VISUAL THEOLOGY

Giovanni Lanfranco, The Liberation of St. Peter from prison by an angel (1620), oil on canvas, Birmingham Museum of Art (England).

The author of the Acts of the Apostles portrays Peter as an extremely important figure within the early Christian community, with Peter delivering a significant open-air sermon during Pentecost. According to the same book, Peter took the lead in selecting a replacement for Judas Iscariot. He was twice arraigned, with John, before the Sanhedrin and directly defied them. He undertook a missionary journey to Lydda, Joppa and Caesarea, becoming instrumental in the decision to evangelise the Gentiles. About halfway through, the Acts of the Apostles turns its attention away from Peter and to the activities of Paul, and the Bible is mostly silent on what occurred to Peter afterwards. The book of Acts  (chapter 12) tells how Peter was put into prison by King Herod, but was rescued by an angel. At the Council of Jerusalem, the early Church, Paul and the leaders of the Jerusalem church met and decided to embrace Gentile converts. Acts portrays Peter and other leaders as successfully opposing the Christian Pharisees who insisted on circumcision. The church in Rome was already flourishing when Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans about AD 57,[37] he greets some fifty people in Rome by name,[38] but not Peter whom he knew. There is also no mention of Peter in Rome later during Paul's two-year stay there in Acts 28, about AD 60-62. Church historians consistently consider Peter and Paul to have been martyred under the reign of Nero, around AD 65 such as after the Great Fire of Rome ■