Acts 5
The full text of Acts 5 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property,
2 and he kept back part of the proceeds for himself, with his wife's knowledge; he brought only a portion and laid it at the apostles' feet.
3 Then Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart so that you lied to the Holy Spirit and kept back part of the proceeds of the land?
4 Wasn't it yours while it remained unsold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you decide to do this? You have not lied to people but to God."
5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear came over all who heard about it.
6 The young men came forward, wrapped up his body, carried him out, and buried him.
7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
8 Peter said to her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?" "Yes," she said, "that is the price."
9 Peter said to her, "How could you agree together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of those who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out too."
10 At once she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
11 Great fear came over the whole church and over all who heard about these things.
12 The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And the believers all met together in Solomon's Colonnade.
13 No one else dared to join them, even though the people held them in high regard.
14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number,
15 so that people even carried the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats, hoping that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.
16 Crowds also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were healed.
17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, rose up, filled with jealousy.
18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail, brought them out, and said,
20 "Go, stand in the temple courts, and tell the people all about this new life."
21 At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles.
22 But on arriving, the officers did not find them in the jail. So they went back and reported,
23 "We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside."
24 When the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard this, they were perplexed about them, wondering what this might lead to.
25 Then someone came and reported, "Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people."
26 At that, the captain went with his officers and brought them back, but without force, because they were afraid the people would stone them.
27 They brought the apostles in and made them stand before the Sanhedrin, and the high priest questioned them.
28 "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said, "yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to bring this man's blood on us."
29 Peter and the other apostles replied, "We must obey God rather than people.
30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.
31 God exalted him to his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.
32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him."
33 When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death.
34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered the men to be put outside for a short while.
35 Then he said to them, "Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do with these men.
36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.
37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and drew people after him in revolt. He too perished, and all his followers were scattered.
38 So in the present case I tell you: leave these men alone and let them go. For if this plan or this work is of human origin, it will fail.
39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God." They were persuaded by him.
40 His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in, had them flogged, ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.
42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.
Translation notes (10)
- Acts 5:4a Greek ouk epseusō anthrōpois alla tō theō, 'you did not lie to human beings but to God', deliberately parallels the charge of lying to the Holy Spirit in the preceding verse; the equation has long been cited as evidence for the Spirit's deity. The question 'What made you decide' translates the idiom ethou en tē kardia sou, literally 'you placed this thing in your heart'.
- Acts 5:12a Greek stoa Solomōntos (στοὰ Σολομῶντος) names the covered portico running along the eastern side of the temple's outer court, traditionally associated with Solomon; Josephus describes it as a remnant of earlier construction. Jesus taught there (John 10:23), and it became a regular gathering place for the early believers (Acts 3:11).
- Acts 5:15a In the ancient Mediterranean world a person's shadow was widely thought to carry that person's power or presence, which explains the crowd's expectation here. The Greek verb episkiazo, 'to overshadow', is the same word Luke uses of the cloud at the transfiguration (Luke 9:34). The word 'hoping' is supplied to convey the purpose expressed by the Greek construction.
- Acts 5:17a Greek hairesis (αἵρεσις), 'party' or 'sect', here carries no negative sense; it denotes a recognized school within Judaism, as it does for the Pharisees in Acts 15:5. The Sadducees were the priestly aristocracy centered on the temple, which explains their alliance with the high priest. The word zelos may mean either 'jealousy' or religious 'zeal', and both senses may be in play.
- Acts 5:21a Greek names two bodies: to synedrion (τὸ συνέδριον), 'the Sanhedrin', and pasan ten gerousian (πᾶσαν τὴν γερουσίαν), 'the whole senate of elders', rendered here as 'the full assembly of the elders of Israel'. The second phrase most likely amplifies the first rather than naming a separate council; gerousia is the Septuagint's regular term for Israel's body of elders.
- Acts 5:28a The Greek parangelia parengeilamen, literally 'with a charge we charged you', is a cognate construction echoing the Hebrew emphatic idiom, rendered here as 'strict orders'. The council's fear of having 'this man's blood' brought upon them recalls the crowd's cry in Matthew 27:25, an irony the narrative leaves unspoken.
- Acts 5:30a The phrase 'on a tree' translates the Greek word xylon, which literally means 'wood,' and is an allusion to Deuteronomy 21:22-23 about someone hung on a tree being cursed.
- Acts 5:34a Gamaliel, called nomodidaskalos, 'teacher of the law', is Gamaliel the Elder, remembered in the Mishnah as a leading authority of the school of Hillel and, by tradition, Hillel's grandson. Paul names him as his own teacher in Acts 22:3. His standing explains why the Sanhedrin defers to his counsel of restraint in the verses that follow.
- Acts 5:36a Josephus (Antiquities 20.97-98) records a Theudas who revolted under the procurator Fadus around AD 44-46, roughly a decade after Gamaliel's speech and long after Judas the Galilean, whom Luke places second. Either Luke refers to an earlier, otherwise unattested Theudas among the many uprisings after Herod's death in 4 BC, or one of the two accounts is chronologically imprecise.
- Acts 5:37a The apographē (ἀπογραφή), 'registration', refers to the census conducted under Quirinius when Judea came under direct Roman administration in AD 6. Josephus records that Judas the Galilean led a revolt against this taxation (Antiquities 18.1.1), and his movement is often linked to the origins of the Zealot party.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own modern English translation, worked directly from the original Greek and honest to the earliest manuscripts. It was completed in 2026 — the most modern English Bible translation — and is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter, including all of Acts, is free to read here on the web.
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