Acts · 42 verses

Acts 5

Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

The chapter

What happens here

Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

The apostles are fetched from a securely locked jail, its guards still at the doors, and found teaching in the temple courts as though the jail had merely misplaced them.

A sale with a very short accountingvv. 1–11

Ananias and Sapphira sell land, agree on the price they will pretend to have brought, and lay only a portion at the apostles’ feet. Peter calls the lie a testing of the Spirit; Ananias falls dead, and three hours later Sapphira arrives knowing none of this. She gives the same answer, hears that the buriers are at the door, and falls dead at Peter’s feet. The young men bury them beside one another, while fear spreads through the church and beyond it.

A jail that keeps its guards but loses its prisonersvv. 12–32

The apostles perform signs among the people, and the believers gather in Solomon’s Colonnade. Crowds bring the sick from the towns around Jerusalem; even Peter’s passing shadow is given an almost comically small assignment, and all are healed. Jealousy sends the apostles into the public jail, but an angel opens it during the night and tells them to teach in the temple courts. At daybreak the officers find the locks and guards exactly where they ought to be, except for the prisoners. The apostles are then discovered in the temple courts, brought before the Sanhedrin, and answer the prohibition with a plain priority: God before men.

Gamaliel leaves the door ajarvv. 33–42

The council hears the apostles and is ready to kill them. Gamaliel has the men put outside and recalls Theudas and Judas the Galilean, whose movements ended with their deaths and the scattering of their followers. His counsel is deliciously cautious: let the matter alone, because a human enterprise will fail, while a divine one cannot be stopped. The council yields—then has the apostles flogged, orders silence, and releases them. The apostles leave rejoicing, and the order not to speak is answered every day in the temple courts and from house to house.

The text

Read it

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

Acts 5:1Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property.
Acts 5:2With his wife’s full knowledge, he kept back some of the proceeds for himself, but brought a portion and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Acts 5:3Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and withhold some of the proceeds from the land?
Acts 5:4Did it not belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How could you conceive such a deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God!”
Acts 5:5On hearing these words, Ananias fell down and died. And great fear came over all who heard what had happened.
Acts 5:6Then the young men stepped forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
Acts 5:7About three hours later his wife also came in, unaware of what had happened.
Acts 5:8“Tell me,” said Peter, “is this the price you and your husband got for the land?” “Yes,” she answered, “that is the price.”
Acts 5:9“How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?” Peter replied. “Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
Acts 5:10At that instant 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.
Acts 5:11And great fear came over the whole church and all who heard about these events.
Acts 5:12The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people, and with one accord the believers gathered together in Solomon’s Colonnade.
Acts 5:13Although the people regarded them highly, no one else dared to join them.
Acts 5:14Yet more and more believers were brought to the Lord—large numbers of both men and women.
Acts 5:15As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.
Acts 5:16Crowds also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were healed.
Acts 5:17Then the high priest and all his associates, who belonged to the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They went out
Acts 5:18and arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
Acts 5:19But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out, saying,
Acts 5:20“Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.”
Acts 5:21At daybreak the apostles entered the temple courts as they had been told and began to teach the people. 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.
Acts 5:22But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they returned with the report:
Acts 5:23“We found the jail securely locked, with the guards posted at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”
Acts 5:24When the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard this account, they were perplexed as to what was happening.
Acts 5:25Then someone came in and announced, “Look, the men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people!”
Acts 5:26At that point, the captain went with the officers and brought the apostles—but not by force, for fear the people would stone them.
Acts 5:27They brought them in and made them stand before the Sanhedrin, where the high priest interrogated them.
Acts 5:28“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 make us responsible for this man’s blood.”
Acts 5:29But Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men.
Acts 5:30The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging Him on a tree.
Acts 5:31God exalted Him to His right hand as Prince and Savior, in order to grant repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.
Acts 5:32We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
Acts 5:33When the Council members heard this, they were enraged, and they resolved to put the apostles to death.
Acts 5:34But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a short time.
Acts 5:35“Men of Israel,” he said, “consider carefully what you are about to do to these men.
Acts 5:36Some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.
Acts 5:37After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and drew away people after him. He too perished, and all his followers were scattered.
Acts 5:38So in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone. Let them go! For if their purpose or endeavor is of human origin, it will fail.
Acts 5:39But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God.”
Acts 5:40At this, they yielded to Gamaliel. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and released them.
Acts 5:41The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.
Acts 5:42Every day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

01 — Also here

Who else the chapter reaches

Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

02 — Read alongside

Where this is echoed

Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 559 passages were voted onto 39 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

29 Acts 4:19But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God.
29 1 Samuel 15:24Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; I have transgressed the LORD’s commandment and your instructions, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
29 Mark 7:7–9They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’
39 Proverbs 21:30There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the LORD.
29 Genesis 3:17And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
41 James 1:2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,
41 1 Peter 4:13–16But rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed at the revelation of His glory.
39 Isaiah 46:10I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’
39 Matthew 16:18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
30 Galatians 3:13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
41 Luke 6:22Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.
41 Philippians 1:29For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him,
3 Jeremiah 23:24“Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.
20 John 6:63The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
30 1 Peter 2:24He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
39 1 Corinthians 1:25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

Onward

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