Ananias

Smith's Bible Dictionary

 

Anani'as. (whom Jehovah has graciously given).

1. A high priest in Act_23:2-5; Act_24:1. He was the son of Nebedaeus. He was nominated to the office by Herod, king of Chalcis, in A.D. 48; was deposed shortly before Felix left the province and assassinated by the Sicarii at the beginning of the last Jewish war.

2. A disciple at Jerusalem, husband of Sapphira, Act_5:1-11, having sold his goods for the benefit of the church, he kept back a part of the price, bringing to the apostles, the remainder as if it was the whole, his wife being privy to the scheme. St. Peter denounced the fraud, and Ananias fell down and expired.

3. A Jewish disciple at Damascus, Act_9:10-17, of high repute, Act_22:12, who sought out Saul during the period of blindness which followed his conversion, and announced to him, his future commission as a preacher of the gospel. Tradition makes him to have been afterwarded bishop of Damascus, and to have died by martyrdom.

 

Taken from: Smith's Bible Dictionary by Dr. William Smith (1884)