Oh no, not that story!”
Those were my thoughts as I started reading Acts Chapter 5 to get ready for my Come Follow Me lesson plan.
Acts Chapter 5 starts with the story of Ananias and Sapphira. If you are unfamiliar with the story, here is the gist of it:
A married couple, Ananias and Sapphira, sell land and then donate the money from the sale to the apostles. But they conspire together to lie about how much money they received for the land. They pretend to donate all their money to the church, but they decide to keep some of the money. When Ananias goes to give the money to the church, Peter challenges him about keeping back some of the money. Ananias dies. Three hours later his wife Sapphira comes to Peter – unaware that her husband has died. Peter asks her how much money they sold the land for. When she lies Peter reveals that he knows she is lying and she dies as well.
The passage ends with verse 11: And great fear came upon the church and upon as many as heard these things.
“Great fear” pretty much sums up how I felt when I read this passage. I vividly remember being 10 years old listening to my Primary Teacher tell this story. It was told in the context of tithing or maybe even the Law of Consecration. My teacher was pretty explicit in saying that you must pay a full tithing (and/or give God all your money if you were under the Law of Consecration) or you could be in danger of death.
I have always had trouble with this story. This story has some serious vengeful God of the Old Testament vibes. Where’s the loving Jesus that wants to help you be better? Why weren’t Ananias and Sapphira given a chance to repent? Was death really necessary? Is any part of this story just supposed to be symbolic instead of literal?
I decided to skip this passage all together when writing my Come Follow Me lesson plan. But I felt compelled to take a closer look at this story on my own. I really wanted to understand what lesson we should be learning from this story.
I want to share some of the things I learned as well as my thoughts.
The first thing I learned is that Ananias and Sapphira did not die because they withheld money from the church. Peter even says to Ananias in verse 4 “While [the land] remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?”’ (ESV Translation) Meaning, the land was yours and the money you received from selling it was yours too. Ananias and Sapphira were free to do whatever they wanted with the money from selling the land.
I’m not sure where my primary teacher got the idea that this story needed to become a cautionary tale about paying a full tithing. Was it really written into the Primary Manual as a story about Tithing/the Law of Consecration or did she go off script?
I’ve tried searching the church’s website for references to the story of Ananias and Sapphira to see where my primary teacher could have come up with the idea that they died because they didn’t pay all their money.
I found a reference to the teachings of Harold B Lee where he says:
“The gospel is so arranged that principles and ordinances are received by covenant placing the recipient under strong obligation and responsibility to honor the commitment. Thus the severe consequences to Ananias and Sapphira, who deliberately broke their covenant and lied unto God (Acts 5: 1-11).
In this history of Ananias and Sapphira we learn in that the apostles and a select group of followers had entered into the law of consecration where they all had promised to God their time, talents and possessions to the building of the Kingdom . . . In chapter 5 we learn that Annanias and Sapphira his wife entered into this same covenant but willfully held back a portion of their goods and then lied to the to the Lord. The penalty for breaking their covenant was the loss of their lives.
In other words, as well as the promised blessings, there was a penalty affixed if they did not keep their promise. The penalty in the case of Ananias and Sapphira was death. Ananias and Sapphira willingly made a covenant with the Lord and not only were not willing to make the required sacrifices to receive the promised blessings but thought that they could deceive the Lord.”
(This is from Teachings Of Presidents Of The Church: Harold B. Lee as found at this link: https://ph.churchofjesuschrist.org/preparing-to-enter-the-house-of-the-lord)
But Harold B Lee is not telling the story correctly. Nowhere in Acts 4 or 5 does it say that the early church members entered into a covenant with God to live the Law of Consecration. Yes, we can infer that they did because chapter 4 verse 32 says “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things common.” But the scripture does not say that they entered into a covenant knowing that there would be promised blessings or penalties – especially death penalties.
Even if the early church members had entered into the Law of Consecration, there is no textual evidence that Ananias or Sapphira entered into that specific covenant.
Not even Presidents of the Church can just add details to stories like this and have it be considered scripture. However, I think that’s what happened. I don’t know for sure, but I can guess that teachings like these were things that my primary teacher heard throughout her life. And she passed them on to my primary class in the 1990s.
So if Ananias and Sapphira didn’t die because they didn’t donate all their money, why did they die?
Most commentaries on this passage talk about how Ananias and Sapphira died from the sin of lying to God. Even when Peter challenged them about the amount, both Ananias and Sapphira continued to lie. The moral of the story is that you cannot hide your sins from God with lies.
That’s the angle that the current Come Follow Me for Primary takes with this story. Under the heading “I can be honest” the manual says: “The early Christians shared what they had to help care for each other. Those who owned land sold it and gave the money to the Apostles, who then gave it to the Saints according to their needs. Ananias and Sapphira were dishonest about their contribution, thinking they could deceive the Lord’s servants.” (Here’s the link: https://site.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/come-follow-me-for-primary-new-testament-2023/28?lang=eng)
I find it interesting that many LDS commentaries take an additional step with interpreting the lies of Ananias and Sapphira. Broader Christianity talks about how the husband and wife were lying to God. LDS commentaries talk about how the couple was lying to God AND his servants – ie bishops, stake presidents, other church leaders. Gospeldoctrine.com’s resources for Acts Chapter 5 has several quotes that talk about how Ananias and Sapphira’s story shows the consequences of lying to church leaders. (You can read them all here: https://gospeldoctrine.com/new-testament/acts/acts-5)
This quote from the LDS author Allan K. Burgess is especially clear: “This story has always impressed upon me the importance of being honest with those who represent the Lord. When we lie to a bishop or stake president, we are, as Peter taught, lying to the Holy Ghost and to the Lord. I’m not suggesting that those who lie to their Church leaders will usually be struck dead, but there are serious consequences involved.“
That particular track of thinking is irksome to me. Because we could be talking about this story in the context of a Temple Recommend interview. And what if your bishop asks you if you are a full tithe payer?
And suddenly this story is about money again.
Sigh
So I’m wondering, if the story about Ananias and Sapphira is about honesty and specifically honesty about money, what should we be learning from the story?
What was the point of the early church members selling their possessions? What was the money being used for? Acts Chapter 4 tells us: Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them. And brought the prices of the things that were sold. And laid them down at the apostles feet: and distribution was made unto every man according he had need. (Act 4:34-35)
The money was going to help people in need. If money was kept back it was preventing resources from going to the poor. God doesn’t really care about money, but he certainly cares about helping people in need. The Old Testament is full of passages where the Lord chastises his people for forgetting the poor and needy among them. These are transgressions that bring wrath and judgment. And so maybe that’s a way to make God’s swift vengeance against Ananias and Sapphira make sense. They were not helping the poor. And so they deserved his judgment.
I could stop there, but I want to take this one step further. As I was googling resources to understand this story I came across an article by Max Rumler from the Philadelphia Church of God. The Article is titled “Learning the Lesson of Ananias & Sapphira” in it he states:
Ananias and Sapphira owned their property; they were free to do with it as they saw fit (Acts 5:4). But, coveting power and prestige in the burgeoning Church, they “agreed together [conspired] to tempt the Spirit of the Lord” (verse 9). This was not a casual lie, it was a conspiracy! They conspired to attract attention and adulation by appearing more generous than they really were. They were playing politics—trying to “curry favor” with the apostles and ingratiate themselves in the eyes of the congregation.
Did you catch that? “They conspired to attract attention and adulation by appearing more generous than they really were.”
Maybe its the cynic in me, but I can’t help but think about what the LDS Church is doing with it’s vast financial portfolio and the small percentage of money that it contributes to humanitarian causes.
Is the LDS church as guilty as Ananias and Sapphira? If the LDS church had to lay the money it gives to the poor at the feet of Peter what would Peter’s reaction be? Would Peter recognize that the LDS church was not giving all it had? Would Peter challenge the leaders of the LDS church about the amounts that they really had? Would Peter then ask the investment fund managers the same question? Would he accuse the leaders and the investment fund managers and everyone else involved in managing the church’s money “How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?”
As a child, I was taught to view this story as a parable about being honest with my tithing money so it’s only fair to ask the leaders of the church to see themselves in this story. Do they feel like they are being honest with church members about how they are managing the tithing money?
I’m still not entirely sure why sudden death had to be the punishment for Ananias and Sapphira. I haven’t made that part of the story make sense. But I do feel a lot better about the overall theme of the story. This isn’t about scaring people into paying a full tithing or living the Law of Consecration. It’s about honestly and intentions. I like the story a lot better when I view it from that angle. It’s made me consider what my intentions are when I donate money. I wish that’s how I’d been taught the story from the beginning.
What do you think? How were you taught the story of Ananias and Sapphira? Was it about donating money or about honestly? How do you interpret this story?
5 Responses
I’ve never been taught this story before, but I love your interpretation!
I never heard this story as a cautionary tale for paying tithing. Growing up, the message conveyed to me was what being dishonest and lying would do you spiritually; as in, you die spiritually when you’re not honest with your fellow men and women.
I like how you take things further with this: it’s not just lying that hurts a person, but lying to make themselves look better than they actually are and to prop up their status in church circles. That is what leads to destruction moreso than the actual lie.
Needless to say, I prefer your interpretation and the one I heard as a child (you lie, you die spiritually) to what is being taught today (don’t withhold an honest tithe – except that people would be more willing to pay an honest tithe if the relationship went both ways: tell us where the money goes and actually have it help people, for God’s sake).
I recall hearing this story in a similar manner to how you were taught it in primary. I appreciate your efforts to look at the text and what it does or does not say about covenants, promises, and punishments. I lean towards taking this story to be about honesty. I also could imagine the way it is written to be similar to how people in the church today judge people who leave the church or break covenants–“they did X thing and wrong and were in a car crash the next day. Must have been an act of God!” But still a judgemental interpretation assuming to know God’s mind and will rather than a compassionate story that leads towards greater connection and community.
Thank you for this thoughtful analysis. As for the death ending, I often wonder if many of these sudden death scripture study endings are embellishments. When I was studying those lesson plan, https://exponentii.org/blog/come-follow-me-genesis-6-11-moses-8-noah-found-grace-in-the-eyes-of-the-lord/ I read about how history wasn’t thought of literally in ancient times, and embellishing stories was accepted to better express a point. “And then they died!” certainly makes a stronger point than an ending like, “And then they went home.”
This is a hard story to process, I agree. We get a little context, but definitely not the whole picture. I’m asking God for more wisdom on this so it doesn’t seem entirely out of character. I guess the best way to think of it is that Ananias and Sephira were both weeds that God decided to remove immediately. I wonder if they hadn’t partaken of some of the charity of the church at one point and then when it was their turn to give, they decided to cheat those who had helped them out of a significant portion of the sale. Then they might have sworn to God that they hadn’t lied or cheated and well, Jesus warns about swearing. Still, it’s like why specifically these two and only these two? I can’t help wonder if Peter’s hot head might not have had something to do with this story. Anyway, I can only keep asking God for revelation or wait until the afterlife to see what exactly happened. There are going to be so many interesting and amazing stories to find out about from the book of life on earth. I can’t wait to see them all.