Acts 5–6

Chapter 5

Fate of Ananias and Sapphira

¹But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property,

²and ^akept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s ¹full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he ^blaid it at the apostles’ feet.

³But Peter said, “Ananias, why has ^aSatan filled your heart to lie ^bto the Holy Spirit and to ^ckeep back some of the price of the land?

⁴“While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not ¹under your control? Why is it that you have ²conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but ^ato God.”

⁵And as he heard these words, Ananias ^afell down and breathed his last; and ^bgreat fear came over all who heard of it.

⁶The young men got up and ^acovered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him.

⁷Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

⁸And Peter responded to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land ^1afor such and such a price?” And she said, “Yes, that was the price.”

⁹Then Peter said to her, “Why is it that you have agreed together to ^aput ^bthe Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well.”

¹⁰And immediately she ^afell at his feet and breathed her last, and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

¹¹And ^agreat fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things.

¹²¹At the hands of the apostles many ^asigns and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in ^bSolomon’s portico.

¹³But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, ^athe people held them in high esteem.

¹⁴And all the more ^abelievers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly ^badded to their number,

¹⁵to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by ^aat least his shadow might fall on any one of them.

¹⁶Also the ¹people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick ²or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.

Imprisonment and Release

¹⁷But the high priest rose up, along with all his associates (that is ^athe sect of ^bthe Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy.

¹⁸They laid hands on the apostles and ^aput them in a public jail.

¹⁹But during the night ^aan angel of the Lord opened the gates of the prison, and taking them out he said,

²⁰“Go, stand and ¹speak to the people in the temple ^2athe whole message of this Life.”

²¹Upon hearing this, they entered into the temple ^aabout daybreak and began to teach.

Now when ^bthe high priest and his associates came, they called ^cthe ¹Council together, even all the Senate of the sons of Israel, and sent orders to the prison house for them to be brought.

²²But ^athe officers who came did not find them in the prison; and they returned and reported back,

²³saying, “We found the prison house locked quite securely and the guards standing at the doors; but when we had opened up, we found no one inside.”

²⁴Now when ^athe captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them as to what ¹would come of this.

²⁵But someone came and reported to them, “The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!”

²⁶Then ^athe captain went along with ^bthe officers and proceeded to bring them back without violence (for ^cthey were afraid of the people, that they might be stoned).

²⁷When they had brought them, they stood them ¹before ^athe Council. The high priest questioned them,

²⁸saying, “We gave you ^astrict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and ¹yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and ^bintend to bring this man’s blood upon us.”

²⁹But Peter and the apostles answered, “^aWe must obey God rather than men.

³⁰“^aThe God of our fathers ^braised up Jesus, ¹whom you had ^cput to death by hanging Him on a ²cross.

³¹“^aHe is the one whom God exalted ¹to His right hand as a ^2bPrince and a ^cSavior, to grant ^drepentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

³²“And we are ^awitnesses ¹of these things; and ^bso is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

Gamaliel’s Counsel

³³But when they heard this, they were ^acut ¹to the quick and intended to kill them.

³⁴But a Pharisee named ^aGamaliel, a ^bteacher of the Law, respected by all the people, stood up in ^cthe Council and gave orders to put the men outside for a short time.

³⁵And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you propose to do with these men.

³⁶“For some time ago Theudas rose up, ^aclaiming to be somebody, and a group of about four hundred men joined up with him. ¹But he was killed, and all who ²followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.

³⁷“After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of ^athe census and drew away some people after him; he too perished, and all those who ¹followed him were scattered.

³⁸“So in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or ¹action ^ais of men, it will be overthrown;

³⁹but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found ^afighting against God.”

⁴⁰They ¹took his advice; and after calling the apostles in, they ^aflogged them and ordered them not to ²speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them.

⁴¹So they went on their way from the presence of the ^1aCouncil, ^brejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame ^cfor His name.

^42aAnd every day, in the temple and ¹from house to house, they ²kept right on teaching and ^3bpreaching Jesus as the ⁴Christ.

Chapter 6

Choosing of the Seven

¹Now ¹at this time while the ^adisciples were ^bincreasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the ^2cHellenistic Jews against the native ^dHebrews, because their ^ewidows were being overlooked in ^fthe daily serving of food.

²So the twelve summoned the ¹congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.

³“Therefore, ^abrethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, ^bfull of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.

⁴“But we will ^adevote ourselves to prayer and to the ¹ministry of the word.”

⁵The statement found approval with the whole ¹congregation; and they chose ^aStephen, a man ^bfull of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and ^cPhilip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and ²Nicolas, a ^3dproselyte from ^eAntioch.

⁶And these they brought before the apostles; and after ^apraying, they ^blaid their hands on them.

^7aThe word of God kept on spreading; and ^bthe number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to ^cthe faith.

⁸And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great ^awonders and ¹signs among the people.

⁹But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both ^aCyrenians and ^bAlexandrians, and some from ^cCilicia and ^1dAsia, rose up and argued with Stephen.

¹⁰But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.

¹¹Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.”

¹²And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they ^acame up to him and dragged him away and brought him ¹before ^bthe ²Council.

¹³They put forward ^afalse witnesses who said, “This man incessantly speaks against this ^bholy place and the Law;

¹⁴for we have heard him say that ^athis Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and alter ^bthe customs which Moses handed down to us.”

¹⁵And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the ^1aCouncil saw his face like the face of an angel.