Describing the life of the first Christian community, the sacred writer draws attention to those manifestations of the power of the Kingdom that should have been obvious to everyone. Healings, conversions, the freeing of the possessed from the power of dark forces - all this was well known and described in...
Describing the life of the first Christian community, the sacred writer draws attention to those manifestations of the power of the Kingdom that should have been obvious to everyone. Healings, conversions, the freeing of the possessed from the power of dark forces - all this was well known and described in the Gospels, and in the earliest Christian times, when the Gospels had not yet been written, accounts of these events were passed from mouth to mouth. And now, before the eyes of many, something similar was taking place. The history of the Kingdom in the world continued.
There was something more as well: to leave prison through a locked door was something altogether incredible... but the risen Jesus also passed through locked doors, and they were no obstacle to Him. In the untransformed world such a thing is impossible; in the Kingdom it is entirely possible. The author of the book describes what is happening precisely as something happening in the Kingdom. What is taking place is not the spread of a new religion through Jerusalem and Judea, but the spread of the Kingdom there. It is a spread to which, naturally, each person responds in his own way. The religious authorities are also forced to respond somehow: everything that is happening is becoming too visible.
Visible, and frightening. Frightening because it is uncontrollable and unpredictable. Frightening in the way anything is frightening to any authority simply because it is authority. The religious authorities of Judea were no exception: power is always power first of all, and whether it is secular or religious is a secondary question. What frightens the temple leadership and the whole Sanhedrin most of all is the spread of a new name by which one can be saved. This is understandable: a new sacred name means a new path to God.
What is this new path? Who can make use of it, and how? What does all this mean for the former paths? The apostles and all the members of the new movement are obvious and explicit messianists; they speak constantly about the Messiah, whose name for them is equivalent to the name of God. They speak about the Kingdom. What is this Kingdom? Is there a place in it for the Temple? For the old priesthood? Or will everything in this new Kingdom be new: the Temple, the priesthood, and worship? And what about earthly authority?
All these questions gave no peace to the temple leadership and the spiritual leaders of the traditional Synagogue. If the spiritual leaders of the new movement had first coordinated their activity with the Sanhedrin, or at least notified it, everything would have been different. But they did nothing of the kind. Meanwhile, the Temple and the Sanhedrin watched the new messianists tensely. Who were they: allies or competitors? And the further things went, the more obvious it became both to the Temple and to the traditional Synagogue that these new messianists would not become their allies.
5
5:1 But a certain man named Ananias - It is certain, not a believer, for all that believed were of one heart and of one soul: probably not baptized; but intending now to offer himself for baptism.
5:2 And bringing a certain part - As if it had been the whole: perhaps saying it was so.
5:3 To lie to the Holy Ghost - Who is in us. And to keep back - Here was the first instance of it. This was the first attempt to bring propriety of goods into the Christian Church.
5:4 While it remained, did it not remain thine? - It is true, whosoever among the Christians (not one excepted) had houses or lands, sold them, and laid the price at the feet of the apostles. But it was in his own choice to be a Christian or not: and consequently either to sell his land, or keep it.And when it was sold, was it not in thy power? - For it does not appear that he professed himself a Christian when he sold it.Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart? - So profanely to dissemble on so solemn an occasion? Thou hast not lied to men only, but to God also. Hence the Godhead of the Holy Ghost evidently appears: since lying to him, Act 5:3, is lying to God.
5:5 And Ananias fell down and expired - And this severity was not only just, considering that complication of vain glory, covetousness, fraud, and impiety, which this action contained: but it was also wise and gracious, as it would effectually deter any others from following his example. It was likewise a convincing proof of the upright conduct of the apostles, in managing the sums with which they were intrusted; and in general of their Divine mission. For none can imagine that Peter would have had the assurance to pronounce, and much less the power to execute such a sentence, if he had been guilty himself of a fraud of the same kind; or had been belying the Holy Ghost in the whole of his pretensions to be under his immediate direction.
5:7 About the space of three hours - How precious a space! The woman had a longer time for repentance.
5:8 If ye sold the land for so much - Naming the sum.
5:10 The Church - This is the first time it is mentioned: and here is a native specimen of a New Testament Church; which is a company of men, called by the Gospel, grafted into Christ by baptism, animated by love, united by all kind of fellowship, and disciplined by the death of Ananias and Sapphira.
5:12 And they were all - All the believers.
5:13 None of the rest - No formalists or hypocrites, durst join themselves - In an outward show only, like Ananias and Sapphira.
5:14 But so much the more were true believers added, because unbelievers kept at a distance.