Which two people were struck dead when they lied to Peter?

Answer 1

In separate incidents in Acts 5: 1-11, Ananias and his wife Sapphira was struck dead by Peter, merely because they had decided to keep some of the money from the sale of their own property. On the face of it, this is something of an embarrassment for the Church, and all kinds of explanations and theological reasons are given. Some say that it was not Peter, but the Holy Spirit who killed them, but this merely shifts the blame. Some say that this was not a crime, since it is implied that they had promised all their money to the Church when they became Christians and that they must have lied about their intentions. The punishment is so disproportionate and so opposed to free will that this defence must be rejected. The only real defence for the Apostle Peter is that the story, of how he miraculously killed the two recent converts, was a literary invention that suits the theme of Acts but is not actually true.