Acts 4:35

The statement marks, it is true, an advance upon the former narrative, Acts 2:44, but one which was perfectly natural and intelligible. Here for the first time we read that the money is brought and laid at the Apostles' feet. As the community grew, the responsibilities of distribution increased, and to whom could the administration of the common fund be more fittingly committed than to the Apostles? The narrative indicates that this commital of trust was voluntary on the part of the Ecclesia, although it was marked by an act of reverence for the Apostles' authority. The fact that Barnabas is expressly mentioned as laying the value of his field at the Apostles' feet, may be an indication that the other members of the community were acting upon his suggestion; if so, it would be in accordance with what we know of his character and forethought, cf. Acts 9:27; Acts 11:22-24, Hort, Ecclesia, pp. 47, 48. There is no reason to reject this narrative as a mere repetition of Acts 2:44-45. The same spirit prevails in both accounts, but in the one case we have the immediate result of the Pentecostal gift, in the case before us we have the permanence and not only the vitality of the gift marked the Christian community is now organised under Apostolic direction, and stress is laid upon the continuance of the “first love,” whilst the contrast is marked between the self-sacrifice of Barnabas and the greed of Ananias and Sapphira, see Rendall, Acts, p. 196, and also Zöckler, Apostelgeschichte, p. 198, in answer to recent criticisms. παρὰ τοὺς πόδας : the Apostles are represented as sitting, perhaps as teachers, Acts 22:3, cf. Luke 2:46, and also as an indication of their authority: the expression in the Greek conveys the thought of committal to the care and authority of any one, cf. Acts 5:2; Acts 7:58; Acts 22:20, so Matthew 15:30, or that of reverence and thankfulness. Oecumenius sees in the words an indication of the great honour of the Apostles, and the reverence of those who brought the money. Friedrich notes the expression as characteristic of St. Luke's style, since it is used by him five times in the Gospel, six times in Acts, and is found in the N.T. only once elsewhere, see above, cf. Cicero, Pro Flacco, 28, and instances in Wetstein. διεδίδετο : impersonal, or τὸ ἀργύριον may be supplied, Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., p. 57 (1896), and in St. Luke's Gospel twice, Acts 11:22; Acts 18:22; only once elsewhere in N.T., John 6:11; on the abnormal termination ετο for οτο, cf. LXX, Kennedy, Sources of N. T. Greek, p. 159, cf. Exodus 5:13, ἐδίδοτο, but A - ετο; Jeremiah 52:34, ἐδίδοτο, but [165] [166] - ετο; 1 Corinthians 11:23, Winer-Schmiedel, p. 121. καθότι : only found in St. Luke in N. T., twice in Gospel, four times in Acts; Luke 1:7; Luke 19:9; Acts 2:24; Acts 2:45; Acts 4:35; Acts 17:31; on the imperfect with ἄν in a conditional relative clause, Burton, N. T. Moods and Tenses, pp. 13, 125, and Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., p. 142 (1893), cf. Acts 2:45; Acts 2:33-35 are ascribed by Hilgenfeld to his “author to Theophilus,” but this reviser must have been very clumsy to introduce a notice involving a general surrender of all landed property, as Hilgenfeld interprets the verse, which could not be reconciled with St. Peter's express words in Acts 5:4 words which, on Hilgenfeld's own showing, the reviser must have had before him.

[165] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

[166] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.