in Romans 16:5: 'the church that is at their house', or 'in their home'; and similarly in 1 Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15 and Philemon 2. In none of these places, however, could the phrase be translated 'from house to house'.

Yours very sincerely,

 
David Gooding
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