The Sin and Punishment of Ananias and Saphira and the Discursive Construction of an Antithetical Monastic Model (2nd-10th c.). The Acts of the Apostles (Acts 5: 1-11) tell how Ananias and Sapphira, a married couple who wished to join the Apostolic Church, were punished by Peter for hiding a portion of the money they had made from the sale of their house, rather than completely sharing their wealth with the community. Focusing on commentaries of Acts 5: 1-11, from the Patristic era to the proto-feudal ages, this paper analyzes how the story of Ananias and Sapphira was understood and employed through the centuries, especially in relation to monasticism. After being used to reaffirm the Dogma of the Trinity and to legitimize the priest’s power to constrain, the biblical story played an important role in defining both the communal life and the circulation of goods. By insisting on these two later aspects in their writings, the monastic reformers of the 10th century made the damned couple an antithetical model for cenobitism (assimilating even the figure of Ananias to that of an heresiarch refusing to depart himself from his belongings). For the reformers, the story of Ananias and Sapphira thus argued in favour of the monks’ability to take charge of society.