A household is a family and those living under one roof or household authority. In Scripture the household was a basic social and religious unit, and several early Christian congregations grew around believing families.
Definition
A household is a family and the persons living under one roof or household authority. In biblical society, the household was a basic unit of national, social, and religious life, with the oldest living father commonly serving as its head.
Biblical Usage
The Passover lamb was eaten by the household, and households could share in blessing, judgment, or calamity. In the New Testament, a household’s response could affect its members, and believing households became nuclei of early Christian congregations, including those associated with Prisca and Aquila, Stephanas, and Onesiphorus.
Historical Background
The household and the house were practically synonymous in patriarchal society. Biblical examples present the family as a corporate unit rather than merely a collection of individuals, with the head exercising broad authority over the household.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>hous'-hold: Three words are usually found in the Bible where the family is indicated. These three are the Hebrew word bayith and the Greek words oikia and oikos. The unit of the national life of Israel, from the very beginning, was found in the family. In the old patriarchal days each family was complete within itself, the oldest living sire being the unquestioned head of the whole, possessed of almost arbitrary powers. The house and the household are practically synonymous. God had called Abraham "that he might command his children and household after him" (Ge 18:19). The Passover-lamb was to be eaten by the "household" (Ex 12:3). The "households" of the rebels in the camp of Israel shared their doom (Nu 16:31-33; De 11:6). David's household shares his humiliation (2Sa 15:16); the children everywhere in the Old Testament are the bearers of the sins of the fathers. Human life is not a conglomerate of individuals; the family is its center and unit.</p><p>Nor is it different in the New Testament. The curse and the blessing of the apostles are to abide on a house, according to its attitude (Mt 10:13). A divided house falls (Mr 3:25). The household believes with the head thereof (Joh 4:53; Ac 16:15,34). Thus the households became the nuclei for the early life of the church, e.g. the house of Prisca and Aquila at Rome (Ro 16:5), of Stephanas (1Co 16:15), of Onesiphorus (2Ti 1:16), etc. No wonder that the early church made so much of the family life. And in the midst of all our modern, rampant individualism, the family is still the throbbing heart of the church as well as of the nation.</p><p>Henry E. Dosker</p>
