New Testament in a Year

5 Once a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira fully cooperating, committed fraud. He sold some property ² and kept some of the proceeds, but he pretended to make a full donation to the Lord’s emissaries.^[a]

⁵ Ananias heard these words and immediately dropped to the ground, dead; fear overcame all those who heard of the incident. ⁶ Some young men came, wrapped the body, and buried it immediately. ⁷ About three hours had passed when Sapphira arrived. She had no idea what had happened.

¹⁰ She—like her husband—immediately fell dead at Peter’s feet. The young men came in and carried her corpse outside and buried it beside her husband. ¹¹ The whole church was terrified by this story, as were others who heard it.

¹² Those were amazing days—with many signs and wonders being performed through the apostles among the people. The church would gather as a unified group in Solomon’s Porch, ¹³ enjoying great respect by the people of the city—though most people wouldn’t risk publicly affiliating with them. ¹⁴ Even so, record numbers of believers—both men and women—were added to the Lord. ¹⁵ The church’s renown was so great that when Peter walked down the street, people would carry out their sick relatives hoping his shadow would fall on some of them as he passed. ¹⁶ Even people from towns surrounding Jerusalem would come, bringing others who were sick or tormented by unclean spirits, all of whom were cured.

¹⁷ Of course, this popularity elicited a response: the high priest and his affiliates in the Sadducean party were jealous, ¹⁸ so they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. ¹⁹ But that night, a messenger of the Lord opened the doors of the prison and led them to freedom.

²¹ At dawn they did as they were told; they returned to their teaching in the temple.

Meanwhile the council of Jewish elders was gathering—convened by the high priest and his colleagues. They sent the temple police to the prison to have the Lord’s emissaries^[b] brought for further examination;