Constitutional Lexicon – Church of Christ

Constitutional Lexicon — Church of Christ 1829–1834

By David R. Hall

A controlled glossary for the key documents — the LAW, the PLAT, the back-of-plat names, Section 94, Section 95, and the FG Williams HOUSE. The documents are written in 16th-century William Tyndale Bible English, when church and state were one, so each term carried merged civil, economic, legal, and religious force. The method is to recover each term in its own linguistic world first, then translate it into modern constitutional and business language without losing the documentary anchor.

The Eight Bureaus at a Glance

An index derived from the glossary below, ordering the eight bureaus by number with their three agencies and governing (priesthood-office) term.

Bureau	Name	Agencies	Governing term (priesthood office)
I	Village	1 Consumables · 2 Facilities · 3 Equipment	Elder
II	District	4 Health · 5 Sufficiency · 6 Recreation	High Priest (Holy Order of God)
III	Storehouse	7 Clearing · 8 Property · 9 Capital	Bishop
IV	Platforms	10 Communications · 11 Systems · 12 Media	High & Most Holy Priesthood (Order of Melchizedek)
V	Regulatory	13 Innovation · 14 Legal · 15 Audit	Deacon
VI	Data	16 Accounting · 17 Publishing · 18 Metrics	Teacher
VII	Origination	19 Schema · 20 Markets · 21 Underwriting	High Priesthood after the Order of Aaron — Messenger / Law
VIII	Infrastructure	22 Materials · 23 Utilities · 24 Transportation	High Priesthood after the Order of Aaron — Standard

A. Priesthood / Governing Offices → Bureaus

Term (as written)	16th-century / Tyndale-Bible sense	Modern NewVistas term & function
Bishop	One who held title to property and leased it to others; in 16th-c. England bishops commonly held and managed estates. Carried merged civil, economic, legal, and religious force in a single word. Confirmed by the back-of-plat name “The Sacred Apostolical Repository for the use of the Bishops” (plural).	Bureau III — Storehouse: the three title-and-finance repositories. Agencies 7 (Clearing), 8 (Property), 9 (Capital). The community takes title and holds it in trust; the bishop function = intake of title and routing of conveyance. “Me” in the LAW = the Bishop as trustee for the community.
Elder	A presiding officer of the congregation; the senior governing figure of a local body. In the merged church-state world, a civil-economic overseer as much as a religious one.	Bureau I — Village. Agencies 1 (Consumables), 2 (Facilities), 3 (Equipment). The “two elders” of the LAW = (1) the participant’s local captain of 10 / branch president at entry, and (2) the village president who governs lease access to assets.
High Priest (Holy Order of God)	A senior officer above the elder; one charged with foresight, counsel, and oversight of the people — the seer/patriarch/counselor office.	Bureau II — District. Agencies 4 (Health), 5 (Sufficiency), 6 (Recreation). Agency 5 is the modern high-priestly office: evidence-based seership — the anticipatory-visibility rail (Life Plans, sufficiency, the probable-future file).
High & Most Holy Priesthood (Order of Melchizedek)	The highest order, “after the order of the Son of God”; the governing presidency office of the city center.	Bureau IV — Platforms. Agencies 10 (Communications), 11 (Systems), 12 (Media). The digital-and-communications presidency rails of the whole community.
High Priesthood after the Order of Aaron — “the Law of the Kingdom of Heaven, Messenger to the People”	The Aaronic governing order tied to law and to carrying the message/standard outward to the people.	Bureau VII — Origination. Agencies 19 (Schema), 20 (Markets), 21 (Underwriting). The plan-origination and viability rails that bring new stewardships lawfully into being.
High Priesthood after the Order of Aaron — “a Standard for the People”	The Aaronic order set as a fixed standard/benchmark for the people to measure against.	Bureau VIII — Infrastructure. Agencies 22 (Materials), 23 (Utilities), 24 (Transportation). The upstream provision bureau supplying the material prerequisites of stewardship.
Teacher	A subordinate ministering office charged with instruction and watchcare; “Messenger to the church” — carrier of information inward to the body.	Bureau VI — Data. Agencies 16 (Accounting), 17 (Publishing), 18 (Metrics). The community’s truth-and-measurement rails: ledger, publication, and metrics.
Deacon	The keeper/server office — “helps in government,” rendered in modern English as “assistants in governance.” In the merged world, the one who keeps and enforces the regulations.	Bureau V — Regulatory. Agencies 13 (Innovation), 14 (Legal), 15 (Audit). The rule-keeping bureau: licensing/IP process, contract & compliance frameworks, and trigger-bounded audit.

B. Measurement Terms

Term (as written)	16th-century / Tyndale-Bible sense	Modern NewVistas term & function
Mile	An obsolete “mile” of 1.2 statute miles, matching Saxton’s 1579 “Scala Miliarium” — not the 5,280-ft statute mile assumed for 1830s Kirtland.	6,336 feet = 384 rods per side. The plat is therefore 1.44 square statute miles — the fixed size of one replicable community unit.
Rod	A statutory measure of 16.5 feet (5½ yards); a perch or pole. Used only once in the plat (at the outset).	16.5 ft. Base survey unit; 384 rods = one plat side.
Perch	A measure of land equal to 16.5 feet, favored in the early-modern period; the dominant unit of the plat (used six times), evidence of archaic language since 1830s practice favored “rod.”	16.5 ft (identical to rod). The plat’s governing unit: 40-perch blocks, 8-perch streets.
Pole	Synonym for rod/perch; “the old English liberal measure of sixteen foot and a half to the pole” (Stubbes, 1579).	16.5 ft. Interchangeable with rod and perch.

C. Structural & Spatial Terms

Term (as written)	16th-century / Tyndale-Bible sense	Modern NewVistas term & function
Plat / Plot	A piece of ground marked off; a ground-plan or map. “Plat” is the older sense (from 16th c.); both forms denote a surveyed layout, not a narrative.	The master community land plan — the one-mile-square unit that fixes all internal ratios; the canonical replicable city.
House (“House of the Lord”)	A large institutional/multi-resident building, not a modern single-family home. One-house-per-lot + the population arithmetic forces “house” = a many-resident structure.	A multi-family residential building (and, for the 24 painted squares, a public governing building of 80 offices each).
Temple	A public building on the painted/colored central squares; one of the 24 governing “houses of the Lord.”	An agency building — one of 24 public governing buildings (8 bureaus × 3 agencies), all of equal size and 80-office capacity.
Court	A governing body or chamber — a governing term, not an ornamental label. In early-modern usage, where authority sits and acts.	A governance court — a formal governing chamber that closes at 480 president-seats.
Higher court / Lower court	Position, not rank: one chamber above and one below, both “according to the same pattern.” “Higher” does not mean superior authority.	Two of the four demographic governance courts (partnered male/female, single male/female), all identical in governing capacity.
Storehouse	The repository where contributed property and residue are held; “my store house.” (Two-word “store house” was a mid-16th-c. form.)	The Storehouse complex (Bureau III, Agencies 7–9): the unified title-and-finance repository where all asset title is kept and from which leases and credit flow.

D. Economic & Procedural Terms

Term (as written)	16th-century / Tyndale-Bible sense	Modern NewVistas term & function
Covenant	A binding, solemn agreement — in the merged world, a legally and religiously enforceable bond.	An agreement to community bylaws (retained as “covenant” only when the LAW itself is quoted directly).
Deed	A formal instrument of conveyance transferring title in property.	Title transfer / conveyance instrument by which property moves to the community repository — “which cannot be broken.”
Steward	One placed in charge of another’s property to manage it productively on the owner’s behalf.	A productive participant who operates a viable stewardship business (100%-owned by the steward) under community governance, with custody-by-lease over community-titled assets.
Stewardship	The office/charge of a steward; the arrangement of managing entrusted property.	The productive business arrangement through which a steward becomes sufficient and generates residue.
Residue	That which remains; the remainder/surplus left over.	The productive surplus generated after a stewardship becomes sufficient — which must be “kept,” not consumed.
Kept	Held, preserved, guarded — not spent or consumed.	Preserved as continuing future stewardship capacity; residue is retained as growing community capital, not redistributed or spent on overhead.
Administer (to)	To minister to, serve, or dispense to those in need.	Productive action by stewards that creates, restores, or preserves stewardships for the have-not, poor, and needy — while residue stays kept.
Sufficient	Enough for support — “sufficient for himself and family.”	Participant-proposed plan salary/draw inside the Life & Business Stewardship Plan, recognized only after validation (Agencies 19–21); governed by Agency 5.
Council	A deliberative governing assembly.	A formal governing body generated from presidency seats within and across the four courts.
Ensign / Standard / Messenger	Role descriptors: an ensign (rallying banner) to the nations; a standard (fixed benchmark) for the people; a messenger (carrier of word) to church or people.	Mission-stream descriptors distinguishing each bureau’s outward/inward function (e.g., Village as “ensign,” Infrastructure as “standard,” Data/Origination as “messenger”).

Translation Discipline

Carried into future papers. Quote the original term exactly where it governs the argument; then state its operative meaning in modern bureau/agency and business language.
The eight back-of-plat long names define the eight bureaus; the priesthood-office words name their governing character; the measurement and structural words fix the geometry; and the economic words — covenant, deed, steward, residue, kept, administer, sufficient — drive the LAW’s title–custody–lease sequence.

This paper is hosted here as supplementary context rather than as part of the site's 1829–1834 chronology proper.