An Internal Conflict
By: Underground Network
Tags: Christianity, Bible

Acts 5:1–16

Overview

“The story of Ananias is singular in many regards. It reflects the first example in Luke-Acts of what has been called a punitive rule or miracle. As such, it has caused no little controversy and has been seen as contrary to the spirit of Jesus, who when he did miracles performed acts of compassion. This of course overlooks the withering of the fig tree story in Mark 11, which Luke does not record. It also ignores not only the considerable number of examples of oracles or judgment of woe sayings found on Jesus’ lips in the Synoptic tradition, not to mention examples of this sort of story found in both the Old Testament and pagan literature. It seems probably that the story of Achan in Joshua 7 has in some regards shaped how Luke tells this story. There is, however, the issue is the violation of the harem or ban by taking gold and other assets which did not belong to Achan, and the punishment is stoning by the community. Perhaps even more of an influence is the telling of what happened to those who misguidedly offered unholy fire before God in Leviticus 10:1–5 and who “died before the Lord” and were carried out in the clothes they had on, not being allowed any of the usual customs of respect performed for the deceased and Jewish culture. Luke’s view is that the God of the Hebrew Scriptures is the same God Jesus and the disciples served, and so one should expect continuity of character and action.” (Witherington & Johnson)

Background

Burial — Immediate burial was common in Palestine at this time, as the burial of Jesus illustrates. Evidently some of the younger and stronger believers disposed of Ananias’ corpse by preparing it for burial. Many people were buried in caves or holes in the ground that had been previously prepared for this purpose, as we see in the burials of Lazarus and Jesus. (Constable)

Church — Here is the first use of the word “church” in Acts. The Western (Beza) text used it in 2:47, but it is probably incorrect there. The Greek word, ekklesia, means “called out assembly.” This was a common word that writers often used to describe assemblies of people that congregated for political and various other types of meetings. The word “church,” like the word “baptism,” can refer to more than one thing. Sometimes it refers to the body of Christ as it has existed throughout history, the universal church. Sometimes it refers to Christians living in various places during one particular period of time (e.g., the early church). Sometimes it refers to a group of Christians who live in one area at a particular time, a local church. Here it seems to refer to the local church in Jerusalem. (Constable)

Property — Ancient groups that required members to turn over their possessions usually had a waiting period during which one could take one’s property and leave. The early Christians act not from a rule but from love, but this passage illustrates that they take the act of turning everything over to the community more seriously than others did. The Dead Sea Scrolls excluded such an offender from the communal meal for a year and reduced food rations by 1/4; here God executes a death sentence. Both 2 Kings 5:20–27 and a Greek inscription from Epidauros show that most ancient people knew the danger of lying to God or to one of his representatives.

News of the apostles’ powers was spreading beyond Jerusalem. People from outlying areas were bringing their sick friends to them, just as people had brought sick friends to Jesus from miles around (cf. Luke 5:15). Luke probably meant that all whom the apostles sought to heal experienced restoration, not that they healed every single individual who was sick (cf. Matt. 8:16). Even Jesus’ healings were limited in their scope (cf. Luke 5:17). This verse is one of the texts that advocates of the “prosperity gospel” appeal to as proof that it is never God’s will for anyone to be sick. Other texts they use include Exodus 15:26; 23:25; Psalm 103:3; Proverbs 4:20–22; Isaiah 33:24; Jeremiah 30:17; Matthew 4:23; 10:1; Mark 16:16- 18; Luke 6:17–19; and Acts 10:38.

People

Ananias & Sapphira — Ananias’ Jewish name, Hananiah, means “Yahweh is gracious,” and Sapphira’s Aramaic name, Sappira, means “beautiful.” Their names proved as ironic as their behavior was hypocritical. (Constable)

Key Ideas

Kept back — ἐνοσφίσατο (nosphizo) is a term that also appears at the beginning of the record of Achan’s sin in the Septuagint of the Old Testament (Josh. 7:1, translated “took”). Ananias presented their gift to the apostles exactly as Barnabas had done (4:37). (Constable)

Quotes

“Peter was severe, and the fate of the two delinquents shocking, but the strictures of Christ on hypocrisy must be borne in mind (Mt. xxiii)…. The old ‘leaven of the Pharisees’ was at work, and for the first time in the community of the saints two persons set out deliberately to deceive their leaders and their friends, to build a reputation for sanctity and sacrifice to which they had no right, and to menace, in so doing, all love, all trust, all sincerity. And not only was the sin against human brotherhood, but against the Spirit of God, so recently and powerfully manifest in the Church.” — Blaiklock

“So familiar are we with ‘spots and wrinkles’ in the church that we can with difficulty realize the significance of this, the first sin in and against the community. It corresponds to the entrance of the serpent into Eden with the fall of Eve in the Old Testament; and the first fall from the ideal must have staggered the apostles and the multitude. . . . The sin really was not the particular deceit, but the state of heart [cf. v. 3] — hypocrisy and unreality.” — Rackham

The sad story of Ananias and Sapphira is not some obscure incident from the Old Testament regarding a violation of the Mosaic Law. This occurred in the first-century church to professing believers in Jesus Christ. They sat under powerful preaching and teaching by those who had been with Jesus for three years and who were filled with the Spirit. But they proved to be tares among the wheat, and their story is a reminder to us today that God looks at our hearts, not our outward professions (1 Samuel 16:7), that He hates sin and will punish it, and that He is concerned for the purity of His church (1 Corinthians 11; 1 John 5). — gotquestions.org

Possible Discussion Points