Acts 5:10

παραχρῆμα, see on Acts 3:7. The introduction of the word shows that the writer regarded the death as supernatural, see above on Acts 5:5. πρός, by, beside her husband = παρά with dative, Blass, Grammatik des N. G., p. 135, note; Winer-Moulton, xlix. h. Although the whole narrative shows that in each case the death was caused by the judgment of God, yet nothing whatever is said as to the world beyond the grave: “As it is, both the man himself is benefited, in that he is not left to advance further in wickedness, and the rest, in that they are made more earnest,” Chrys., Hom., xii. Wendt points out that the punishment inflicted by St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 5:5, was of a wholly different kind, because it had the avowed aim of saving the spirit of the sinner in the day of the Lord by delivering him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh; but it should not be forgotten that St. Peter himself speaks of a judgment according to men in the flesh, which has its issue in a life according to God in the spirit (1 Peter 4:6). St. Augustine's words may fairly be quoted not against but in favour of applying to the cases before us the principle of judgment employed by St. Paul: “Credendum est autem quod post hanc vitam eis pepercerit Deus.… Correpti sunt mortis flagello, ne supplicio puniantur æterno,” Serm., de Verbis Act. v., 4, cf. Origen, Tract. viii., in Matth., and Jerome, Epist., 130. See Speaker's Commentary, in loco, and Bengel, Felten, Zöckler, Plumptre. Felten's reverent thoughts, p. 124, may well be compared with the remarks of Dr. Pusey on the case of Ananias, What is of Faith? etc., p. 14.