God’s Economy: recovered by Witness Lee, enjoyed by local churches

The Definition of Economy

Dictionary Definitions

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Third Edition. 1996.

ECONOMY [Middle English yconomye, management of a household, from Latin oeconomia, from Greek oikonomia, from oikonomos, one who manages a household: oikos, house; see weik-1 in Indo-European Roots + nemein, to allot, manage; see nem- in Indo-European Roots.]

Theology. The method of God’s government of and activity within the world.

Word History: Managing an economy has at least an etymological justification. The word economy can probably be traced back to the Greek word oikonomos, “one who manages a household,” derived from oikos, “house,” and nemein, “to manage.” From oikonomos was derived oikonomia, which had not only the sense “management of a household or family” but also senses such as “thrift,” “direction,” “administration,” “arrangement,” and “public revenue of a state.” The first recorded sense of our word economy, found in a work possibly composed in 1440, is “the management of economic affairs,” in this case, of a monastery. Economy is later recorded in other senses shared by oikonomia in Greek, including “thrift” and “administration.” What is probably our most frequently used current sense, “the economic system of a country or an area,” seems not to have developed until the 19th or 20th century.

(emphases added)

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