1

http://www.cjd.org/paper/ananias.html

Faith and Culture

Ananias and Sapphira, an Original Sin in

the Church: the Eschatological Dimension
of Money
by Jorge Domínguez Rojo

Not long ago a couple rushed into Casa Juan Diego, very agitated, asking to speak to
us privately. They had just been reading the story of Ananias and Sapphira in the Acts
of the Apostles, in which those who did not share their goods were struck dead. The
couple, friends of the Houston Catholic Worker, had also just received a legacy. They
wrote a check to Casa Juan Diego for $10,000.

The account of the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, whose theological violence has
disturbed exegetes since the Fathers of the Church, has led to an infinite number of
interpretations.

In the following article, excerpted from VOCES, a theological journal from Mexico
City, the author presents and develops the study of Daniel Marguerat on the meaning
of the story of Ananias and Sapphira, placing it as a theological narrative of original
sin which recurs in the reception of the Tradition. The author points out that in this
case the presentation of the dramatic events does not emphasize the drama of
individual salvation, but rather the unity of the community, especially as it affects the
needs of other members and the poor. The story magnifies the power of the Spirit in
building a community of love and brings into stark reality the importance of the
universal destination of goods given by God. The author of the Book of Acts is very
aware that the original sin of the community of Christians is a sin of money.

The Story of Ananias and Sapphira reads as follows:

The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any
of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. With great power
the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was
accorded them all.
 2

There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses
would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the
apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need. . .

A man named Ananias, however, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property. He
retained for himself, with his wife's knowledge, some of the purchase price, took the
remainder, and put it at the feet of the apostles. But Peter said, "Ananias, why has
Satan filled your heart so that you lied to the Holy Spirit and retained part of the
land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain yours? And when it was sold, was it
not still under your control? Why did you contrive this deed? You have lied not to
human beings, but to God." When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and
breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men came
and wrapped him up, then carried him out and buried him.

After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in, unaware of what had
happened. Peter said to her, "Tell me, did you sell the land for this amount?" She
said, "Yes, for that amount." Then Peter said to her, "Why did you agree to test the
Spirit of the Lord? Listen, the footsteps of those who have buried your husband are at
the door, and they will carry you out." At once, she fell down at his feet and breathed
her last. When the young men entered they found her dead, so they carried her out
and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and
upon all who heard of these things. (Acts 4:32-35; 5:1-11) New American Bible

The aim of this study is to critique Daniel Marguerat's interpretation of the passage
about Ananias and Sapphira in the account of the Acts of the Apostles. The
importance of analyzing this contribution by Marguerat lies in the application of the
narrative of the book of Acts, and especially in the story of Ananias and Sapphira. Of
course, this narrative criticism does not invalidate the contributions of literary criti-
cism, but enriches the interpretation of the text and allows for a better hermeneutic
understanding. Marguerat ques-tions in what narrative strategy Acts 5:1-11 takes
place… how has Luke planned the reading of Acts 5:1-11 in the organization of his
text?

From the very beginning, the author presents the problematic question which the story
of Ananias and Sapphira raises. He considers the story of the judgment of God on
Ananias and Sapphira the most tragic episode of the Book of Acts.

He asks himself: what is the intention of the author of Acts with this "blow of
narrative force in the idyllic fresco of the first Christian community, developed in
chapters 3 to 5. How can the tragic disproportion between the offense and the sanction
that hits Ananias and Sapphira be justified? How to explain the absence of the typical
offer of conversion in Luke's writing?

The reader faces the theological difficulty that Luke not only consents to assume this
recounting in his work, but besides, accents its dramatic effect.

In Mediterranean societies of the first century conventional family cells were

common-that is to say, groups whose individuals were committed to a reciprocal
solidarity analogous to the ties within a clan. These groups, built upon a philosophical
 3

and/or religious ideology, offered the individual protection against a social setting and
unfailing emotional support.

Five characteristics marked their identity: loyalty and trust in the group, preservation
of communal convictions over against those outside the group, the obligation to
provide for the needs of each member, and consciousness of sharing the same destiny.

The author of Acts has desired to make known to readers that the original community,
the Church of Jerusalem, carried out the ideal of sharing lived in the culture of the
time.

Luke's eloquence focuses on the destiny of the community more than the psychology
of the individuals. The author points out how the record of the life of the community
is not contradicted by the narrative treatment of the role of the apostles. Peter, whose
fulmi-nating word dominates the retelling, is not presented as a heroic individual: his
prophetic discernment unmasks hidden desires, but the reader has learned from the
beginning of the story that the powerful word of the apostle is the work of the Spirit
(4:8). Peter works the theological reading of the deceit, situating it in the framework
of the combat of God and Satan (v. 3,9a), but he does not pronounce any sentence
(see v. 13:1): he predicts the imminent end of Sapphira, but does not decide her death.
The role of Peter, the only Christian speaker until Acts 7 (Stephen), omniscent
spokes-person for the apostles, never goes beyond the status of mediator in whom the
Spirit lives (4:31).

The author notes that the retelling comes from a literary genre from which ancient
literature, as much biblical as nonbiblical, offers innumerable testimonies: the
judgment of God. Characteristic of this genre is stating the fault of the guilty one and
attributing the punishment to divine con-demnation. When the Jewish tradition
appeals to the judgment of God (Gn 19; Leviticus 10:1-5; Numbers 14; Ez 11, etc.)
the transgressor is generally annihilated; before God, it is a question of life and death.
Thus die Judas the traitor (Acts 1, 18) and Herod (Acts 12:20-23).

A Crime Against the Spirit

Marguerat concludes that Ananias' crime is a crime against the Spirit. Ananias has
been made into Satan's instrument in his battle against the Church. Satan has led
Ananias against the work of the Spirit, and this opposition has to result in death.
Peter's discourse says nothing else: it is not man to whom Ananias has lied, but to
God (v.4b).

The transgression is not ethical but theological; the lie is not denounced as hypocrisy
but as dishonesty, a fraud against God. Opposing the Spirit in this way, Ananias and
Sapphira have made a lie of the ideal of chapter 4, verse 32. This places the
community in danger, and in turn, due to not responding to the ideal of one heart and
one soul (4:32a) threatens in its missionary efficacy. The couple, who excluded
themselves from the ecclesiastical unity, damage the community ideal. Far from
resolving this crisis by founding an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of ex-communion, the
text shows the work of the Spirit in its role of "infallible guarantor of the communion
of inner-community."
 4

For the author, the conflict presented in this writing also is meant to lead to an
awareness of the terrible efficacy of the Word. The pragmatic effect of the story is to
evoke the fear of God (v.5b, 11). Marguerat asks, "Why, on two occasions, does the
author feel the need to specify the effect of the news on 'those who hear it'?"
Everything happens as if in this account, Luke were writing about the effect he wants
to lead to in the listener/reader. But what does Luke want the reader to fear? The
terrible judgment of God? The power of the Spirit? For the author, more likely: fear of
the power of the Word.

From beginning to end, the story is woven from words and sayings. Like Ananias'
offense, Sapphira's is also one of dishonesty (v.3b, 8b); Ananias dies upon hearing the
words of Peter (v.5a); "all who heard" were afraid (v.5b, 11). The three-time mention
of fear must capture our attention: here the words of truth bring death (v.5a); there
they lead to religious fear (v.5b, 11). The word that is heard has the power of life and
death, which is what the story explains.

A theology of the Word works the text, allowing the vision to be heard, recognizing a
very Lukan insistence that we have previously encountered. From Acts 2:37 on, faith
is presented as the fruit of listening to the Word. This theme pervades chapters 2-5, in
which the faith of the newly converted results in the formation of the Apostles (4:4;
5:5, 11, 20), and in which the gift of the Spirit becomes concrete in the boldness of the
Christian proclamation (4:31). The conclusion of the sequence confirms this tie
between pneuma and logos; the activity of the community animated by the Spirit is an
activity of word: (5:42). The hostility of the Jewish authorities consists partially in
wanting to silence the Apostles (4:17; 5:28,40).

Marguerat concludes that what matters to Luke is not instilling a "fear of the sacred,"
but relating the powerful elimination of an impediment to the spreading of the Word.
Weakened in its missionary development by an act that damages its unity, the
community is not left on its own. Much like God concerns Himself with the
incarceration of the Apostles and liberates them, ordering them to speak (5:20), here
God becomes terribly involved with an obstacle to the spreading of the Word.

An Original Sin
Acts 5 does not simply stigmatize Sapphira because of her husband's evil act; the text
is dedicated to showing her culpability (v.8); a man-woman duality develops here,
which structures the text in two frames and makes it stand out.

For the author, a curious characteristic of the story orients the reading towards another
plane: the emphasis on the complicity of the man and his wife (v.2); this shared
knowledge is explicitly confirmed by the answer to Peter's interrogation (v.8). The
Apostle returns to this theme to ask Sapphira: "Why did you agree to test the Spirit of
the Lord?" Ananias and Sapphira form one body, one with the other, and this tie of
complicity has undermined the solidarity of the community. Accomplices in the lie,
the couple has made clan against the ecclesiastical group; in place of the communion
of believers, they have substituted their own complicity.
 5

The author points out that the collusion of the original spouses (the first couple of the
Acts) brings to mind another original couple. The analogy that comes in this spirit is
the story of the fall (Gen 3). Examination of the narrative context demonstrates that
the drama of Acts 5 constitutes the first crisis in the history of the origins of
Christianity. The reference to Gen 3 is supported by a constellation of characteristics:
1) the destruction of the original harmony (v.4:32); 2) the figure of Satan, usually
perceived by the Jewish tradition as a serpent; 3) the origin of the flaw in the sin of
the couple; 4) the lying to God (Gen 3:1; Acts 5:4b); 5) the expulsion at the end of the
account (cf. Gen 3:23).

For Marguerat, this parallel sheds new light on the typology with which the story
plays: the transgression of Ananias and Sapphira is seen as the duplication of the
original sin of Adam and Eve. Lying to the Spirit constitutes, in the narration of the
Acts, the original sin of the Church. Conclusion of the story of Acts 5: the ekklesia is
a community whose members are weakened, but whose project of communion is
saved by the judgment of God.

An Ethic of Sharing
Upon identifying the offense of Ananias and Sapphira as an assault on the work of the
Spirit, the interpretation of Marguerat unites with an essential result of the salvation
history reading indicated above. However, the author indicates that a dimension of the
text that has not been taken into account remains to be evaluated: the nature of the
transgression. The act of the damned couple is a monetary offense. Luke's sensitivity
regarding the power of money is manifest throughout his Gospel, from the
denunciation of the pride of the wealthy in the Magnificat (Luke 1:53) to the praising
of the widow's offering at the start of the Passion (21:1-4). Acts takes over with this
theme from the very first chapter, upon reporting the curse adjudicated to the "wage
of injustice" that Judas had obtained through his betrayal (1:18).

Monetary Transgression
For the author, it is not fortuitous that according to Luke, the two crises that span the
"Golden Age" of Christianity both originate in an economic matter: the straying of
Ananias and Sapphira, and the recrimination of the Hellenists in the face of the
prejudice against their widows (6:1). Taking the traditional account of the death of
Ananias and Sapphira and strategically placing it in this part of the narration, Luke
wants to make known to his readers that the original sin of the Church is a sin of
money. The relation of believers to their belongings takes on an eschatological
dimension. Luke had already expressed this in the first two summaries in which the
divine Spirit impels the sharing of possessions, simultaneously ful-filling the
Deuteronomic demand for the removal of poverty from the bosom of the people of
God (4:34 quote from Dt 15:4), and the ideal of friendship ( 2:44; 4:32).

Spirit and money go together in Luke, who would in no way subscribe to the
antibiblical dichotomy between "material things" and "spiritual things." One of the
moral realities of his account is, money can kill one who clings to it.
 6

An Ontological Dimension of the Church

For the author, the punishment of Ananias and Sapphira demonstrates that this
economic sharing does not reduce to a philosophical ideal, even if it were Greek or a
romanticism of love. The altruistic management of possessions can be said to be an
ontological dimension of the Church; wealth carries with it, in relation to the poor, a
responsibility sanctioned by the God-Judge. In light of the judgment of Ananias and
Sapphira, a foreshadowing of the eschatological judgement, the ethic of sharing
possessions acquires extreme import. Mammon (Luke 16:13), destroyer of life, is also
destroyer of the Church.

It is from this perspective that the added wording of verse 4 must be understood, that
it alters the imperative character of 4:32-24 (the renunciation of one's belongings is
not obligatory, but voluntary) and readapts the critique of Peter in 5:3 (the crime is
having lied about the whole commitment). After the attribution of the sin to Satan in
verse 3, verse 4 returns to an ethic of individual responsi-bility. Marguerat asked why
this wording correction was made and considers that it has a parenthetic effect:
maintaining the free choice to give and profiling the responsibility of the individual,
Luke adds to the eschatological threat an exhorta-tive dimension intended for the
well-to-do readers to whom it is directed. If God's judgment of the damned couple
pertains to the time of origin, and as a result is not repeatable as such, the call to share
remains.

The story of Ananias and Sapphira takes place in the narrative sequence of Acts 2-5,
which can be qualified as a story of origin, with the same title as Gen 1-11. The
literary genre of the account explains both the marvelous dimension of the narration
(irresistible develop-ment of the Church) and its tragic aspect (two thunderous deaths
without the least bit of compassion from the narrator).

The author of Luke-Acts has situated this account in more of an ecclesiological

perspective rather than focusing on redemption; instead of develo-ping the drama of
individual salvation, he magnifies the power of the Spirit and its work of spreading
the Word. However, if the theme of Acts 5:1-11 is the original wound to the
community, the social fiber of Luke's writing has not been insensitive to the fact that
this first sin of the Church was a monetary transgression.

Translated and excerpted from VOCES: Revista de Teología Misionera de la

Universidad Intercontinental , No. 19, Jul-Dec 2001: "Acts of the Apostles- Narrative
Approaches."

Houston Catholic Worker, Vol. XXII, No. 7, December 2002.