‘And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need’ (Acts 2:43-45).
In these few lines we have compressed that which is expanded in Acts 3, 4, and 5. In those chapters we have recorded the prophetically significant miracle of healing, and the equally significant miracle of judgment that caused‘great fear’ to come upon all the church. There is also a fuller statement concerning the having of things in common in Acts 4:32-37, which compels us to ask whether the selling of possessions and community of goods was not a real part of the meaning and purpose of Pentecost. There have been companies of believers who, taking Pentecost as their basis, have sought consistently to follow out its practice, but the having of all things in common does not seem to have captured their mind in the same way as has the gift of tongues. Yet how can one speak of continuing ‘in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship’ without realizing that this koinonia (fellowship) refers to and is expressed by the having of all things in common (eichon hapanta koina)?
Turning to Acts 4:32-37, we observe that there is a restatement of this ‘fellowship’, and as in Acts 2:24-46, so here, the account of this new state of affairs is punctuated by reference to the witness of the apostles to the resurrection of the Lord. The reader will see that verse 33 of Acts 4 is, as it were, slipped in and breaks the flow of the narrative. This however is as intentional as the equally strange insertion found in Acts 1:13. The resurrection of the Lord, as testified by the apostles, was intimately associated with the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel, and to the time of the restitution of all things which had been spoken by the prophets. No Jew would need to be told, that just as the feast of Pentecost with its emphasis upon the word ‘fifty’ was a recurring annual reminder of the day of Jubilee, so the final prophetic fulfilment of all that Pentecost stood for would be the real, great Jubilee toward which all prophecy pointed. Believing therefore the ‘apostles’ doctrine’, these believers put their faith into practice. If the Jubilee was near, all would receive their own inheritance, all forfeitures would be cancelled, all buying and selling of land and possessions would come to nought; consequently, although no one could sell or buy his inheritance, he could sell whatever else he had purchased, and use the proceeds for the common good, while awaiting the Lord from heaven. The case of Barnabas is specially mentioned. He was a Levite, and ‘having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet’ (Acts 4:37). In Jeremiah 32:6-14 we have the case of Jeremiah (who, like Barnabas, was of the priestly tribe). He bought land to demonstrate his faith in the Lord’s promised restoration (Jer. 32:15), and Barnabas sold land to demonstrate the same conviction. The law that governed the sale of land is found in Leviticus 25. The voluntary act of Barnabas in selling his acquired land and placing the proceeds at the apostles’ feet is in direct contrast with the action of Ananias. He, too, sold a possession; he, too, laid the proceeds at the apostles’ feet, but with the difference that he kept bac k part of the price, while pretending that he had given all. The apostle makes it quite clear that there was no compulsion about the selling of the land when he says, ‘While it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?’ Ananias sinned in that he lied to the Holy Spirit. The sin of Ananias was the sin of Achan. You will find that the very words of Achan in Joshua 7:1 are used of Ananias. The LXX reads enosphisanto apo tou anathematos, ‘appropriated for themselves a part of that which was devoted’. Acts 5:2,3, twice applies this peculiar expression to Ananias and Sapphira: ‘kai enosphisato apo tes times‘ ‘and kept back part of the price’.
