Acts 5:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But at this time there occurred the sorrowful event of the moral fall of one Christian couple. A certain man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold his real estate, as other Christians did, in order to entrust the proceeds to the apostles for the benefit of the whole Christian community. Yet they delivered to the apostles only a certain part of the price and kept the rest of the money for themselves. Before the apostles and the other believers, however, they presented themselves as people who had renounced all their property for the common benefit. In the deed of Ananias and Sapphira, hypocrisy was revealed in addition to love of money. If the first vice was especially dangerous for the unhappy slaves of it themselves, the latter could have affected the whole Christian community.

"And the young men arose": these were young members of the community who were present in the assembly. Probably this name designates the usual attendants who carried out various tasks in the already rather organized community. There must have been designated persons for service, as there were in the synagogues. Therefore these young men, as soon as they saw him fall lifeless, rose from the assembly without any special request. As those who were to fulfill their duties, they approached the lifeless Ananias despite the fear that had seized the community. "They prepared him for burial": they immediately did everything necessary for committing the body to the earth. They arranged the corpse and, carrying it outside the city, where the dead were usually buried, laid it there.

The burial of Ananias took place quickly, for the circumstances required it. The custom of the hot South did not hinder this, especially since burial there was incomparably simpler than among us. The deceased was only wrapped in cloths and carried to ready-made recesses or caves. Access to these was free and convenient for all who wished to see the deceased. Therefore, if Ananias' wife was not informed of his death, she could, upon learning of it, see the deceased at any time. This was probably with greater convenience than in the presence of the apostles, who were evidently then in a common prayer assembly. As for the performers of the burial, called young men, neoteroi, in contrast to elders or presbyters, these young people evidently usually fulfilled this duty.