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ANANIAS.—This name occurs several times in the Apocrypha: in 1Es_9:21; 1Es_9:29; 1Es_9:43; 1Es_9:48 (representing ‘Hanani’ and ‘Hananiah’ of Ezr_10:20; Ezr_10:28, ‘Anaiah’ and ‘Hanan’ of Neh_8:4; Neh_8:7) and in Tob_5:12 f., Jdt_8:1. It is the name of three persons in NT. 1. The husband of Sapphira, who in the voluntary communism of the early Church sold ‘a possession’ and kept part of the price for himself, pretending that he had given the whole (Act_5:1 ff.). The sudden death of husband and wife, predicted by St. Peter, was the signal proof of God’s anger on this Judas-like hypocrisy. 2. A ‘devout man according to the law’ at Damascus, a disciple who instructed and baptized Saul of Tarsus after his conversion, restoring to him his sight by imposition of hands; he had been warned by the Lord in a vision (Act_9:10 ff; Act_22:12 ff.). 3. The high priest at the time when St. Paul was arrested at Jerusalem (Act_23:2 ff.), a Sadducee, son of Nedebæus, and a rapacious oppressor. He had been in trouble at Rome, but was acquitted, and was now at the height of his power. He pressed the prosecution against St. Paul at Cæsarea (Act_24:1 ff.). In the Jewish war he was murdered by his countrymen in Jerusalem, out of revenge for his pro-Roman tendencies.
A. J. Maclean.