6 GIANCARLO BIGUZZI speaking through the debates of the apostolic assembly and the hard-won achievements from below (“It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to ...”). Thus, after the apostolic assembly of Acts 15, the Twelve can disappear from the stage and make way for the activity of Paul. All this, however, is paradoxically both more complex and at the same time more straightforward than it appears, as the rule of the witnessing two by two will make it clear. II. The testimony given “two by two” 1. Of the Twelve apostles, only Peter and John The book of Acts mentions the apostles whom Jesus appointed as his witnesses in Acts 1,8, some twenty times, but describes only the testimony of Peter and John. Furthermore, of these two, John never speaks or acts autonomously, and seven times out of eight he is represented as Peter’s companion 8, seeming to be nothing more than his shadow 9. Peter appears alone nine times in the narration of his visit to the coastal cities of Lydda and Joppa (Acts 9,32-43), nineteen times in the long episode of the centurion Cornelius, first at Caesarea Maritima and then at Jerusalem (Acts 10-11), and a fur- ther nine times in the account of his imprisonment and prodigious liberation from prison (Acts 12,1-19). At times, Peter speaks “with the apostles”, “with the eleven” (2,14; 2,37 and 5,29), or indepen- dently when he addresses the apostolic assembly in Jerusalem (Acts 15,7). Finally, he speaks and acts seven times together with John, as already mentioned. These two, Peter and John, the only ones among the Twelve of whom Luke reports the testimonial activity, are protagonists Cf. Acts 3,1.3.4.11; 4,13.19 and 8,14. 8 The only time when John is not at Peter’s side is found in Acts 12,2, in the 9 account of the martyrdom of James, called “John’s brother” to be distinguished from the James of Acts 15,13. The two “James” (and the two “Philips”) of Acts are erroneously identified in D. MARGUERAT, Les Actes des Apôtres (1-12) (Genève 2007) 49-50; cf. also R. PESCH, Die Apostelgeschichte (Zürich – Einsiedeln – Köln 1986) I, 287-290, and C. MATTHEWS, Philip Apostle and Evangelist. Configurations of a Tradition (NTS 105; Leiden 2002) 93.