Word Summary
despotēs: lord, master
Original Word: δεσπότηςTransliteration: despotēs
Phonetic Spelling: (des-pot'-ace)
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
Short Definition: lord, master
Meaning: lord, master
Strong's Concordance
Lord, master.
Perhaps from deo and posis (a husband); an absolute ruler ("despot") -- Lord, master.
see GREEK deo
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
STRONGS NT 1203: δεσπότηςδεσπότης,
δεσπότου,
ὁ (from
Pindar down),
a master, lord (as of
δοῦλοι,
οἰκέται):
1 Timothy 6:1,(2);
2 Timothy 2:21;
Titus 2:9;
1 Peter 2:18; God is thus addressed by one who calls himself his
δοῦλος:
Luke 2:29, cf.
Acts 4:24, 29 (
δεσπότης τῶν πάντων,
Job 5:8; Wis. 6:8); Christ is so called, as one who has bought his servants,
2 Peter 2:1; rules over his church,
Jude 1:4 (some take
δεσπότης here as designating God; cf.
R. V. marginal reading); and whose prerogative it is to take vengeance on those who persecute his followers,
Revelation 6:10.
[SYNONYMS: δεσπότης, κύριος: δεσπότης was strictly the correlative of slave, δοῦλος, and hence, denoted absolute ownership and uncontrolled power; κύριος had a wider meaning, applicable to the various ranks and relations of life, and not suggestive either of property or of absolutism. Ammonius under the word δεσπότης says δεδσποτης ὁ τῶν ἀργυρωνητων. κύριος δέ καί πατήρ υἱοῦ καί αὐτός τίς ἑαυτοῦ. So Philo, quis rer. div. heres § 6 ὥστε τόν δεσπότην κύριον εἶναι καί ἔτι ὡσανεί φοβερόν κύριον, οὐ μόνον τό κῦρος καί τό κράτος ἁπάντων ἀνημμενον, ἀλλά καί δέος καί φόβον ἱκανόν ἐμποιησαι. Cf. Trench, § xxviii.; Woolsey, in Bib. Sacr. for 1861, p. 599f; Schmidt, chapter 161, 5.]