Acts 4:24

ὁμοθυμαδὸν, see above on Acts 1:14. The word must not be pressed to mean that they all simultaneously gave utterance to the same words, or that they were able to do so, because they were repeating a familiar Hymn; it may mean that the Hymn was uttered by one of the leaders, by St. Peter, or St. James (Zöckler), and answered by the responsive Amen of the rest, or that the words were caught up by the multitude of believers as they were uttered by an inspired Apostle (so Felten, Rendall). ἦραν φωνήν : the same phrase is used in Luke 17:13, so in Acts 2:14; Acts 14:11; Acts 22:22, ἐπαίρειν, and also in Luke 11:27. Both phrases are peculiar to St. Luke, but both are found in the LXX, and both are classical (Friedrich, Das Lucasevangelium, p. 29, and Plummer on Luke 11:27). Δέσποτα κ. τ. λ.: the words form the earliest known Psalm of Thanksgiving in the Christian Church. In its tenor the Hymn may be compared with Hezekiah's Prayer against the threats of Assyria, Isaiah 37:16; Isaiah 37:20. It begins like many of the Psalms (18, 19, 53) with praising God as the Creator, a thought which finds fitting expression here as marking the utter impotence of worldly power to withstand Him. The word Δέσποτα, thus used in the vocative in addressing God here and in Luke 2:29 only (found nowhere else in Gospels, although several times in the Epistles), expresses the absolute control of a Master over a slave, cf. also Luke 2:29, where τὸν δοῦλόν σου answers to it, as here τοῖς δούλοις in Acts 4:29. It also expresses here as often in the LXX the sovereignty of God over creation, cf. Job 5:8, Wis 6:7, Jdt 9:12. So Jos., Ant., iv., 3, 2, puts it into the mouth of Moses. It is very rarely used in the N.T. as a name of God or of Christ, but cf. Revelation 6:10 of God, and 2 Peter 2:1 of Christ (where the metaphor of the master and slave is retained), and see Jude 1:4, R.V. (although the name may refer to God); and so in writings ascribed to men who may well have been present, and have taken part in the Hymn. The word is also used of the gods in classical Greek; but the Maker of heaven and earth was no “despot,” although His rule was absolute, for His power was never dissociated from wisdom and love, cf. Wis 11:26, Δέσποτα φιλόψυχε. On the use of the word in Didache 1, x., 3, in prayer to God, see Biggs' note.