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Person

Sapphira

Woman living at the time of the New Testament

Sapphira, along with her husband Ananias, lied to the apostles about the proceeds from a property sale and died as a result.

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Sapphira is mentioned in Act.5.1 as the wife of Ananias, a member of the early Christian church in Jerusalem. The couple sold a piece of property and conspired to keep back part of the proceeds for themselves while presenting the remainder to the apostles as if it were the full amount (Act.5.1-2). When Ananias presented the money to the apostles, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, confronted him about his deception, and Ananias fell down and died (Act.5.3-5). About three hours later, Sapphira came in, unaware of her husband's fate. Peter questioned her about the price of the land, and she also lied, confirming the amount that Ananias had presented (Act.5.7-8). Peter then rebuked her for testing the Spirit of the Lord and informed her that those who had buried her husband would also carry her out. Immediately, Sapphira fell down at Peter's feet and died (Act.5.9-10). The story of Ananias and Sapphira serves as a sobering example of the consequences of deception and the importance of honesty and integrity within the early church community.

Family

Spouse or partner
Ananias

Connections

Part of: The Jerusalem Church

Ananias and Sapphira

FamilyStated in the text

Right after Barnabas sold a field and laid the money at the apostles' feet, Ananias and Sapphira sold property and kept back part. Peter confronts each, and both die. The two accounts are set side by side in Acts.

Where the text shows it: Acts 4:36-37 — Barnabas givesActs 5:1-11 — Ananias and Sapphira

Sources: Scripture

Bible dictionary

Sapphira Easton Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)

Beautiful, the wife of Ananias (q.v.). She was a partner in his guilt and also in his punishment (Acts 5:1-11).

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Sapphira Smith Smith’s Bible Dictionary (1863)

[Ananias]

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Sapphira Hitchcock Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary (1869)

that relates or tells

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Sapphira Hastings Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (1898)

SAPPHI'RA (beautiful), the wife of Ananias, and partner in his guilt and punishment. Acts 5:1-11.

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Sapphira Schaff Schaff’s Dictionary of the Bible

SAPPHI'RA (beautiful), the wife of Ananias, and partner in his guilt and punishment. Acts 5:1-11.

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Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.

Where Sapphira appears

1 verse in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s G4551

Acts1

Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.