Acts 1:14

καὶ ἦσαν προσκαρτεροῦντες : on the construction see Acts 1:10. In N.T. found only in St. Luke and St. Paul (except once in St. Mark 3:9); most frequently with the dative of the thing, of continuing steadfast in prayer; cf. Acts 6:4; Romans 12:12; Colossians 4:2, and cf. also Acts 2:42 or Acts 2:46 of continuing all the time in (ἐν) a place; in Acts 8:13; Acts 10:7, it is used with the dative of the person, and in Romans 13:6 with εἴς τι. It is found in Josephus with the dative of the thing, Ant., v., 2, 6, and in Polybius, who also uses it with the dative of the person. In LXX it is found in Numbers 13:21 and in Susa nnah ver. 6, T heod., also in Tob 5:8,. ὁμοθυμαδὸν, a favourite word of St. Luke: Lucæ in Actis in deliciis est (Blass) used ten or eleven times in Acts, only once elsewhere in N.T., Romans 15:6, where it has the same meaning, Vulgate unanimiter. In the LXX it is oftener found as the equivalent of Hebrew words meaning simply “together,” and Hatch, Essays in B. G., p. 63, would limit it to this meaning in the N.T., but the word cannot be confined to mere outward assembling together; cf. Dem., Phil., iv., 147, ὁμοθυμαδὸν ἐκ μιᾶς γνώμης (Meyer-Wendt); so Luther einmüthig. It was very natural that St. Luke should lay stress upon the absolute unanimity of the early believers, and the word is used with reference to the Twelve, to the hundred-and-twenty, to the whole number of believers; truly the Holy Ghost was “amator concordiæ” (Corn. à Lapide). τῇ προσευχῇ καὶ τῇ δεήσει : the latter noun cannot be supported by MS. authority; the two words mark the difference between general and specific prayer; cf. Bengel on 1 Timothy 2:1, and cf. Luke, Luke 5:33. It is very doubtful whether we can confine προσευχή here to the Temple prayers; rather the article, cf. Acts 6:4 and Acts 2:42, seems to point to a definite custom of common prayer as a bond of Christian fellowship (Hort, Ecclesia, p. 43, so Speaker's Commentary, in loco). As in his Gospel, so here and elsewhere in Acts, St. Luke lays stress upon frequency in prayer, and that too in all parts of the book (Friedrich, pp. 55 60). σὺν γυναιξὶ : it is natural to include the women already mentioned in St. Luke's Gospel, cf., e.g., Luke 8:2-3; Luke 23:55, “with the women,” R.V., or the expression may be quite indefinite as in margin R.V. In this mention of the presence of women, as in the stress laid upon prayer, there is another point of unity between the book and the third Gospel, “The Gospel of Womanhood” (see also Ramsay, Was Christ born at Bethlehem? p. 50). (The mention of women would certainly indicate a private house rather than the Temple.) Erasmus and Calvin both interpret the words cum uxoribus, probably not without desire to make a point against celibacy. J. Lightfoot allows that this meaning may be correct, since the Apostles and disciples who had wives took them with them, “but,” he adds, “it is too strait”. Μαριάμ (for Μαρίᾳ), so always according to W.H [104] of the Blessed Virgin, nominative, vocative, accusative, dative, except twice in a few of the best MSS. (Matthew 1:20, and Luke 2:19). Cf. Appendix, p. 163. See also Simcox, Language of the N. T., p. 28, and Winer-Schmiedel, p. 91, note. The καί may be taken either to comprehend her under the other women, or as distinguishing her from them. This is the last mention of her in the N.T., and the Scripture leaves her “in prayer”. σὺν τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς αὐτοῦ : they are previously mentioned as unbelieving (John 7:5, and compare Mark 6:4), but not only the Resurrection of the Lord but also that of Lazarus may well have overcome their unbelief. St. Chrysostom (so too Œcumenius) conjectures that Joseph was dead, for it is not to be supposed, he says, that when the brethren had become believers Joseph believed not. As the brethren are here distinguished from the Eleven, it would seem that they could not have been included in the latter (see, however, “Brethren,” B.D. 2 pp. 13, 14). But whatever meaning we give to the word “brethren” here or in the Gospels, nothing could be more significant than the fact that they had now left their settled homes in Galilee to take part in the lot of the disciples of Jesus, and to await with them the promise of the Father (Felten). It may have been that, James, “the Lord's brother,” was converted by the Resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:5, and that his example constrained the other “brethren” to follow him.

[104] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.