Acts 5 Footnotes

5:2-5 Ananias and Sapphira’s sin was knowingly withholding part of their land sale proceeds while claiming to give the whole amount to the church. Their lie brought divine punishment, serving as a sober warning to all. Ananias lied “to the Holy Spirit”; the phrasing indicates Peter considered the Spirit to be God and to be obeyed as God. Similar Trinitarian language is found elsewhere in Acts (20:28). F. F. Bruce has compared the hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira with that of Achan in the conquest of Canaan (Jos 7). In both cases God’s people were at a critical point in his mission. In both cases hypocrisy threatened the mission. Both events serve as graphic reminders of how God perceives sin. For those who see the God of the OT as different than that of the NT, the judgment of Ananias and Sapphira shows that “his burning anger” (Jos 7:26) against all that is unholy is an essential and eternal part of God’s nature. It’s not that those who haven’t experienced the judgments of Achan and Ananias are better than they; only God’s grace provides a difference. These events at very different times in biblical history serve as reminders of the reverential awe with which we are to live before God. Such was the effect on the early church (5:11) and those who first read Acts. In 1Co 11:27-32, Paul indicates that God sometimes disciplines believers through their deaths, but that through this they escape being “condemned with the world.” Ananias and Sapphira’s deaths, therefore, can be seen as acts of mercy and church purification.

5:15 Did God heal through talismans? Not exactly. God may heal through various devices: Peter’s shadow, face cloths and aprons that touched Paul (19:12), and the hem of Jesus’s robe (Lk 8:44) were all mediums for healing. However, the healing power was never contained within a device; it came only from God (see Lk 8:44-46).

5:19 The apostles’ angelic release from prison probably involved being transported directly to the temple complex, where they preached again (8:39-40).

5:29 Although Christians should, as best they can, obey civil laws, human laws may conflict with God’s law (e.g., proclaiming the gospel).

5:34 Gamaliel (Gamaliel I) was Paul’s teacher (22:3), a major rabbinic leader, a member of the Sanhedrin, and a grandson of Hillel, one of the major interpreters of the Jewish law during the Roman era.

5:36-37 Many Jewish revolts against Roman rule, some with messianic dimensions, occurred in the first century, but they all failed. Jewish historian Josephus recorded a number of them. In Antiquities 18:1, he mentioned this Judas the Galilean (Judas of Gamala) who rebelled against Quirinius’s census (Lk 2:1).