Acts 1:14 · World English Bible
Acts 1:14 Meaning All These with One Accord Continued Steadfastly
All these with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer and supplication, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
What does Acts 1:14 mean?
Unbelief had kept Jesus' brothers away while he lived, and prayer is where that ends. Mary's last appearance in Scripture leaves her among the praying, one voice in the room.
From the Protestant reading below.
Acts 1:14 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Protestant
PROTESTANT
Protestant
Unbelief had kept Jesus' brothers away while he lived, and prayer is where that ends. Mary's last appearance in Scripture leaves her among the praying, one voice in the room.
"Continued" translates a word for gripping something and refusing to let go, staying long past the point where interest runs out. "One accord" carries shared passion, not only agreement on paper. The women are counted into the praying body, in a world that counted a gathering by its men. Supplication is begging out of need. What they beg for none of them can produce.
Protestant lensGo deeper in the app
Protestant lens
Live Acts 1:14 today
- Go back to the one thing you keep asking for, the one you have stopped mentioning because it has been so long. Ask again today, plainly, without dressing it up.
- Reach out to the person in your family you stopped expecting anything from. Rooms change when the ones who stayed away sit down.
- In a group where some voices do not get counted, ask the quietest person what they think, and wait for the answer. Who is in the room is part of what the room is.
What have I stopped asking for, and is it really because I no longer need it?
The same truth in other traditions
Zen
The practice is to stay on the cushion after the interest has gone, because the hour past boredom is where the work happens. Leaving when it stops feeling worthwhile is leaving too early.
Sufism · Rumi
Rumi wrote that the longing itself is the answer arriving, and that the cry of need is the thread back. The begging is not a failure of faith, it is the shape of it.
Judaism · Talmud
The sages said that even with a sharp sword resting on his neck a man should not hold back from prayer. Need is never the reason to stop asking.
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