Acts 5: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Ananias and Sapphira sell property, secretly keep back part of the money, and each dies after Peter confronts them, and great fear comes over the church and everyone who hears. Crowds come in from the towns around Jerusalem and the apostles heal them, and the number of believers grows. The high priest and the Sadducees jail the apostles, an angel lets them out overnight, and they go straight back to teaching in the temple. Brought before the council again, the apostles say they must obey God rather than men; Gamaliel advises leaving them alone, so the council has them beaten, orders them to stop speaking in Jesus' name, and releases them.

Claim by Claim

1. 5:1
   • A man named Ananias sold a possession.
   • Ananias acted together with his wife Sapphira.
2. 5:2
   • Ananias held back part of the price for himself.
   • His wife knew about the holding back.
   • Ananias brought a certain part of the money.
   • He laid that part at the apostles' feet.
3. 5:3
   • Peter spoke to Ananias.
   • Peter asked why Satan had filled Ananias's heart.
   • Peter said the effect was that Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit.
   • Peter said Ananias kept back part of the price of the land.
4. 5:4
   • Peter asked whether the property was not Ananias's own while it remained unsold.
   • Peter asked whether the money was not in Ananias's own power after the sale.
   • Peter asked why Ananias had conceived this thing in his heart.
   • Peter said Ananias had not lied to men.
   • Peter said Ananias had lied to God.
5. 5:5
   • Ananias heard these words.
   • Ananias fell down.
   • Ananias died.
   • Great fear came on all who heard these things.
6. 5:6
   • The young men arose.
   • They wrapped up Ananias's body.
   • They carried him out.
   • They buried him.
7. 5:7
   • About three hours passed.
   • Ananias's wife came in.
   • She did not know what had happened.
8. 5:8
   • Peter asked her to tell him whether they sold the land for so much.
   • She said yes, for so much.
9. 5:9
   • Peter asked her how it was that they had agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord.
   • Peter said the feet of the men who buried her husband were at the door.
   • Peter said they would carry her out.
10. 5:10
    • She fell down immediately at Peter's feet.
    • She died.
    • The young men came in.
    • They found her dead.
    • They carried her out.
    • They buried her beside her husband.
11. 5:11
    • Great fear came upon the whole church.
    • Great fear came upon all who heard these things.
12. 5:12
    • Many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles.
    • They were all with one accord in Solomon's porch.
13. 5:13
    • No one of the rest dared to join himself to them.
    • The people magnified them.
14. 5:14
    • Believers were increasingly added to the Lord.
    • Those added were multitudes of both men and women.
15. 5:15
    • They brought the sick out into the streets.
    • They laid the sick on beds and couches.
    • The purpose was that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.
16. 5:16
    • A multitude also came together out of the cities around Jerusalem.
    • They brought sick people.
    • They brought people troubled by unclean spirits.
    • Every one of them was healed.
17. 5:17
    • The high priest rose up.
    • All who were with him rose up.
    • Those with him were the sect of the Sadducees.
    • They were filled with indignation.
18. 5:18
    • They laid their hands on the apostles.
    • They put the apostles in the public prison.
19. 5:19
    • The angel of the Lord opened the prison doors by night.
    • The angel brought the apostles out.
    • The angel spoke to them.
20. 5:20
    • The angel told them to go and stand and speak in the temple to the people.
    • The angel told them to speak all the words of this life.
21. 5:21
    • When they heard this, they entered the temple early in the morning.
    • They taught there.
    • The high priest came, and those with him.
    • They called together the council.
    • They called together all the senate of the children of Israel.
    • They sent to the prison to have the apostles brought.
22. 5:22
    • The officers came to the prison.
    • They did not find the apostles in the prison.
    • They returned and reported.
23. 5:23
    • They said they found the prison shut with all safety.
    • They said the keepers were standing outside before the doors.
    • They said that when they had opened it, they found no one inside.
24. 5:24
    • The high priest heard these things.
    • The captain of the temple heard these things.
    • The chief priests heard these things.
    • They were perplexed about the apostles as to what this would come to.
25. 5:25
    • Someone came and told them.
    • He said the men they had put in prison were standing in the temple.
    • He said those men were teaching the people.
26. 5:26
    • The captain went with the officers.
    • They brought the apostles.
    • They did not use violence.
    • They feared the people.
    • They feared that they would be stoned.
27. 5:27
    • They brought the apostles and set them before the council.
    • The high priest questioned them.
28. 5:28
    • The high priest asked whether they had not strictly commanded them not to teach in this name.
    • The high priest said they had filled Jerusalem with their teaching.
    • The high priest said they intended to bring this man's blood upon them.
29. 5:29
    • Peter and the other apostles answered.
    • They said one ought to obey God rather than men.
30. 5:30
    • The God of our fathers raised up Jesus.
    • They killed Jesus.
    • They hanged him on a tree.
31. 5:31
    • God exalted Jesus with his right hand.
    • God exalted him to be a Prince and a Savior.
    • The purpose was to give repentance to Israel.
    • The purpose was to give forgiveness of sins.
32. 5:32
    • The apostles are his witnesses of these things.
    • The Holy Spirit is also a witness of these things.
    • God has given the Holy Spirit to those who obey him.
33. 5:33
    • When they heard this, they were cut to the heart.
    • They took counsel to kill the apostles.
34. 5:34
    • A man stood up in the council.
    • He was a Pharisee named Gamaliel.
    • He was a teacher of the law.
    • He was held in reputation among all the people.
    • He commanded that the apostles be put outside for a short time.
35. 5:35
    • Gamaliel addressed them as men of Israel.
    • He told them to take heed to themselves as to what they intended to do concerning these men.
36. 5:36
    • Before these days Theudas rose up.
    • Theudas claimed to be somebody.
    • About four hundred men joined themselves to him.
    • Theudas was slain.
    • All who obeyed him were scattered.
    • They came to nothing.
37. 5:37
    • After Theudas, Judas of Galilee rose up.
    • This was in the days of the taxing.
    • Judas drew away much people after him.
    • Judas also perished.
    • All who obeyed him were dispersed.
38. 5:38
    • Gamaliel said he now tells them this.
    • He told them to refrain from these men.
    • He told them to let the men alone.
    • He said that if this counsel or this work is of men, it will come to nothing.
39. 5:39
    • Gamaliel said that if it is of God, they cannot overthrow it.
    • He said otherwise they might be found to fight against God.
    • They agreed with Gamaliel.
40. 5:40
    • They called the apostles in.
    • They beat the apostles.
    • They commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus.
    • They let them go.
41. 5:41
    • The apostles departed from the presence of the council.
    • They were rejoicing.
    • They rejoiced because they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
42. 5:42
    • Daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease.
    • They kept teaching Jesus Christ.
    • They kept preaching Jesus Christ.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

5:1

This continues a scene begun at the end of chapter 4, where members of the Jerusalem group were selling land and houses and handing the proceeds to the apostles for distribution to the needy. The giving was voluntary, as Peter's question in verse 4 assumes. "A possession" translates a word for a piece of real estate, a field or plot of land.

5:2

"Privy to it" is 1611 English for "in on it" or "aware of it." The verb behind "kept back" is a commercial term for pilfering or embezzling, siphoning off part of a sum you are handling on someone else's behalf; the same Greek word is used in the Greek Old Testament for Achan's theft of goods set apart for God in Joshua 7. "Laid it at the apostles' feet" is a set phrase for surrendering something into another's control, not a description of where the money landed.

5:3

"Holy Ghost" is the King James rendering of the phrase now usually given as "Holy Spirit." In 1611 "ghost" simply meant spirit or breath and carried none of the modern sense of a haunting.

5:4

"Whiles" is an older form of "while." "Heart" in this idiom is not the seat of feeling but of thought, planning and will, so "conceived this thing in thine heart" means "formed this plan in your mind."

5:5

"Gave up the ghost" is 1611 English for "died." The Greek verb means to breathe out one's life. The text reports the death without saying what caused it. "Great fear" translates a word that spans dread and awe.

5:6

Burial in this culture normally happened within hours of death, before nightfall, so there is nothing strange in the speed. "Wound him up" means wrapped the body in cloth, the standard preparation. The "young men" are simply the younger men present, the ones who would do the carrying.

5:7

Three hours is about as long as a morning at school.

5:8

"For so much" stands in for an actual figure that Peter names in the conversation but that the narrator does not repeat. The point of the question is that she is being given a chance to state the real sale price.

5:9

"Tempt" in 1611 English means to test or put to the proof, not to entice into wrongdoing. The phrase echoes Israel in the wilderness "testing" God, that is, seeing how far God can be pushed.

5:11

"Church" here translates a Greek word meaning an assembly or gathered community; in the Greek Old Testament it is the standard term for Israel assembled. This is the first time the word is applied in Acts to the group of believers in Jerusalem.

5:12

"Signs and wonders" is a fixed Old Testament pair, used above all of the miracles at the exodus. Solomon's Porch was a long roofed colonnade running along the eastern side of the temple's outer court, open to the public and a normal place for teachers to gather listeners.

5:13

Who "the rest" are is genuinely unclear in the Greek. It may mean outsiders who admired the movement but were afraid to attach themselves to it, or others within the wider circle who hung back from joining the apostles in the colonnade. The verse is hard either way, and translations differ.

5:15

The two words rendered "beds and couches" distinguish a proper bed or stretcher from the light mat a poor person slept on and could be carried in. The hope attached to Peter's shadow reflects a widespread ancient assumption that a person's power could extend through what touched them or fell across them; the narrator reports the hope without commenting on it.

5:16

"Unclean" is a ritual term rather than a hygienic one: it marks something as outside the sphere of the holy, unfit to approach God. "Vexed" in 1611 English means tormented or afflicted.

5:17

The Sadducees were an aristocratic group centered on the priestly families who ran the temple, and the high priest's circle belonged to it. They accepted only the written Law as authoritative and, unlike the Pharisees, rejected belief in resurrection, which is why preaching about a raised Jesus struck at them directly. The word the King James gives as "indignation" means jealousy or resentful zeal, the anger of people watching rivals gain ground.

5:18

"The common prison" means the public jail, the state's holding cell, as opposed to private detention in a house or courtyard.

5:19

An angel is a messenger God sends. Angels come from God to help people or bring news.

5:20

"The temple" throughout this chapter means the temple complex, the great walled courts open to the public, not the sanctuary building itself, which only priests entered. "All the words of this life" is an awkward phrase in Greek too, roughly "the whole message about this life."

5:21

"The council" is the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish court in Jerusalem, some seventy members plus the high priest as president, with authority over religious and much civil law under Roman oversight. "The senate of the children of Israel" translates a second word for the body of elders; the phrase probably describes the same assembly in fuller terms rather than naming a separate group. Teaching at first light in the temple courts was ordinary practice.

5:23

"Standing without" means standing outside. The details listed, locked doors and posted guards, are the standard marks of secure custody, which is why the report is framed the way it is.

5:24

The captain of the temple was the officer in charge of the Levite guard that policed the temple precincts, the highest-ranking priest after the high priest himself. "They doubted of them whereunto this would grow" does not mean they disbelieved; "doubted" here has its older sense of being at a loss, so the phrase means they were baffled about where this was heading.

5:26

Stoning by an angry crowd was a real hazard, a rough and immediate form of execution that did not wait for a court. The officers' caution is about the crowd's sympathy for the apostles, not about legal procedure.

5:28

"Straitly command" means gave strict orders. Notice that the high priest avoids saying the name Jesus, using "this name" and "this man" instead. "To bring this man's blood upon us" is a legal idiom: to have blood on you is to bear the guilt and the liability for a killing.

5:30

"Raised up" is ambiguous in the Greek and both senses are live: it can mean brought onto the scene, the way God is said to raise up a prophet or a judge, or raised from the dead. "Hanged on a tree" uses a word meaning wood or timber, applied to the cross, and it deliberately echoes Deuteronomy 21:22 to 23, where a body hung on wood is under a curse.

5:31

"With his right hand" can mean either "to his right hand," that is, to the place of honor beside a king, or "by his right hand," that is, by his power; the Greek allows both. "Prince" translates a word meaning leader, founder or the one who goes first and opens the way. "Repentance" translates a word meaning a change of mind and direction, a turning around, not primarily an emotion of regret.

5:32

A witness is someone who saw something happen and tells other people about it.

5:33

"Cut to the heart" translates a vivid Greek verb meaning sawn through. It describes fury here, not remorse.

5:34

The Pharisees were a movement of lay experts in the Law, influential with ordinary people, who accepted oral tradition alongside the written Law and did believe in resurrection, which puts Gamaliel at odds with the Sadducees who dominated this council. "A doctor of the law" means a teacher and legal scholar. Gamaliel was among the most respected rabbis of his generation; Paul later claims to have studied under him.

5:36

Theudas is a real difficulty. The historian Josephus describes a Theudas who led a following to the Jordan and was killed, but he dates him to around the year 44, roughly a decade after this speech. Either a different and earlier Theudas is meant, the name was common, or Luke has placed the example out of order. There is no agreed solution.

5:37

"The taxing" is the Roman census of Judea in about the year 6, when the province came under direct Roman rule and was assessed for taxation. Judas the Galilean led an armed revolt against it on the grounds that submitting to the count was submitting to a master other than God.

5:39

"Lest haply" means "in case it turns out that." The word behind "fight against God" is a single Greek term for someone at war with a deity, a word at home in Greek tragedy.

5:40

The beating is a flogging, most likely the standard synagogue punishment of thirty-nine strokes with a whip, one short of the forty allowed in Deuteronomy 25:3 so as not to risk exceeding the limit. It was a legal penalty imposed by the court, not a beating by a mob.

5:41

The Greek plays honor against dishonor: they were held worthy of being treated as unworthy. Most early manuscripts read simply "for the name," with no "his"; "the Name" used absolutely was a way of referring to Jesus, and in Jewish usage a way of referring to God without pronouncing the divine name.

5:42

"Christ" is a title, not a surname. It translates the Hebrew "Messiah," meaning anointed one, so the content of the preaching is the claim that Jesus is that figure. "In every house" may mean from one house to another or simply at home, in private houses as against the public temple courts.