Verse 6
Immediate burial was common in Palestine at this time, as the burial of Jesus illustrates. Evidently some of the younger and stronger believers disposed of Ananias’ corpse by preparing it for burial. [Note: Barrett, p. 269.] Many people were buried in caves or holes in the ground that had been previously prepared for this purpose, as we see in the burials of Lazarus and Jesus.
"Burial in such a climate necessarily followed quickly after death, and such legal formalities as medical certification were not required." [Note: Bruce, Commentary on . . ., p. 114.]
". . . when a man had been struck down by the hand of Heaven (as Joshua specifically says was the case with Achan: Joshua 7:25) his corpse must surely be consigned rapidly and silently to the grave. No one should mourn him. The suicide, the rebel against society, the excommunicate, tha apostate, and the criminal condemned to death by the Jewish court would be buried . . . in haste and without ceremonial, and no one might (or need) observe the usual lengthy and troublesome rituals of mourning for him." [Note: J. D. M. Derrett, "Ananias, Sapphira, and the Right of Property," in Studies in the New Testament Volume One, pp. 198.]
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