Acts 5:1,2 - A man named Ananias

5:1

This is a well known story from Acts. The previous chapter (and remember there were no chapter divisions in the original text, these, along with verse numbers, were added hundreds of years later), described the example of Barnabas giving freely. Here we have a contrary example, an example of what can go wrong. Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property. So far so good, no problems yet.

5:2

The husband and wife kept back part of the money, and brought the rest to the apostles’ feet. Note that the text makes clear that the husband and wife were equally involved in the matter. The later verses make it clear that Ananias was pretending that the money they were giving was the complete proceeds of the sale.