KEPT BACK...: "Kept back" is, literally, to hide away,
ie, "embezzle". Sw "steal" in Tit 2:10. It is used also of Achan (Jos 7:1, LXX).
Cp the incident of Elisha/Gehazi (2Ki 5:25). We have sold our "old man" and laid
the proceeds at Christ's feet. Did we keep back part of the price?
"If the current of our mind is not continuously in God, then
our profession is hypocrisy, and our performance is sham. It is just a sometime
thing. It is not solid and permanent and real. If we truly have the Truth, it
will possess us totally. It will be a continuous ringing in our minds and fire
in our bones. Don't be a half anything -- and certainly not in things pertaining
to God and eternity. Be total. Go all the way. Give it everything. In the other
way lies frustration and unhappiness, and -- at last -- dreadful, inescapable
remorse. Why jeopardize eternity with half-ways?" (GVG). Indeed, why barter away
eternal life for 30 pieces of silver?
Act 5:3
SATAN... FILLED YOUR HEART: "Sin hath reigned unto
death" (Rom 5:21). Who is the "satan" here? Is it Sapphira (v 9)?
Or, more generally, "Satan" = an adverse state of mind. "What
made YOU think?" (v 4; cp Jam 1:14,15). In their selfishness they conceived of a
plan to deceive the apostles and God. "Satan" in their heart = human lusts (v
9).
Act 5:4
Cp Elisha, who reads mind of Gehazi: 2Ki 5:25.
Cp also Luk 16:6: is this a similar incident?
NOT... BUT: Heb idiom: Not only, but also. Thus the
judgment was from God, not from Peter.
YOU HAVE NOT LIED TO MEN BUT TO GOD: "Anyone who speaks
against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age
to come": Mat 12:32.
Act 5:5
The judgment was not from Peter, but from God. Cp, generally,
1Ti 5:24; Rev 21:27; 22:15.
Act 5:6
Ananias and Sapphira got "carried away" in their greed! Cp Lev
10:4,5: as Nadab and Abihu were carried out of the sanctuary.
YOUNG MEN: Gr "neos": a technical term for a class of
ecclesial officers (Luk 22:26; 1Pe 5:5; 1Ti 5:1; Tit 2:2,6; 1Jo
2:13,14).
Act 5:8
Peter offers her an opportunity for repentance.
Act 5:9
Earlier, Peter had not known the hearts of men: Act
1:24-26.
Act 5:10
AND BURIED HER BESIDE HER HUSBAND: What a strange
example of unity in marriage! One in Jewish faith, one in marriage, one in
conversion, one in stealing, one in lying, one in death, and one in a common
grave.
Act 5:11
Apparently, no investigation was made by Jewish authorities.
Prob through fear that such would confirm and exalt the reputation of the
apostles.
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all
these things will be given to you as well" (Mat 6:33).
Act 5:12
SOLOMON'S COLONNADE: Where Peter healed lame man (Act
3:11).
Act 5:13
Vv 13,14: The incident of Ananias and Sapphira would have
deterred unbelievers from joining the ecclesia under false pretenses. (Were
Ananias and Sapphira "spies" or "infiltrators"?)
Others may have been afraid of their own leaders (cp John
9:22).
Act 5:15
PEOPLE BROUGHT THE SICK INTO THE STREETS: ...But not
into the ecclesial meetings.
PETER'S SHADOW: "The shadow of a ROCK in a dry land"
(Isa 32:1,2).
Act 5:16
TOWNS AROUND JERUSALEM: First intimation of believers
from other than Jerusalem.
Act 5:17
HIGH PRIEST: Prob Annas (Act 4:6).
Act 5:18
THE APOSTLES: Prob all 12 (cp v 29).
Act 5:19
AN ANGEL: The Sadducees denied the existence of
angels!
Open doors: for restored communion (2Ch 29:3); deliverance
from prison (Act 5:19); surrender (Rev 3:20); service (1Co 16:9); and
opportunity (Rev 3:8). Shut doors: for safety (Gen 7:16); privacy and communion
(Mat 6:6); faith and prayer (2Ki 4:5,21,33); self-sufficiency (Rev 3:20); and
separation and rejection (Mat 25:10).
Act 5:20
// Jer 26:2.
Act 5:24
THE CHIEF PRIESTS: Heads of 24 courses, and former high
priests.
Act 5:27
To fulfill Mat 10:17.
Act 5:28
They feared revenge (v 30): "His blood be upon us" (Mat
27:25).
THIS MAN'S...: Note scrupulous avoidance of Jesus'
name.
Act 5:29
Notice Peter uses no respectful introduction.
WE MUST OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MEN: Cp Mat 4:10; Rom 3:4;
Eccl 12:13; 1Co 7:23; Jer 17:5.
RAISED JESUS: AV (and, evidently, the Gr text) does not
have "from the dead". Therefore, this v could sig 'from seed of David' (Act
3:22; 13:23). When resurrection is intended, "from dead" is added (Act 3:15;
4:10).
KILLED: Only here and Act 26:21: to slay with one's own
hands.
TREE: Cross = tree: cp Act 13:29; 1Pe 2:24. The phrase
here is Jewish: ref to hanging (Deu 21:22,23), not crucifixion. To emphasize the
Jews' guilt.
...As if to say: 'You killed Jesus, but God raised him from
the dead. Which -- you, or God -- do you think we will obey?'
Act 5:32
WITNESSES: "Witnesses in him" (RV mg); ie 'witnesses
(on account of our being) in him'.
Act 5:33
FURIOUS: Sw Act 7:54: lit, "to cut in two".
Act 5:34
GAMALIEL: "Reward of El": a Pharisee who believed in
the resurrection; a teacher of Paul (Act 22:3). Gamaliel I ("the elder") was the
son of Simon and the grandson of the famous Rabbi Hillel. He occupied an
important position in the Jewish council and was held in respect (Acts 5:34-40).
He was the first to bear the title "rabban" (our master) instead of the more
common "rabbi" (my master). On occasion he was counselor to the Herods in legal
and religious matters. His importance is seen in the statement: "When Rabbin
Gamaliel the Elder died, the glory of the Law ceased and purity and abstinence
died."
MEN: "Anthropous", not "apostles" as in AV.
ORDERED THAT THE MEN BE PUT OUTSIDE FOR A LITTLE WHILE:
So that they could not hear the liberal advice he was about to give.
Act 5:37
Why did he not cite the similar example of Jesus of Nazareth
and his followers?
Act 5:38
Cp Jesus' question: "John's baptism-- was it from heaven, or
from men?" (Luk 20:4).
Act 5:40
HIS SPEECH PERSUADED THEM: Is it possible that Gamaliel
-- instead of giving foolish advice from his point of view -- knew exactly what
he was doing? In other words, he might have been trying to protect the apostles
and early church -- without himself openly identifying with their cause. A
little like the counsel of Hushai to Absalom (2Sa 17:5-13) -- designed to get
David "off the hook". Christian apocryphal literature, seizing on his relatively
benign treatment of the Messianic Jews, reports that he came to faith in Jesus,
but there is no independent evidence of this.
AND HAD THEM FLOGGED: Deu 25:3.
Act 5:41
REJOICING BECAUSE THEY HAD BEEN COUNTED WORTHY OF SUFFERING
DISGRACE FOR THE NAME: They were... "Worthy of disgrace!" "Dignified by
indignity!" "Honored by shame!" "Exalted by suffering!" What extraordinary
paradoxes.
"The picture of our Lord's humiliation also inspires courage,
for if we are unfashionable and poor, and subject to divers kinds of
deprivations on account of our making the ancient Gospel and the ancient hope
our hobby, we know that we are only having our turn of the experience that
embittered the earthly days of the Captain of our salvation; and to take part in
such a fellowship makes us bold. Do we not feel like Peter? 'Lord, I am ready to
go with Thee unto prison and unto death.' Peter failed in the first trial; but
afterwards, he went both to prison and to death for Christ's sake, and was of
those who 'rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name'
" (SC 168,169).
"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world"
(Gal 6:14). "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the
fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death" (Phi
3:10).