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New Testament Reading - Peter and John before the Council

¹While they were talking to the people, the chief priests, the captain of the Temple police, and some of the Sadducees^a came over to them, ²very disturbed that Peter and John were claiming that Jesus had risen from the dead. ³They arrested them and since it was already evening, jailed them overnight. ⁴But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so that the number of believers now reached a new high of about five thousand men!

⁵The next day it happened that the Council of all the Jewish leaders was in session in Jerusalem— 6 Annas the High Priest was there, and Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others of the High Priest’s relatives. ⁷So the two disciples were brought in before them.

“By what power, or by whose authority have you done this?” the Council demanded.

⁸Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Honorable leaders and elders of our nation, ⁹if you mean the good deed done to the cripple, and how he was healed, ¹⁰let me clearly state to you and to all the people of Israel that it was done in the name and power of Jesus from Nazareth, the Messiah, the man you crucified—but God raised back to life again. It is by his authority that this man stands here healed! ¹¹For Jesus the Messiah is (the one referred to in the Scriptures when they speak of) a ‘stone discarded by the builders which became the capstone of the arch.’^{b 12}There is salvation in no one else! Under all heaven there is no other name for men to call upon to save them.”

1. The Sadducees, who were members of a Jewish religious sect that denied the resurrection of the dead.
2. Implied; literally, “became the head of the corner.”