The word ‘utterance’ is found five times in the Authorized Version of the NT: once in Acts (Act_2:4) and four times in the writings of St. Paul (1Co_1:5, 2Co_8:7, Eph_6:19, Col_4:3). In the passage in Acts it does not represent any substantive in the original, the phrase translated ‘as the Spirit gave them utterance’ being literally ‘as the Spirit gave them to speak’ (ἀðïöèÝããåóèáé). Where it occurs in St. Paul’s Epistles it represents the Greek word ëüãïò, and in two passages (1Co_1:5, 2Co_8:7) it is used in conjunction with ‘knowledge’ (ãíῶóéò). In Col_4:3 the phrase of the Authorized Version ‘a door of utterance’ has been changed by the Revisers to ‘a door for the word.’ The meaning to be attached to ëüãïò has, therefore, been changed from the power of expression possessed by the speaker to the Divine message which he is charged to deliver.
The significance of the word in the NT seems to be the power of speech rather than what is actually spoken. This power is a gift of the Holy Spirit, bestowed on certain individuals, with the implication that it has been given for some special purpose. It might therefore be fittingly applied to the prophets (cf. 1 Corinthians 14), though it is not so used in fact.
The Apostolic Fathers do not use ãüëïò in this sense.
R. H. Malden.