with one accord: as a group whose members share one purpose and move as a single body
Luke uses this word almost as a signature. Ten of its eleven appearances in the New Testament are in Acts, and every one of them describes a group of people doing one thing as though they were one person. The word was built long ago out of two older pieces meaning "same" and "inner drive," so at full strength it points not merely at bodies in the same room but at wills aimed the same direction.
That one picture covers a surprising range:
- the first believers holding to prayer as one body
- a council that has argued its way to a settled agreement
- two cities sending a joint delegation to a hostile king
- a crowd of listeners hanging on one preacher's words
- a lynch mob rushing a man with their ears stopped
The word passes no verdict on whether the shared impulse is good. It reports only that a group moved as one, which is why Luke can use it of the church at prayer and of the men who dragged Paul before a judge.
That is what separates it from the plain word for being together (ὁμοῦ), which says where people are and not what they share. It stands nearer to being like-minded (ὁμόφρων) and to being one in soul (σύμψυχος), except that those two name an inward disposition while this word names that disposition already in motion.
Scholars differ over how much of the "one mind" force the word still carried by the first century. In a few verses, such as Acts 2:46 and Acts 5:12, it may mean little more than everyone in one place at one time. Elsewhere the surrounding words make the shared mind unmistakable, as when Romans 15:6 pairs it with speaking "with one mouth."