Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 5:4

οὐχὶ μένον σοὶ ἔμενεν. To bring out the force of the repeated verb render, whiles it remained, did it not remain thine own? that is, there was no compulsion on Ananias to sell it, the only thing expected from him being that, if he were moved to sell, he should honestly set forth what he had done. There seems to have been no necessity to give at all to the common fund unless a man felt that he could well afford to do so, nor to give all that he either had, or had realized by any sale, provided only he made honest declaration of what his gift really was. This is implied in the words which follow, which declare that the sum produced by any sale was at the seller’s disposal until he made it over to the common fund.

ἔθον ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ. The precise phrase occurs in LXX. of Daniel 1:8, and is rendered ‘Daniel purposed in his heart’; cf. also Haggai 2:19. The force of the expression is ‘to lay anything (as a plan or a precept) deep in the heart,’ and it implies long and stedfast deliberation on the part of this offender. The offence of Ananias was not a case of yielding to a sudden temptation, but the plan had been accepted into the heart, and fostered there till there seemed to be a way of carrying it out. Satan had filled his heart, and he had made no effort to cast out the intruder.

οὐκ ἐψεύσω�, thou hast not lied unto men. That is, the grave portion of the offence is not the lie to men, but the lie to God. In Acts 5:3 the Apostle said that the deception had been practised towards the Holy Ghost, and so is expressed the Divinity of the third Person of the Trinity.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 5:4

Old Testament

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