Annanias and Saphira - only record of Christian executions?

by truthseeker 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  truthseeker

  The New Testament only records the execution of two Christians, Annanias, and Sapphira his wife.

  They lied about the amount of money they made when they sold their field, and secretly kept some of the price back.

  Acts 5 tells the story...

  Acts 5

  1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, 2 And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. 3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? 4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. 5 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things. 6 And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. 7 And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. 8 And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. 9 Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. 10 Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. 11 And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.

  There are a number of problems with this scene.

  Was lying a sin punishable by death?

  Some Christians did far worse things than lie...

  1 Corinthians 5

  1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.

  Under the Law, this man should have been put to death for adultery. He slept with his father's wife. Later on, he repented and was allowed to come back into the congregation.

  So which is worse? Lying, or sleeping with your mother?
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  talley

  This fable of Annanias & Saphira, along with the fable of Cain & Able are both examples of the lack of inspiration of the Bible to me; that the Bible is a collection of books written by just men, and men who had ulterior motives.

  These are just two of the many examples of why I no longer have "faith" in the Bible.

  talley/Judy
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  Narkissos

  In the text as it stands, not human executions, but divine knowledge and punishment -- which is way more scary. The point of the story (as of every story or practice of "divine judgement", ordeal and so forth, cf. Numbers 5, Joshua 7, etc.) being explicitly made in v. 11: "And great fear seized the whole church and all who heard of these things."

  Interestingly the Community Rule (6:24f) of Qumran (which also practiced some sharing of property) had a punishment for anybody "lying about goods". But it was not the death penalty, only a one-year separation from the purification rites and a reduction of his food portion.

  Btw, about 1 Corinthians 5: "his father's wife" is probably not "his mother"; the "reinstatement" in 2 Corinthians 2 is probably another story (a personal offence against Paul)...
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  Satanus

  Another christian execution was herod being instantly killed by an angel when someone called him god because of the nice speach he gave. Why did not the angel kill the guy who called him a god? Why does not the angel kill rock musicians who are worshipped like gods by some fans?

  S
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  minimus

  Funny thing about them according to Wt. bs-----they were not guilty of sin against the spirit!
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  Undecided

  I just installed a bible program that I have had for several years on my computer. You can use several translations and look up any phrase or word.

  I was reading about Abraham. He was talking with God and God said he was going to look into the matter of the wickedness in Sodom to see if it was as bad as he had hear from some people. ???? Then Abraham kept lowering the amount of righteous people who might be there to see if God would agree to let it not be destroyed.

  Then Abraham made his wife pretend to be his sister so Pharoah would screw her reather than kill him. Then God made Pharoah's family sick even though he had been scammed by Abraham. Theocratic warfare.

  Then God told Abraham his decendants would be as the sands of the sea shores and no one could count them, and that they would remain forever.

  Sounds like a modern soap opera with a little fairy tale included.

  Ken P.
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  bigboi

  Well, they lied about MONEY. You can't expect the Lord to just let that slide can you?
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  Badger

  "The God that I worship isn't short of cash." -- Bono
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  candidlynuts

  bingo bigboi..

  it was put in put the skeeer on ! the congregations money has to be protected at all costs!
• 

  bigboi

  It is something of interst, though. I've never really looked into it, but money does seem to play a pretty prominent role in the early stages of the Church. There had to be a pretty good amount of fund raising going in even in the days shortly after the Pentecost when monies were collected to care for the 3,000 who stayed in Jerusalem after the out-pouring of holy spirit. If my memory serves me correctly, the office of ministerial servant or deacon was created to deal with this very issue.