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Biblia Karoli Gaspar
Cselekedetek 5:2
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from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
kept: Joshua 7:11, Joshua 7:12, 2 Kings 5:21-25, Malachi 1:14, Malachi 3:8, Malachi 3:9, John 12:6, 1 Timothy 6:10, 2 Peter 2:14, 2 Peter 2:15
his: Acts 5:9
laid: Acts 4:34, Acts 4:35, Acts 4:37, Matthew 6:2, Matthew 6:3, Matthew 23:5, Philippians 2:3
Reciprocal: 2 Kings 5:20 - my master Matthew 22:12 - how Acts 2:45 - sold Acts 20:20 - I kept Titus 2:10 - purloining
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And kept back part of the price,.... At which the possession was sold; he reserved it for his own use, after he had given out that he sold it for the service of the church:
his wife also being privy to it; to this private reserve:
and brought a certain part; whether the greater part, or an equal part, half of it, or a lesser part; some little part of it, so the phrase seems to signify, is not certain:
and laid it at the apostles' feet; as the rest did, thereby to make a show of charity, and cover the deceit.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
And kept back - The word used here means properly “to separate, to part:” and then it means to “separate surreptitiously or clandestinely for our own use” a part of public property, as taxes, etc. It is used but three times in the New Testament, Acts 5:3, and in Titus 2:10, where it is rendered “purloining.” Here it means that they “secretly” kept back a part, while “professedly” devoting all to God.
His wife also being privy to it - His wife “knowing it,” and evidently concurring in it.
And laid it at the apostles’ feet - This was evidently an act professedly of devoting all to God. Compare Acts 4:37; also Acts 5:8-9. That this was his “profession,” or “pretence,” is further implied in the fact that Peter charges him with having “lied” unto God, Acts 5:3-4.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Acts 5:2. Kept back part of the price — Ananias and Sapphira were evidently persons who professed faith in Christ with the rest of the disciples. While all were making sacrifices for the present necessity, they came forward among the rest, pretending to bring all the money they had got for a possession, κτημα, (of what kind we know not,) which they had sold. A part of this price, however, they kept back, not being willing to trust entirely to the bounty of Providence, as the others did; thinking probably, that, as the whole was their own, they had a right to do with it as they pleased. And so they had: they were under no necessity to sell their possession; but the act of selling it for the ostensible purpose of bringing it into the common stock, left them no farther control over it, nor property in it; and their pretense, that the money which they brought was the whole produce of the sale, was a direct lie in itself, and an attempt to deceive the Holy Spirit, under whose influence they pretended to act. This constituted the iniquity of their sin.