Acts 5:9

Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. THEN PETER SAID UNTO HER, HOW IS IT THAT YE HAVE AGREED TOGETHER (SEE THE NOTE AT ) TO TEMPT THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD? - of the Lord Jesus, as the usual style of this book would incline us to understand "the Lord" here. They thus virtually agreed to tempt or try the Spirit of the Lord whether they could not escape detection by that Omniscient Spirit, of whose supernatural presence with the apostles they had had such abundant evidence. BEHOLD, THE FEET OF THEM WHICH HAVE BURIED THY HUSBAND ARE AT THE DOOR, AND SHALL CARRY THEE OUT. How awfully graphic is this!...

9._To tempt the Spirit. _He uttereth the same thing in other words which he had said before; to wit, that they did mock God unreverently and contemptibly. But he said that they _tempted _the Spirit, because they had cunningly packed their fraud, as if the Spirit of God were not the knower of the hearts. For it was a point of too great carelessness, seeing the one made the other privy to their wickedness, to make their match between themselves, having, as it were, excluded God. For the Scripture saith, that God is tempted either when his power is taken from him, or the knowledge of all things is denied him. Furthermore, he meaneth that Spirit which governed the Church by the apostles. For when Christ saith, When the Spirit cometh, he shall judge the world, he noteth no other kind of authority than that which he exerciseth by the ministry of the Church....

1-11 The sin of Ananias and Sapphira was, that they were ambitious of being thought eminent disciples, when they were not true disciples. Hypocrites may deny themselves, may forego their worldly advantage in one instance, with a prospect of finding their account in something else. They were covetous of the wealth of the world, and distrustful of God and his providence. They thought they might serve both God and mammon. They thought to deceive the apostles. The Spirit of God in Peter discerned the principle of unbelief reigning in the heart of Ananias. But whatever Satan might suggest, he could not have filled the heart of Ananias with this wickedness had he not been consenting. The falsehood was an attempt to deceive the Spirit of truth, who so manifestly spoke and acted by the apostles. The crime of Ananias was not his retaining part of the price of the land; he might have kept it all,...

Verse Acts 5:9. _TO TEMPT THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD?_] So the _Holy Ghost,_ _God_, and the _Spirit of the Lord_, are the same person....

AGREED TOGETHER - Conspired, or laid a plan. From this it seems that Sapphira was as guilty as her husband, TO TEMPT - To try; to endeavor to impose on, or to deceive; that is, to act as if the Spirit of the Lord could not detect the crime. They did this by trying to see whether the Spirit of God could detect hypocrisy. AT THE DOOR - Are near at hand. They had not yet returned. The dead were buried without the walls of cities; and the space of three hours, it seems, had elapsed before they returned from the burial. SHALL CARRY THEE OUT - This passage shows that it was by divine interposition or judgment that their lives were taken. The judgment was in immediate connection with the crime, and was designed as an expression of the divine displeasure. If it be asked here “why” Ananias

EXPOSITION ACTS 5:1 ANANIAS (Ἀνανίας) In Nehemiah 3:23 the Hebrew name היָנְנַעֲ (God covers or protects) is thus rendered in the LXX. But the name occurs nowhere else. The very common name היָנְנַהֲ_, Hananiah _(God is gracious), is also rendered in the LXX. Ananias (Ἀνανίας), and is doubtless the name meant here and in Acts 9:10; Acts 23:2, etc. SAPPHIRA does not occur elsewhere. It is either derived from the Aramean הרָיפָשַׁ, beautiful, or from the Hebrew ריפִסַ, a sapphire. A POSSESSION (see...

THEN PETER SAID UNTO HER, HOW IS IT THAT YE HAVE AGREED TOGETHER,.... For husband and wife to agree together in what is good, in things civil, honest, and lawful, and in religious matters, is very commendable; but to agree in a fraud, in a lie, is very dreadful: TO TEMPT THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD; to try whether the apostles had the Spirit of the Lord, or not; and whether the Spirit of the Lord that was in them was omniscient and omnipotent, would take any notice of it, and inflict punishment for it: BEHOLD, THE FEET OF THEM WHICH HAVE BURIED THY HUSBAND ARE AT THE DOOR; which Peter knew either by hearing the sound of their feet, as Ahijah the prophet heard the sound of the feet of Jeroboam's wife, as she came in at the door, 1 Kings 14:6 or by the same spirit as Elisha knew that Gehazi ran after Naaman, and received money and garments from him,...

ACTS 5:8-10 Codex Bezae alters ver. Acts 5:8 by replacing avpekri,qh with ei=pen and by rephrasing Peter’s inquiry, evperwth,sw se eiv a;ra to. cwri,on tosou,tou avpe,dosqe (“I will ask you if indeed you sold the land for so much”). In view of the use of the interrogative prefix evrwth,sw u`ma/j in Luke 20:3, C. A. Phillips argued that the reading of codex Bezae in ver. Acts 5:8 preserves a genuine Lukan trait....

CHAPTER 5 _ 1. Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1)._ 2. Signs and wonders by the Apostles (Acts 5:11). 3. The second arrest of the Apostles and their Deliverance (Acts 5:17). 4. Before the Council (Acts 5:26). 5. Gamaliel's Advice (Acts 5:34). 6. The Apostles beaten and dismissed (Acts 5:40). With this chapter the scene changes. Beautiful is the ending of the previous chapter, Barnabas having sold his land, laid the money at the feet of the Apostles. He

ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA. Barnabas-' unworthy counterpart is Ananias, who, in league with his wife, was unwilling to part with all his property, but anxious to appear to have done so. Their crime was that they tried to deceive the Church and God by keeping back part of what was dedicated and belonged to God, and so insulting and wronging the Church. Peter feels the attack as directed against the Spirit, therefore a monstrous one which could only proceed from Satan, the first liar. No compulsion, he says, was applied to anyone to part with his property, nor, when it was sold, with the price of it; this shows the statements of Acts 2:45; Acts 4:32 to be exaggerated; but to pretend to dedicate a property to the community and to keep back part of the price, that was to lie to God who dwelt in the community. The death of Ananias