(DOWNLOAD) "Divine Judgment Against Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11): a Stock Scene of Perjury and Death (Essay)" by Journal of Biblical Literature " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Divine Judgment Against Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11): a Stock Scene of Perjury and Death (Essay)
- Author : Journal of Biblical Literature
- Release Date : January 22, 2011
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 240 KB
Description
The story of Ananias and Sapphira begins with a utopian scene of the earliest believers sharing all goods in common. A Levite named Joseph (alias Barnabas) sells his field and lays all the proceeds at the feet of the apostles for distribution to the community's needy (Acts 4:32-37). Ananias then, "with the consent of his wife Sapphira;' sells a piece of property and appears to follow suit. Ananias, however, lays "only a part" of the sale's proceeds before the apostles (5:1-2). The apostle Peter berates Ananias for "lying not to humans but to the Holy Spirit" (5:3), and Sapphira for "putting the Spirit of the Lord to the test" (5:9). Upon hearing the apostle's rebuke, Ananias and Sapphira each die in turn, suddenly and on the spot. The story ends with "great fear" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] seizing "all who heard these things" and especially the whole "church"--the first occurrence of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in the narrative (5:11). The story's apparent moral injustice has long offended biblical interpreters. In the third century, a Greek "philosopher," most likely Porphyry, condemned Peter's rebuke as hypocritical and irrational: the apostle, who perjured himself by denying Jesus three times (Luke 22:31-34, 54-62), ritually murders the couple for doing a much lesser sin, if indeed the couple's action was a sin. (1) More recent commentators have shared Porphyry's shock at the story and its theological implications. (2)
 "Divine Judgment Against Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11): a Stock Scene of Perjury and Death (Essay)" by Journal of Biblical Literature " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}