Acts 5:5

Acts 5:5. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost. In considering the questions which cluster round this terrible death scene, we must put aside all such interpretations which ascribe ‘the death' to what is termed natural causes. It was no stroke of apoplexy, the result of sudden terror and amazement. It was occasioned by no shock to the nervous system; for even if the supposition could be entertained in the case of Ananias, it would at once break down when the circumstances attending the death of Sapphira were examined into. In both instances the end must be regarded as a direct Divine interposition, by which a speedy and terrible punishment was inflicted; and the same God who revealed to Peter the secret sin, enabling him to read the hearts of the two unhappy ones, now directed him to pronounce words which, in the case of Ananias, were immediately followed by death which, in the case of Sapphira, were an awful prediction derived from the inspiration of the Spirit, that, as she too had committed a like deadly sin and persevered in it, her own death was at hand.

Much bitter criticism has been wasted on this gloomy incident from the days of Porphyry, sixteen centuries ago, to our time; the judgment pronounced and executed upon the unhappy pair has been condemned, now as a needless cruelty on the part of Peter, now as an inexplicable act of Divine revenge: the obligation to defend it has been stigmatized as one of the saddest duties of an apologist (comp. De Wette, Erklarung der Apostelgeschichte, pp. 69-71, 4th ed.; S. Jerome, Reply to Porphyry, epist. 97). Wordsworth observes how, on the ‘first promulgation of God's laws, any breach of them has been generally punished in a signal and awful manner, for the sake of example and prevention of sin, and for punishment of sin. So it was now in the case of Ananias on the first effusion of the Holy Spirit, and at the first preaching of the gospel. So it was in the case of Uzzah touching the ark when about to be placed on Mount Zion (2 Samuel 4:6-12). So it was in the case of the man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath day, at the first publication of the Decalogue' (Numbers 15:32-36).

Had not Ananias and Sapphira ‘been cut off from the congregation,' had their gifts been accepted, and they as saints been admitted with respect and admiration into the congregation, a new spirit would have crept into the little Church. As the real history of the transaction began to be whispered abroad, a new-born distrust in the Holy Ghost, who had allowed the apostles to be so deceived, would have sprung up. The advantage of serving two masters the world and Christ would have dawned on the mind of many a believer as a possibility. The first fervour of the new-born faith would have become dulled, and that mighty strength in weakness we wonder at and admire with such ungrudging admiration in the Church of the first days would rapidly have become enervated, would in the end have withered away; and the little community itself might well have faded and perished, and made no sign, had not the glorious Arm been stretched out in mercy to the righteous and the guilty.

Now, did the punishment end here? Swept out of life, leaving behind them a name of shame, was this the close? Could the All-merciful take them to His home? or, fearful thought, was the death for eternity as well as for time? Such a question, perhaps, anywhere but in this solitary instance, when death was in a peculiar manner the judgment of the Almighty, would be presumptuous and worse than useless. Theologians have given varied opinions here. One, perhaps the greatest who ever lived, replies to the question, it seems, with words of great truth and beauty, arguing against the charge of extreme severity so often urged against the Almighty Head of that little Church. Augustine quotes St. Paul's words concerning offenders in the Corinthian Church, many of whom he said were weak and sickly, and many sleep, that is, die, thus chastened by the scourge of the Lord, that they may escape being condemned with the world. And something of this kind happened, said Augustine, to this man and his wife: they were chastened with death that they might not be punished eternally. We must believe after this life God will have spared them , for great is His mercy. One well worthy of being heard has echoed Augustine's words in our own day: ‘Will these two be shut out of heaven? We may hope even these may come in, though perhaps with bowed heads.'

Ana great fear came on all them that heard these things. The ‘great fear' refers only to the ‘first death,' that of Ananias. It does not relate, as De Wette and Alford urge, to that general feeling of awe which came not only over the Church, but affected also many who were outside its pale. This statement simply speaks of the solemn feeling excited in the assembly of the faithful, where we know the judgment of God fell upon Ananias.