Acts 5:11

φόβος μέγας : evidently one purpose in the infliction of this stern penalty was at once obtained, see above on Acts 5:5. ἐφʼ ὅλην τὴν ἐκκλησίαν : St. Luke, as it seems, uses the word ἐκκλησία here for the first time. Dr. Hort thinks that he may employ it by anticipation, and that we cannot be sure that it was actually in use at this early date (Ecclesia, p. 49), but, as the same writer reminds us, our Lord's saying to St. Peter, Matthew 16:18, must have had its influence upon the minds and teaching of the Apostles. Moreover, we can see a special fitness in the employment here, after the preceding description, not only of the growth, but of the organisation of the Christian community, Acts 4:32 ff., and of the judgment which followed upon the attempt to challenge its powers and to violate its harmony, cf. Bengel's note, in loco. The context too probably marks a distinction between the members of the ἐκκλησία and those without (Weiss, Hort, Blass).