Baidarka

Who murdered Ananias and Sapphira? The book of acts accuses God of this barbarous act Peter has always been my prime suspect. Pretend that this happened in some other strange cult(scientolgists or Moonies). What would you think then?
Acts 5
1 But a man named Anani'as with his wife Sapphi'ra sold a piece of property,
2 and with his wife's knowledge he kept back some of the proceeds, and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles' feet.
3 But Peter said, "Anani'as, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?
4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God."
5 When Anani'as heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear came upon all who heard of it.
6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
8 And Peter said to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." And she said, "Yes, for so much."
9 But Peter said to her, "How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Hark, the feet of those that have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out."
10 Immediately she fell down at his feet and died. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
11 And great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all who heard of these things.

Vinnie

""""Pretend that this happened in some other strange cult(scientolgists or Moonies). What would you think then? """"

Why would i want to rip the story out of its context?

Vinnie

lpetrich

And why is being present in the Bible supposed to exculpate it? Seriously.

Skeptical

Possibilities come to mind that neither require the work of the divine nor foul play:

1) The story is meant to teach a moral, not to be taken literally (not that this makes it moral)

2) The event actually happened, but was interpreted incorrectly. The individuals did drop dead, but only because they thought that God would strike them dead. It is a recorded fact that people who believe themselves to be cursed do in fact die from their beliefs, even if they were not, in fact, ever cursed. (Never underestimate the power of the mind to influence the body)

3) Something similar to the events happened, and were then later greatly ebellished in the telling, modified based on religious beliefs and then spun into the tale found in the NT.

Baidarka

""""Pretend that this happened in some other strange cult(scientolgists or Moonies). What would you think then? """"

"Why would i want to rip the story out of its context?"

I added the conjecture about strange cults to illustrate that in the 1st and 2nd centuries Christianity was a small fringe cult like the 2 that I listed.

I think that this story is key to understanding the New Testament.

I think that it was included in the book of Acts because it probably was a well known scandal and the early church needed to defend itself from the legitimate charge of extortion and Murder.

Txiasaeia

Baidarka, how exactly is this story key to understanding the New Testament?

Mageth

Another possibiltiy is that the story was edited to make it not look so bad for Peter and to make God look like a badass. Perhaps this is how it really went:

5 When Anani'as heard these words, Peter whacked him on the head with a club, and he fell down and died. And great fear came upon all who heard of it.
...
10 And Peter whacked her with the club, too. Immediately she fell down at his feet and died. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

tragic_pizza

OR, it happened as written, and that is that.

Layman

How did you determine/judge/conclude that the action was "barbarous"?

And I think you are being a little silly, playing historical Columbo. If I were not to take the passage as literal truth, I might suspect that two members of the Jersualem Church died shortly after doing something wrong and these superstitious people assumed that God had struck them down. But I wouldn't accuse anyone of murder.

Dargo

This passage certainly amazes me. In the early days of Christianity, biblegod would strike two people down just for lying yet later Christians would do all sorts of crimes in the name of Jesus and biblegod would not lift a finger to stop them. If god had sent angels with flaming sword to strike down those doing evil in his "holy" name, Christianity would have a much more pleasent history than it does. Any Christians feel like explaining why your wonderful god felt it necessary to act strongly against lying but was too lazy to prevent far greater evils. You do realize that by allowing such evils to go unchallenged, biblegod has made his church a mockery in the eyes of the rest of the world.