Acts 4

The captain of the temple and the Sadducees arrest Peter and John while they are speaking in Solomon's Portico. Five thousand men have come to believe. The next morning, the Sanhedrin, the elders, and the scribes gather with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and question the two apostles: by what power or by what name did you do this? Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, replies directly: by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. He quotes Psalm 118 — this is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone — and makes the exclusive claim that shapes all subsequent Christian theology: there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.

The council sees that Peter and John are uneducated, common men, and is astonished; it recognizes that they had been with Jesus. But the healed man is standing before them, and they have nothing to say in opposition. They confer privately: we cannot deny the sign; we can only command them not to speak. They do so. Peter and John reply with the formula that becomes the charter of principled civil disobedience: whether it is right in God's sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. Released, the two return to the community and report what has happened. The community prays, quoting Psalm 2 — the kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord and against his Anointed — and asking not for protection but for boldness to speak the word. The place shakes; they are all filled with the Spirit. A summary follows: the community is of one heart and soul; no one claims private ownership; Barnabas sells a field and brings the money to the apostles.