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“We Cannot Ourselves Keep Quiet”
1 While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests and the officer in charge of the temple guard and the Sadducees confronted them,
2 up in arms about the fact that they were teaching the people the doctrine of the resurrection and pointing to Jesus as proof that the dead were in fact going to rise to life.
3 They arrested the two men and kept them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.
4 Many of those who had heard the message, however, believed, and the number of believers grew to about five thousand, not counting women or children.
5 The next day the Jewish leaders and the elders and the Torah-experts assembled in Jerusalem,
6 including Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and the rest of the high priest’s family.
7 After having Peter and John stand where everyone could see them, they began asking, “By what power or by what name did ᵖyou do this?”
8 Peter, then, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Leaders of the people and elders:
9 If we are being examined today because of an act of kindness shown to an ailing man, and are being asked how it was that this man was saved,
10 then know this and know it well, all of ᵖyou and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus the Messiah from Nazareth, whom you had crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, that this man is standing before you healed.
11 Jesus is ‘the stone’ that was despised by you ‘builders,’ which ‘turned out to be the cornerstone’;+
12 there is salvation in no one else. Yes, there is absolutely no other name throughout the earth, which has been given among mankind, by which we must ourselves be saved.”
13 When those assembled saw Peter’s courage and boldness, and John’s, too, and realized that they were but common men who had never received formal training in Torah, they were stunned, and it dawned on them that Peter and John had been Jesus’ traveling companions and disciples.
14 And because they saw there beside them the man who had been healed, standing, there wasn’t a thing they could say to refute them.
15 After ordering them to withdraw, then, from the presence of the Sanhedrin, they began discussing the matter with one another.
16 “What are we to do with these men?” they asked. “That there has taken place through them a truly remarkable sign, on the one hand, is obvious to each and every person living in Jerusalem, and we can’t deny it.
17 In order to keep this matter from spreading among the people any further, however, let us warn them not to speak in this name again to anyone.”
18 So calling the men back in, they told them that they were not to speak or teach another word in the name of Jesus.
19 Peter and John, however, replied to them, “ᵖYou must judge which one is in God’s judgment right. Is it ᵖyou whom we should obey, or God?
20 For we cannot ourselves keep quiet about the things we have seen and heard.”
21 After issuing further threats, the Sanhedrin released the two men, failing to find a way to punish them, on account of the people. Everyone, you see, was glorifying God for what had happened.
22 The man was, after all, more than forty years old, on whom this sign of healing had been performed.
“O Lord, Take Note of These Threats of Theirs”
23 Upon their release, Peter and John went to the other believers and told them everything that, in regard to the two of them, the chief priests and the elders had said.
24 On hearing this, they cried out to God in one accord. “Sovereign Master,” they prayed, “you who created the sky and the land and the sea and everything in them,
25 who spoke, by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our ancestor David, your servant, saying,
“ ‘Why do the Gentiles rage,
and the peoples devise futile plots?
26 The kings of the earth will surely appear for battle,
and the rulers join forces,
against the LORD and against his anointed Messiah.’+
27 —yes, it was Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Gentiles and peoples over Israel, who did in actual fact join forces in this city against your holy Servant Jesus, whom you anointed Messiah,
28 carrying out everything that you by your power and will had already decided would happen.
29 And now, O Lord, take note of these threats of theirs, and help your slaves to proclaim your word with full courage and boldness,
30 as you stretch out your mighty hand to perform through the name of your holy Servant Jesus healings and signs and wonders.”
31 And when they finished praying, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued declaring the word of God boldly.
“The Large Group of Those Who Believed Were United in Heart and Mind”
32 The large group of those who believed were united in heart and mind. No one, when it came to any of his possessions, claimed of them exclusive ownership; no, whatever people had they shared.
33 It was with great power that the apostles continued bearing solemn witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and they were all held in very high regard.
34 Yes, there was among them no person in need. Those who were owners, you see, of fields or houses, selling their properties, would bring the money from the sales
35 and place it at the feet of the apostles. The money would then be distributed to each person according to his need.
36 Joseph, for instance, whom the apostles named Barnabas (which means “Bringer of Help”), a Levite born on the island of Cyprus:
37 He owned a field, and after selling it, brought the proceeds and placed them at the feet of the apostles.