Acts 4:5-28

Peter spoke, but both Peter and John had confidence (Acts 4:13), each enough to be noticed by the group in 4:5ff.  This interaction between Peter and John and those in 4:5-6 was clearly a situation in which Peter and John were outnumbered, so much so that it is surprising that the greater-in-number group did not intimidate the lesser.

They tried.  They "commanded" (4:18).  They "threatened" (4:21).  They said lots of things (4:23) to Peter and John, which Peter and John shared with their own (4:23).  But this group, Peter and John's companions, arrived at a conclusion about what had happened using an argument from the greatest confrontation with rulers in their Bible -- Psalm 2 (Acts 4:25-26).  Peter and John used the prophecy to explain their lesser confrontation, as we shell see in the next section.