Difference between revisions of "Ananias"

<p> (Gr. Ἀνανίας; Heb. חָנָן ‘Jahweh is gracious’) </p> <p> A very common name in later [[Jewish]] times, corresponding to [[Hananiah]] or [[Hanani]] of the OT. We find it occurring frequently in the post-exilic writings and particularly in the Apocrypha. In the history of the [[Apostolic]] Church, we meet with three persons bearing this name. </p> <p> <b> 1. </b> An early convert to Christianity, best known as the husband of <b> [[Sapphira]] </b> (&nbsp;Acts 5:1-5). Along with his wife, [[Ananias]] was carried into the early Church on the wave of enthusiasm which began on the day of Pentecost, but they were utterly devoid of any understanding or appreciation of the new religion they professed. In this period of early zeal many of the [[Christians]] sold their lands and handed the proceeds to the community of believers (cf. Barnabas, [[Community]] of Goods). Ananias and his wife, wishing to share in the approbation accorded to such acts of generosity, sold their land and handed part of the price to the community, pretending that they had sacrificed all. When St. Peter rebuked the male offender for his duplicity, Ananias fell down dead, and was carried out for burial; his wife also came in and was overtaken by the same fate. The narrative does not indicate that the two were punished because they had in any way violated a rule of communism which they had professed to accept. The words of St. Peter, ‘Whiles it remained, did it not remain thine own, and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?’ (&nbsp;Acts 5:4) at once dispose of any view of the incident which would regard communism as compulsory in the early Church. The sin for which Ananias and Sapphira were punished is described as ‘lying unto God’ (&nbsp;Acts 5:4). It was, says Knowling, ‘much more than mere hypocrisy, much more than fraud, pride or greed-hateful as these sins are-the power and presence of the Holy Spirit had been manifested in the Church, and Ananias had sinned not only against human brotherhood, but against the [[Divine]] light and leading which had made that brotherhood possible.… The action of Ananias and Sapphira was hypocrisy of the worst kind,’ an attempt to deceive not only men but God Himself. Most critics admit the historicity of the incident ( <i> e.g. </i> Baur, Weizsäcker, Holtzmann, Spitta), while it is undoubted that in the narrative the cause of death is traced to the will and intention of St. Peter, and cannot be regarded as a chance occurrence or the effect of a sudden shock brought about by the discovery of their guilt. Much has been written on the need in the infant Church of such a solemn warning against a type of hypocrisy which, had it become prevalent, would have rendered the existence of the [[Christian]] community impossible. </p> <p> Literature.-F. C. Baur, <i> Paulus </i> , Leipzig, 1866, i. 28ff.; A. Neander, <i> [[Planting]] of [[Christianity]] </i> , ed. Bohn, i. [1880] 27ff.; C. v. Weizsäcker, <i> Apostol. [[Age]] </i> , i. [1894] 24; R. J. Knowling, <i> Expositor’s Greek [[Testament]] </i> , ‘Acts,’ 1900, <i> in loco </i> ; Comm. or Meyer, ZeIler, Holtzmann, Spitta. </p> <p> <b> 2. </b> A Christian disciple who dwelt in Damascus, and to whom Christ appeared in a vision telling him to go to [[Saul]] of Tarsus, who was praying and had Seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and laying his hands on him that he might receive his sight (&nbsp;Acts 9:10-17). On hearing this command, Ananias, [[Knowing]] the reputation of Saul as a persecutor, expressed reluctance, but was assured that the persecutor was a chosen messenger of Christ to bear His name to the [[Gentiles]] and kings and the children of Israel. Thus encouraged, Ananias went and laid his hands on Saul, who received his sight and was baptized. In his speech before the multitude at [[Jerusalem]] (&nbsp;Acts 22:12-16) St. Paul describes Ananias as ‘devout according to the law,’ and as one ‘to whom witness was borne by all that dwelt’ at Damascus. </p> <p> Later tradition has much to say regarding Ananias. He is represented as one of the ‘Seventy,’ and it is possible he may have been a personal disciple of Jesus. He is also described as bishop of Damascus, and reported to have met a violent death, slain by the sword of Pôl, the general of Aretas, according to one authority ( <i> Book of the [[Bee]] </i> , by [[Solomon]] of Basra [1222], ch. xxix., ed. Wallis Budge), or, according to another (see <i> Acta Sanctorum </i> , Jan. 25 [new ed. p. 227]), stoned to death after undergoing torture at the hand of Lucian, prefect of Damascus. His name stands in the [[Roman]] and Armenian Martyrologies, and he is commemorated in the Abyssinian Calendar. </p> <p> <b> 3. </b> The high priest who accused St. Paul before [[Claudius]] [[Lysias]] in Jerusalem (&nbsp;Acts 23:1 ff.), and who afterwards appeared among the Apostle’s enemies before [[Felix]] at [[Caesarea]] (&nbsp;Acts 24:1 ff.). He is not to be identified or confused with [[Annas]] ( <i> q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] </i> ) of &nbsp;Acts 4:6, &nbsp;Luke 3:2, or &nbsp;John 18:13. He was the son of Nedebaeus, and is regarded by Schürer ( <i> GJV </i> [Note: JV Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes (Schürer).]4 ii. 272) as the twenty-first high priest in the Roman-Herodian period. He retained his office, to which he had been appointed by [[Herod]] of Chalcis, for about twelve years (a.d. 47-59). During the time of his administration, bitter quarrels broke out between the Jews and the Samaritans, which led to a massacre of some [[Galilaeans]] by [[Samaritans]] and to the plundering of [[Samaritan]] villages by Jews. Ananias was summoned to Rome and tried for complicity in these disturbance, but, at the instigation of [[Agrippa]] the younger, was restored to office. He ruled in Jerusalem with all the arbitrariness of an Oriental despot, and his violence and rapacity are noted by [[Josephus]] ( <i> Ant </i> . xx. ix. 2), while his personal wealth made him a man of consideration even after he was deprived of his office. He did not scruple to make frequent use of assassins to carry out his policy in Jerusalem, and his Roman sympathies made him an object of intense hatred to the national party. When the war broke out in a.d. 66, he was dragged from his place of concealment in an aqueduct and murdered by the assassins whom he had used as tools in the days of his power (Josephus, <i> Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) </i> ii. xvii. 9). </p> <p> Literature.-Josephus, <i> Ant </i> . xx. ix. 2, <i> Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) </i> ii. xvii. 9; E. Schürer, <i> GJV </i> [Note: JV Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes (Schürer).]4 ii. [1907] 256, 272, 274. </p> <p> W. F. Boyd. </p>

<p> '''1.''' High priest (&nbsp;Acts 23:2, etc.; &nbsp;Acts 24:1). Son of Zebedaeus, succeeded Joseph, son of Camydus, and was followed by Ismael, son of Phabi Herod, king of [[Chalcis]] A.D. 48, appointed him. The prefect Ummidius [[Quadratus]] in A.D. 52 sent him to be tried before the emperor Claudius on the charge of oppressing the Samaritans. [[Cumanus]] the procurator, his adversary, was not successful but was banished; so that Ananias seems not to have lost office then, but lost it before Felix left the province; and was at last assassinated by the [[Sicarii]] (zealot assassins and robbers) early in the last Jewish war. Violent tempered to such a degree that he caused Paul to be smitten on the mouth for saying, "I have lived in all good conscience before God"; himself on the contrary "a whited wall." Compare &nbsp;Matthew 23:27. </p> <p> '''2.''' A disciple at Jerusalem, Sapphira's husband (Acts 5). Having sold his property for the good of the church professedly, he kept back part of the price, and handed the rest to the apostles. Peter stigmatized the act as "lying to the Holy Spirit," who was in the apostles, and whom notwithstanding he thought he could elude. Ananias instantly fell down and expired. That this was no mere natural effect of excitement appears from the sentence expressly pronounced by Peter on Sapphira, and immediately executed by God, whose instrument of justice Peter was. The judgment had the salutary effect designed, of guarding the church in its infancy from the adhesion of hypocrites; for "great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard it; and of the rest durst no man join himself to them, but the people magnified them." </p> <p> Ananias was sincere up to a certain point, for he had cast in his lot with the despised "Nazarenes," but he wished to gain a high name in the church by seeming to have given his all, while he really gave but a part. He was not obliged to throw his property into a common Christian fund (as Peter's words show, "after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?") It was a compromise between love of Christian applause and worldliness; "Satan filled his heart" as "Satan entered into Judas" (&nbsp;Luke 22:3). </p> <p> At the beginning of the course of the New Testament church an awful example was given to guard her in guileless sincerity from the world's corruption's; just as at the beginning of the course of the Old Testament church, Israel, a similar example was given in Achan's case, to warn her that she was to be a holy people, separate from and witnessing against the world's pollution's by lust (Joshua 7). The common fund which the first disciples voluntarily brought was a kind of firstfruits to the Lord in entering on possession of the spiritual Canaan, as Jericho's spoil was a firstfruit to [[Jehovah]] of the earthly Canaan. The need there was for such a prescient warning appears from the last protest of the same apostle Peter in his 2nd Epistle, against the growing covetousness and lust within the church. </p> <p> '''3.''' A Jew Christian at Damascus, "a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there" (&nbsp;Acts 9:10, etc., &nbsp;Acts 22:12, etc.). By the Lord's direction in a vision, he sought out Saul in his blindness and foodlessness for three days after Jesus' appearing to him; putting hands on Saul, Ananias was the Lord's instrument of restoring his sight, and conveying to him the Holy Spirit, that he might be "a chosen vessel to bear Jesus' name before the Gentiles, and kings and Israel, as a witness unto all men of what he had seen and heard, suffering as well as doing great things for His name's sake. Ananias told him, "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." How striking that Ananias, whom Saul would have seized for prison and death, should be the instrument of giving him light and life. Tradition makes Ananias subsequently bishop of [[Damascus]] and a martyr. </p>

<li> The high priest before whom Paul was brought in the procuratorship of Felix (&nbsp;Acts 23:2,5,24 ). He was so enraged at Paul's noble declaration, "I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day," that he commanded one of his attendants to smite him on the mouth. Smarting under this unprovoked insult, Paul quickly replied, "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall." Being reminded that Ananias was the high priest, to whose office all respect was to be paid, he answered, "I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest" (&nbsp;Acts 23:5 ). This expression has occasioned some difficulty, as it is scarcely probable that Paul should have been ignorant of so public a fact. The expression may mean (a) that Paul had at the moment overlooked the honour due to the high priest; or (b), as others think, that Paul spoke ironically, as if he had said, "The high priest breaking the law! God's high priest a tyrant and a lawbreaker! I see a man in white robes, and have heard his voice, but surely it cannot, it ought not to be, the voice of the high priest." (See Dr. [[Lindsay]] on Acts, <i> In loco </i> .) (c) Others think that from defect of sight Paul could not observe that the speaker was the high priest. In all this, however, it may be explained, Paul, with all his excellency, comes short of the example of his divine Master, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. <div> <p> '''Copyright Statement''' These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated [[Bible]] Dictionary, Third Edition, published by [[Thomas]] Nelson, 1897. Public Domain. </p> <p> '''Bibliography Information''' Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Ananias'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/a/ananias.html. 1897. </p> </div> </li>

<p> '''Ananias''' (ăn-a-nî'as), whom Jehovah covers, i.e., protects. 1. A high priest in &nbsp;Acts 23:2-5; &nbsp;Acts 24:1. He was the son of Nebedaeus, succeeded [[Joseph]] son of Camydus, and preceded [[Ismael]] son of Phabi. He was nominated to the office by Herod king of Chalcis in a.d. 48; was deposed shortly before Felix left the province, and assassinated by the sicarii at the beginning of the last Jewish war. 2. A false disciple at Jerusalem, husband of Sapphira. &nbsp;Acts 5:1-11. Having sold his goods for the benefit of the church, he kept back a part of the price, bringing to the apostles the remainder, as if it were the whole, his wife also being privy to the scheme. Peter denounced the fraud, and Ananias fell down and expired. 3. A Jewish disciple at Damascus, &nbsp;Acts 9:10-17, of high repute, &nbsp;Acts 22:12, who sought out Saul during the period of blindness and dejection which, followed his conversion, and announced to him his future commission as a preacher of the gospel. Tradition makes him to have been afterwards bishop of Damascus, and to have died by martyrdom. </p>

<p> '''Anani'as.''' (whom Jehovah has graciously given). </p> <p> 1. A high priest in &nbsp;Acts 23:2-5; &nbsp;Acts 24:1. He was the son of Nebedaeus. He was nominated to the office by Herod, king of Chalcis, in A.D. 48; was deposed shortly before Felix left the province and assassinated by the Sicarii at the beginning of the last Jewish war. </p> <p> 2. A disciple at Jerusalem, husband of Sapphira, &nbsp;Acts 5:1-11, having sold his goods for the benefit of the church, he kept back a part of the price, bringing to the apostles, the remainder as if it was the whole, his wife being privy to the scheme. St. Peter denounced the fraud, and Ananias fell down and expired. </p> <p> 3. A Jewish disciple at Damascus, &nbsp;Acts 9:10-17, of high repute, &nbsp;Acts 22:12, who sought out Saul during the period of blindness which followed his conversion, and announced to him, his future commission as a preacher of the gospel. Tradition makes him to have been afterwarded bishop of Damascus, and to have died by martyrdom. </p>