Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 5:11

"And great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all that heard these things." — Acts 5:11 (ASV)

“About three hours later” the tragic episode was repeated with Sapphira. Just as Ananias and his wife were united in their conspiracy, so they were united in the judgment that came upon them. It may seem redundant that Luke closes his account of Ananias and Sapphira’s deception with the statement “Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.” However, this is a vignette of warning; and in concluding it Luke wants to stress this note of reverent fear—as he expressly did in v.5 and implicitly does throughout his account.

This is the first time in Acts that the word “church” (GK 1711) appears, though it is the regular word for both the church universal and local congregations elsewhere in the book (cf. 7:38; 8:1; 9:31; 11:22; 13:1; 14:23; 15:22, 41; 16:5; 19:32, 40; 20:28) and throughout the NT letters (cf. also Mt 16:18; 18:17).