And may I suggest that if one selects option #5 on your list of definitions rather than the one with the verses behind it written by a Calvinist then your whol argument falls apart. Are you taking classes from ET in using a lexicon?
You stole my followup post before she had a chance to feed me the straight line Bass.
How do we KNOW 8b was invented by a Calvinist? (after all, Strong's does claim that it is what is intended here)
Pretty simple. Could the Greek word have possibly had this meaning prior to Christ? Of course not, since there was no "collection of believers". There can obviously be no prior Greek writings with this usage.
So it is either a new usage created by the formation of Christianity (as with agape' love) or it is interpreted in to fit a particular theology (and is thus entirely circular - we know the verse means "this" because the word means "8b" and we know that because the verse means "this").
So that usage can only be of even minor validity if Mom can show some other 1st,2nd,3rd century Greek usage of the word to clearly refer to the elect. I'm not aware of any such writings, and all of the Scripture on point (mostly John, but a couple Corinthians verses) begs the issue - you have to assume Calvinism prior to reading the verse.