STRONGS NUMBER G1203


Word Summary
despotēs: lord, master
Original Word: δεσπότης
Transliteration: 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: δεσπότης

δεσπότης, δεσπότου, (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 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.]