Peter & Andrew

SYMEON PETER
cause of Jesus and the obligation and liberty of the Apostles to preach the
Gospel (Acts 4:5-21).
When the early Christian Commune which shared everything together was
betrayed by the selfish Ananias and Sapphira Peter deals with the
situation with seriousness. Peter appears as judge of their action, and
God executes the sentence of punishment passed by the Apostle by
causing the sudden death of the two guilty parties (Acts 5:1-11).
The words of Peter were confirmed by signs and miracles every where he
went. The effect was so dramatic that the inhabitants of Jerusalem and
neighbouring towns carried their sick in their beds into the streets so that
the shadow of Peter might fall on them and they might be thereby healed
(Acts 5:12-16).
This great outbreak and growth of the Jesus cult put the Jewish Temple
authorities mad and they took the law in their hands and put the Apostles
in jail. Here again Peter defends the case saying they "ought to obey God
rather than men" (Acts 5:29 sqq.).
Soon the faith began to spread into the neighboring countries of Palestine
and Samaria under Phillip the Deacon. Peter and John goes down to
inaugurate the community there and invoke the Holy Spirit upon them.
Peter now undertook an extensive missionary tour, into the coastal cities
of Lydda, Joppa, and Caesarea.
• In Lydda he cured the palsied Eneas,
• in Joppe he raised Tabitha (Dorcas) from the dead; and
• at Caesarea, instructed by a vision which he had in Joppe, he
baptized and received into the Church the first non-Jewish
Christians, the centurion Cornelius and his kinsmen (Acts 9:31-
10:48). On Peter's return to Jerusalem a little later, the strict
Jewish Christians, who regarded the complete observance of the
Jewish law as binding on all, asked him why he had entered and
eaten in the house of the uncircumcised. Peter tells of his vision
and defends his action, which was ratified by the Apostles and the
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