Later text
Acts 5:9BSB
“How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?” Peter replied. “Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
Intertextuality Pair
Allusion
Later text
Acts 5:9BSB
“How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?” Peter replied. “Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
Earlier text
Exodus 17:2BSB
So the people contended with Moses, "Give us water to drink." "Why do you contend with me?" Moses replied. "Why do you test the LORD?"
Earlier text
Do not test the LORD your God as you tested Him at Massah.
Earlier text
Psalms 78:18BSB
They willfully tested God by demanding the food they craved.
Peter names Sapphira's collusion for what it is: "How could you agree to test (peirazō) the Spirit of the Lord?" The charge draws on Israel's wilderness sin — testing the LORD at Massah (Exod 17:2), forbidden in the Shema's own commentary (Deut 6:16), and remembered as the heart-sin that provoked God (Ps 78:18). To lie to the church is to presume upon God's patience, daring Him to overlook sin. The contrast is sharp: where faithless Israel tested God and was borne with in the wilderness, the Spirit-indwelt community is the very place of God's holy presence, so the sin is judged at once. Christ-terminus: the Spirit whom Ananias and Sapphira tested is the gift of the risen Christ poured out at Pentecost; the fear that falls on the church (v11) is reverence for the living Lord who dwells among His people, guarding the joy of His presence from the presumption that would cheapen it.