What Does Acts 5:3 Mean?

But Peter said, Ananias, why has the Adversary filled your heart to lie to the Set-Apart Breath, and to draw aside from the price of the ground?

Acts 5:3 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

THE KEY

The withheld portion is not separate from the lie; it is the lie made material.

THE MEANING

Here, the hidden reserve and the public account belong to one truth: what is held back cannot be severed from what is represented. The deception is named as reaching the Set-Apart Breath, not only the person hearing the claim. The verse speaks into the present whenever what you say about a gift and what you privately retain tell different stories.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a partial gift can be presented as the whole simply because the withheld share remains privately yours.

THE ROOT

νοσφίσασθαι

nosphisastai

GROWS FROM

νοσφ-

nosph-

Apart; set aside for oneself.

“draw aside” in this verse is nosphisastai. The verb carries the sense of separating something off for oneself, so the “keeping back” is more than an amount left unspoken: it is appropriation made private. Its root makes the hidden reserve part of the deception Peter names.

ALSO GROWS

nosphi: Apart; separately.

νόσφι

This adverb gives the root’s sense of separation: something is set off from the whole.

nosphizomai: To keep back or appropriate secretly.

νοσφίζομαι

This related verb appears in Titus 2:10 as “purloining,” connecting concealed retention with taking for oneself.

ψεύσασθαι

pseusasthai

GROWS FROM

ψευδ-

pseud-

Falsehood; deception.

“lie” in this verse is pseusasthai. The verse pairs the act of lying with the act of keeping back, joining the false account to the concealed portion. The shared word family also names false witness, making deception more than a mistaken statement: it is a representation that bends what is true.

ALSO GROWS

pseudomai: To lie or deceive.

ψεύδομαι

This is the verb family behind the form translated “to lie” in the verse.

pseudos: A lie; falsehood.

ψεῦδος

The noun names the false account as a thing in its own right.

pseudomartys: A false witness.

ψευδομάρτυς

This compound shows the same root at work when someone’s testimony misrepresents what happened.

πνεῦμα

pneuma

GROWS FROM

πνευ-

pneu-

To blow; to breathe.

The word rendered “Ghost” belongs to the same Greek family as breath and wind, holding those senses together. The verse names the deception as directed toward the Set-Apart Breath, giving the address a living, present force.

ALSO GROWS

pneō: To blow or breathe.

πνέω

This verb keeps the root’s breath-and-wind sense audible beneath the English phrase.

pnoē: Breath; a blowing.

πνοή

This related noun shows the same root naming breath directly.

THE PATTERN

A concealed portion becomes deception when it is presented under a claim that hides it.

But the children of Israel broke trust with the devoted thing, for Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took from the devoted thing, and the burning of the LORD's anger flared against the children of Israel.

Joshua 7:1 · SDVThe Greek Joshua uses ⁨νοσφίζομαι⁩ (nosphizomai, to keep back or appropriate secretly) for Achan’s taking, linking concealed appropriation with the same root found in Acts.

Not pocketing, but showing all good trust, that they may dress the teaching of God our Deliverer in all things.

Titus 2:10 · SDV“Purloining” translates ⁨νοσφίζομαι⁩ (nosphizomai, to keep back or appropriate secretly), the same verb family used for Ananias’s withholding.

While it remained with you, was it not yours? And when it was sold, was it not in your own power? Why have you set this deed in your heart? You have not lied to humankind, but to God.

Acts 5:4 · SDVThe verse makes clear that keeping the property was within Ananias’s power; the deception lies in the claim made about what he kept back.

THE THREAD

Not pocketing, but showing all good trust, that they may dress the teaching of God our Deliverer in all things.

Titus 2:10 · SDV

“Keep back” in Acts and “purloining” in Titus translate the same Greek verb, ⁨νοσφίζομαι⁩ (nosphizomai, to keep back or appropriate secretly). The shared root brings the verse’s hidden act into focus: the withheld portion is treated as something privately taken aside.

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