δῆμος, δήμου ὁ, the people, the mass of the people assembled in a public place: Act_12:22; Act_19:33; ἄγειν (R G), εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τόν δῆμον: Act_17:5 (L T Tr WH προάγειν); Act_19:30. (From Homer down.) [SYNONYMS: δῆμος, λαός: in classic Greek δῆμος denotes the people as organized into a body politic; λαός, the unorganized people at large. But in biblical Greek λαός, is used especially of the chosen people of God; δῆμος, on the other hand (found only in Acts) denotes the people of a heathen city. Cf. Trench, § xcviii.; Schmidt, chapter 199.]

δῆμος dēmos 4x the people, Act_12:22 ; Act_17:5 ; Act_19:30 ; Act_19:33

δῆλος , -ου , ὁ , [in LXX chiefly for H4940 ;] 1. a district, country. 2. the common people, the people generally; esp . the people assembled: Act_12:22 ; Act_17:5 ; Act_19:30-31† SYN.: λαός G2992 , the people at large: δ ., the people as a body politic; opp . to δ . is ὄχλος G3793 , the unorganized multitude . ἔθνος G1484 , in sing., means in NT as in Gk . writers generally, a nation , but in p1 . denotes the rest of mankind apart from the Jews: Gentiles. λ . also, rare in cl . ( Att.. . λεώς ), is freq . in LXX and NT, and usually limited to the chosen people, Israel ( cf. Cl. Re v. , i, 42 f .; Cremer , 689).

δῆμος [page 144] E. L. Hicks, in CR i. p. 42, draws the moral of the disuse of δῆμος in days when Greek freedom was extinct : where it does occur in NT ( Act_12:22 ; Act_17:5 ; Act_19:30 ; Act_19:33 ) it suggests merely a rabble. Of course it occurs abundantly in Hellenistic inscrr. which record how the people passed complimentary resolutions or voted statues, by way of insisting that their local assembly was still in being. [For a defence of the interpretation of δῆμος in Acts as a technical term denoting a political body, see Ferguson, Legal Terms common to the Macedonian Inscriptions and the NT , Chicago, p. 38 ff.] But except in the technical sense of commune, parish (still in LXX and MGr), the word was not wanted for practical purposes. Its appearances in the papyri support this account. P Oxy I. 41 bis (iii/iv A.D.) gives the acclamations of ὁ δῆμος at Oxyrhynchus, in honour of their prytanis. Ib. III. 473 .2 (A.D. 138 60) ἔδοξε τοῖς τῆς λαμπροτάτης πόλεως τῶν Ὀξυρυγχ ]ιτῶν ἄρχουσι καὶ τῷ δήμῳ [καὶ Ῥ ]ω̣μαίων καὶ Ἀλεξανδρέων τοῖς παρεπιδημοῦσι to set up a statue of a gymnasiarch whose unstinted provision of unguents, contribution to the fund for theatrical displays, and his restoration of the baths and the greater thermae had earned the popular gratitude : this will serve as a normal specimen of honorific decrees. In P Hib I. 28 .13, .15, .17 ( c. B.C. 265) δῆμος is the twelfth part of a φυλή , and contains twelve φρᾶτραι , so that the (unnamed) Egyptian town contains sixty of these demes or wards. So in P Amh II. 36 .4 ( c. B.C. 135) παρὰ Δ [ρ ]ύτωνος τοῦ Πα [μ ]φίλου Κρητὸς δήμου Φιλωτ [ερ ]είου . These, which are the only occurrences of δῆμος in the whole series of papyri edited by Dr Grenfell or Dr Hunt up to date, will suffice to illustrate its position, unless we add the poetry of P Giss I. 3 .2 in which Phœbus acclaims the accession of Hadrian ἅρματι λευκο̣πώλωι Ἄρει Τραϊαν [ῶι ] συνανατείλας ἥκω σοι , ὦ δῆμ [ε .

δῆμος [Etym: deriv. uncertain] "a country-district, country, land", Hom. "the people of a country, the commons", Lat. plebs, δήμου ἀνήρ, opp. to βασιλεύς, Il. , etc.; of a single person, δῆμος ἐών being "a commoner", Il. :—in historians, "the commons, commonalty", opp. to οἱ εὐδαίμονες, οἱ παχέες, οἱ δυνατοί, Hdt. , Thuc. ; of "soldiers", opp. to officers, Xen. like πλῆθος, "the commons, the democracy", opp. to οἱ ὀλίγοι, Hdt. , Ar. , etc. in Attica, δῆμοι, οἱ, "townships or hundreds", = doric κῶμαι, Lat. pagi, ancient divisions of the county, being (in the time of Hdt. ) 100 in number, 10 in each φυλή.

δῆμος, -ου, ὁ [in LXX chiefly for מִשְׁפָּחָה ;] __1. a district, country. __2. the common people, the people generally; esp. the people assembled: Act.12:22 17:5 19:30 33. † SYN.: λαός, the people at large: δ., the people as a body politic; opposite to δ. is ὄχλος, the unorganized multitude. ἔθνος, in sing., means in NT as in Gk. writers generally, a nation, but in pl. denotes the rest of mankind apart from the Jews: Gentiles. λ. also, rare in cl. (Att... λεώς), is frequently in LXX and NT, and usually limited to the chosen people, Israel (cf. Cl. Rev., i, 42 f.; Cremer, 689). (AS)