Footnote

c At times the local groups were referred to as “churches,” in harmony with the language used in the King James Version. They were also called ecclesias, in accord with the term used in the Greek Bible text. The expression “classes” was likewise employed, for they were in reality bodies of students meeting regularly to study. Later, when they were called companies, this was a reflection of their awareness that they were in a spiritual warfare. (See Psalm 68:11, KJ, margin.) After publication of the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures in 1950, the modern-language Bible term “congregation” came into regular use in most lands.