Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Acts 5:4
There are 12 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 99, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Modesty. (HTML)
Of the Difference Between Discipline and Power, and of the Power of the Keys. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 972 (In-Text, Margin)
... blessed apostles had granted any such indulgence (to any crime) the pardon of which (comes) from God, not from man, it would be competent (for them) to have done so, not in the exercise of discipline, but of power. For they both raised the dead, which God alone (can do), and restored the debilitated to their integrity, which none but Christ (can do); nay, they inflicted plagues too, which Christ would not do. For it did not beseem Him to be severe who had come to suffer. Smitten were both Ananias[Acts 5:1-6] and Elymas —Ananias with death, Elymas with blindness—in order that by this very fact it might be proved that Christ had had the power of doing even such (miracles). So, too, had the prophets (of old) granted to the repentant the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 543, footnote 5 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
... thy lips, and shalt perform the gift which thou hast spoken with thy mouth.” Of this same matter in the forty-ninth Psalm: “Sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows to the Most High. Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” Of this same thing in the Acts of the Apostles: “Why hath Satan filled thine heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Ghost, when thy estate was in thine own power? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.”[Acts 5:3-4] Also in Jeremiah: “Cursed is he who doeth the work of God negligently.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 620, footnote 1 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
The Decretals. (HTML)
The Epistle of Pope Urban First. (HTML)
Of the persons by whom, and the uses for which, ecclesiastical property should be managed, and of the invaders thereof. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2768 (In-Text, Margin)
... the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. 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. 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. And great fear came upon all the Church, and upon as many as heard these things.”[Acts 5:1-11] These things, brethren, are carefully to be guarded against, and greatly to be feared. For the property of the Church, not being like personal, but like common property, and property offered to the Lord, is to be dispensed with the deepest fear, in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 620, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist. (HTML)
In this book Augustin refutes the second letter which Petilianus wrote to him after having seen the first of Augustin’s earlier books. This letter had been full of violent language; and Augustin rather shows that the arguments of Petilianus had been deficient and irrelevant, than brings forward arguments in support of his own statements. (HTML)
Chapter 48 (HTML)
... possess the conscience of one that gives in holiness, what answer do you intend to make, except that he is cleansed by Christ or by God, although, indeed, Christ is Himself God over all, blessed for ever, or by the Holy Spirit since He too is Himself God, because this Trinity of Persons is one God? Whence Peter, after saying to a man, "Thou hast dared to lie to the Holy Ghost," immediately went on to add what was the nature of the Holy Ghost, saying, "Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God."[Acts 5:3-4] Lastly, even if you were to say that he was cleansed and purified by an angel when he is unacquainted with the pollution in the conscience of him that gives but not in holiness, take notice that it is said of the saints, when they shall have risen ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 376, footnote 3 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily V (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1255 (In-Text, Margin)
... the day thou eatest,” He saith, “thou shalt surely die;” and to the woman, “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” And by both of these things he took away sin, and provided that the mother should be destroyed by her offspring. For that death as well as grief takes away sin, is evident, in the first place, from the case of the martyrs; and it is plain too from what Paul saith to those who had sinned, speaking on this wise, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”[Acts 5:4] Inasmuch, he observes, as ye have sinned, ye die, so that ye are freed from sin by death. Therefore he goes on to say, “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 517, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. (HTML)
Homilies on 2 Timothy. (HTML)
2 Timothy 4:9-13 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1441 (In-Text, Margin)
... delivered from disease, another from the possession of devils: bind this man, and loose that.” This was done by them on earth, but it was fulfilled as in Heaven. For, “whatever ye shall bind on earth,” said He, “shall be bound in Heaven.” (Matt. xviii. 18.) And greater power than His own did He give them. And that I lie not, appears from His own words. “He that believeth in Me, greater works shall he do than these which I do.” (John xiv. 12.) Why so? Because this honor is reflected upon the Master.[Acts 5:4] As in our own affairs, if the servant has great power, the master is the more admired, for if the servant is so powerful, much more is he who commands him. But if any man, neglecting his master’s service thinks only of his wife, his son, or his ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 102, footnote 7 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Paulinus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1534 (In-Text, Margin)
... his goods because he despises them and means to renounce the world can have no desire to sell them dear. Count as money gained the sum that you must expend upon your outfit. There is an old saying that a miser lacks as much what he has as what he has not. The believer has a whole world of wealth; the unbeliever has not a single farthing. Let us always live “as having nothing and yet possessing all things.” Food and raiment, these are the Christian’s wealth. If your property is in your own power,[Acts 5:4] sell it: if not, cast it from you. “If any man…will take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.” You are all for delay, you wish to defer action: unless—so you argue—unless I sell my goods piecemeal and with caution, Christ will be at a loss to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 213, footnote 12 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Riparius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3035 (In-Text, Margin)
3. You may perhaps in your secret thoughts find fault with me for thus assailing a man behind his back. I will frankly admit that my indignation overpowers me; I cannot listen with patience to such sacrilegious opinions. I have read of the javelin of Phinehas, of the harshness of Elijah, of the jealous anger of Simon the zealot, of the severity of Peter in putting to death Ananias and Sapphira,[Acts 5:1-10] and of the firmness of Paul who, when Elymas the sorcerer withstood the ways of the Lord, doomed him to lifelong blindness. There is no cruelty in regard for God’s honour. Wherefore also in the Law it is said: “If thy brother or thy friend or the wife of thy bosom entice thee from the truth, thine ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 222, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Julian. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3089 (In-Text, Margin)
... hard to enter the kingdom of heaven, a kingdom which desires for its citizens souls that soar aloft free from all ties and hindrances. “Go thy way,” the Lord says, “and sell” not a part of thy substance but “all that thou hast, and give to the poor;” not to thy friends or kinsfolk or relatives, not to thy wife or to thy children. I will even go farther and say: keep back nothing for yourself because you fear to be some day poor, lest by so doing you share the condemnation of Ananias and Sapphira;[Acts 5:1-10] but give everything to the poor and make to yourself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that they may receive you into everlasting habitations. Obey the Master’s injunction “follow me,” and take the Lord of the world for your possession; that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 268, footnote 9 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Demetrius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3740 (In-Text, Margin)
... Ananias and Sapphira proved timid stewards, and what is more, deceitful ones; therefore they brought on themselves condemnation. For having made a vow they offered their money to God as if it were their own and not His to whom they had vowed it; and keeping back for their own use a part of that which belonged to another, through fear of famine which true faith never fears, they drew down on themselves suddenly the avenging stroke, which was meant not in cruelty towards them but as a warning to others.[Acts 5:1-10] In fact the apostle Peter by no means called down death upon them as Porphyry foolishly says. He merely announced God’s judgment by the spirit of prophecy, that the doom of two persons might be a lesson to many. From the time of your dedication to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 23, footnote 3 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)
That the Holy Spirit is in every conception inseparable from the Father and the Son, alike in the creation of perceptible objects, in the dispensation of human affairs, and in the judgment to come. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1031 (In-Text, Margin)
... is in you of a truth.” If then God is known to be in the prophets by the prophesying that is acting according to the distribution of the gifts of the Spirit, let our adversaries consider what kind of place they will attribute to the Holy Spirit. Let them say whether it is more proper to rank Him with God or to thrust Him forth to the place of the creature. Peter’s words to Sapphira, “How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Ye have not lied unto men, but unto God,”[Acts 5:4] show that sins against the Holy Spirit and against God are the same; and thus you might learn that in every operation the Spirit is closely conjoined with, and inseparable from, the Father and the Son. God works the differences of operations, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 143, footnote 2 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter IX. That the Holy Spirit is provoked is proved by the words of St. Peter, in which it is shown that the Spirit of God is one and the same as the Spirit of the Lord, both by other passages and by reference to the sentence of the same Apostle on Ananias and Sapphira, whence it is argued that the union of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, as well as His own Godhead, is proved. (HTML)
56. But Peter himself in the instance we have brought forward spoke first of the Holy Spirit, and then called Him the Spirit of the Lord, for you read as follows: “Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to deal fraudulently concerning the price of the field? While it remained did it not continue thine own, and when sold was it not in thy power? Why hast thou conceived this wickedness in thy heart? Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God.”[Acts 5:3-4] And below he says to the wife: “Why have ye agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?”