Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 4:32

"And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul: and not one [of them] said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common." — Acts 4:32 (ASV)

And the multitude of them that believed.—Literally, And the heart and the soul of the multitude of those that believed were one. Of the two words used to describe the unity of the Church, “heart” represented, as in Hebrew usage, rather the intellectual side of character (Mark 2:6, Mark 2:8, Mark 11:23, Luke 2:35, Luke 3:15, Luke 6:45, and others), and “soul,” the emotional side (Luke 2:35, Luke 12:22, John 12:27, and others). As with most similar words, however, they often overlap, and are used together to express the totality of character without detailed analysis.

The description stands parallel with that of Acts 2:42-47, as though the historian delighted to dwell on the continuance, as long as it lasted, of that ideal of a common life of equality and fraternity after which philosophers had yearned, in which the rights of property, though not abolished, were, by the spontaneous action of its owners, made subservient to the law of love, and benevolence was free and full, without the “nicely calculated less or more” of a later and less happy time. The very form of expression implies that the community of goods was not compulsory. The goods still belonged to individuals, but they did not speak of them as their own. They had learned, as from our Lord’s teaching (Luke 16:10–14), to think of themselves, not as possessors, but as stewards.