Acts 5:3-4

The context

Ananias and Sapphira sell property and bring part of the price while claiming it is the whole. Peter's question traces the deception from Satan's prompting to the couple's own resolve. Verse 4 adds that the money was theirs to keep, and that the lie was told not to men but to God.

What it establishes

It establishes that the deception is identified as an act against God, and that the Spirit is named as the one lied to in the same breath. Peter's argument also establishes that the gift was voluntary; the sin was the false claim, not the withheld sum.

What it does not establish

It does not establish a full doctrine of the Spirit from one sentence. The parallelism is real and was read that way early, but the verse names an offense, not a definition. Nor does it make property communal; Peter says the sale was optional.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• So I'm to believe in a God who is one and three at the same time, with one of the three killing another of the three and then sending another to console humans? Why not just Allah instead?

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.