And believers were the more added to the Lord
That is, to the church, as in ( Acts 2:47 ) over which
Christ was Lord and head; for they were added to the Lord before,
by believing in him, when they gave up themselves to him, to be
saved by him; and now to the apostles, and the church by the will
of God; and this case of Ananias and Sapphira was so far from
hindering persons from coming into the church, that there were
greater additions made to it than before, even of such as were
true believers in Christ. The Ethiopic version reads, "and many
were added who believed in our Lord"; the Arabic version, "they
that believed in the Lord increased"; the Syriac version, "and
they more increased who believed in the Lord"; and so the Vulgate
Latin version, "but the multitude of them that believe in the
Lord were the more increased"; all of them reading the phrase,
"the Lord", not in construction with the word "added", but with
"believers: multitudes both of men and women"; the weaker sex
were not intimidated any more than the men, such power went along
with the word, and such grace was bestowed upon them. This church
must now be prodigiously numerous, for before these additions,
eight thousand had been added to the hundred and twenty; such
success the Gospel had, and such progress it made in the hands of
such mean and contemptible persons, notwithstanding the
opposition of the chief men of the nation to it.