The "Assembly of God"

[billd89]

And right on point, see Prof. Dalgaaard's 2013 PhD:

Margaret Barker, The Great Angel: A Study of Israel’s Second God (London: Westminster John Knox, 1992), 88–89; 224, also proposes that the name Melchizedek in 11Q13 refers to Yahweh, yet with the additional unique interpretation that Yahweh does not refer to the Jewish God, but rather to his son and viceroy. In ibid., 39, she states that “The only possible conclusion [to the content of 11Q13] is that Melchizedek, the heavenly high priest, was the LORD, the God of Israel”(author’s emphasis).

Also note her thesis the Great Angel is Yahweh, in Margaret Barker "Temple Imagery In Philo:An Indication Of The Origin Of The Logos?" in W. Horbury, ed, Templum Amicitiae: Essays on the Second Temple Presented to Ernst Bammel(JSOT Press: Sheffield, 1991), p. 72. Link

I suspect that the Great Angel texts all refer to one heavenly being, and this was Yahweh, who had been known as the Holy One of Israel in the ancient cult. In this paper I shall work out the implications of this for our reading of Philo. His Logos was this Great Angel; he allegorized (or perhaps we should say ‘demythologized’) for his Hellenized contemporaries the ancient beliefs about Yahweh and Elyon in the same way as he did the Pentateuch.

I disagree that every possible expression of the "Great Angel" in Jewish writings - of the entire Diaspora?! - must all confirm one single character: Yahweh. In fact, in a number of these texts it's expressly Melchizedek who is named! And such rich examples suggest that Alexandrian-Egyptian Jews - at least, at some point in time, until Epistle to the Hebrews was written - held THAT personage in this role/function.

The simplest explanation is that c. 25 AD a) the Logos trope was contested by some (several?) different Jewish antinomian groups with competing myths (and agendas?) and b) Philo - a propagandist of Alexandrian Jewish authority - sought to influence these dissident synagogues with his definitions. Then, not long after, c) the victors of normative Judaism eradicated the "branded heresy" c.70-150 AD, leading to such confusion among scholars today.

[Kunigunde Kreuzerin]

I'm still trying to figure out what Paul really means when he talks about the "ekklēsia of God" (which is translated "church of God" in most English Bibles, but is better translated as "assembly of God").

Spontaneously I would guess that Paul preferred the term ekklesia because the word root comes from "ek" and "kaleo" ("to call out"). The members of the churches are therefore literally the called out ones or the appointed ones. Paul also regularly uses the verb kaleo ("to call") in a similar sense. This has a beautiful mystical undertone, typical of Paul. Paul also often used the verb "to call" in a comparable sense. There are some verses in which both words are used.