Romans 16:5
Romans 16:55Greet also the church that meets at their house. Greet my beloved Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.
Watchtower commentary takes as describing first-century house churches as a transitional arrangement before the development of formal Christian gathering places. The Kingdom Hall pattern is treated as the modern equivalent. The "congregation" terminology is preserved across the NWT to align with JW Kingdom Hall vocabulary rather than the "church" language of consensus translations.
— "the congregation that is in their house" — is the New Testament's normative gathering pattern. Paul greets house churches in Rome, Corinth (1 Cor 16:19), Colossae (Col 4:15), Philemon's house (), and elsewhere. There were no Kingdom Halls, no centralised programs directed by a Governing Body, no mandatory twice-weekly meetings. commands "consider one another so as to incite to love and fine works, not forsaking our meeting together" — the imperative is mutual encouragement, not building attendance. Two Christians in a coffee shop, three at a Bible study, a family praying together — all fulfil the verse. The Watchtower has built a mandatory institutional framework on top of a New Testament that knew only organic household-based gathering.
The NWT renders ekklēsia as "congregation" rather than "church" (consensus ESV/NASB/NIV/KJV). Lexically defensible — ekklēsia means "assembly" — but the NWT's systematic preference reframes the assembly term to fit JW Kingdom Hall vocabulary and avoid "church" connotations. The choice is consistent across the NWT and shapes how readers encounter every Pauline reference to the gathered people of God.