7 WITNESSING TWO TWO ACTS APOSTLES BY IN THE OF THE together in two narrative sequences. The first is the long Jerusalem cycle concerning the healing of the lame man at the gate called Beautiful (Acts 3-4) where the two are mentioned as a couple six times. The second concerns the journey of Peter and John to sup- port the work of Philip in Samaria (8,14). In each of these cycles, both before the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem (5,40) and in their con- frontation with Simon the magician (8,18), Peter and John are labelled tout court as “the apostles”, while instead it would have been more appropriate to refer to them as “the two apostles”. All in all, it seems implied that the intention of Luke is to pre- sent Peter and John as a couple, beginning with the list of the Eleven in Acts 1,13 10 where John is placed surprisingly in second position 11, immediately after Peter, who is himself surprisingly separated from Andrew, his brother. 2. Of the Seven of Jerusalem, only Stephen and Philip In the book of Acts, the Twelve are shown to have a special relationship with the Seven who are elected at their request in Jerusalem (6,1-6). In Jerusalem the Seven are at the flank of the apostles (6,5-8,3), whereas the missionary activity in Samaria is undertaken by them who are only later joined by the Twelve to confirm and ratify their initiative (8,14-25). In this way, Luke signals the beginning both of the geographical expansion of the apostolic announcement outside Jerusalem, and of the prolongation of the witness of the Twelve by means of new protagonists. Concerning the unique relationship between Peter and John in Acts, cf. 10 for instance J. MUNCK, The Acts of the Apostles. Introduction, Translation and Notes (Garden City, NY 1967) 7: “The list of apostles deviates from that given in Luke vi, 13-16 especially in placing John directly after Peter”. Cf. ROSSÉ, Atti degli Apostoli, 107: “... poiché Giovanni è regolarmente 11 menzionato insieme a Pietro”; KLIESCH, Apostelgeschichte, 33: “Johannes rückt von den vierten auf die zweite Stelle, weil dieser in der Tradition der Kapitel 3 – 5 mit Petrus zusammen auftritt”. Since Peter and John are presented as a couple in Acts 1,13, it is difficult to accept the opinion of Betori (in Acts 1 the apostles are grouped three by three, Judas’ empty place included for the last group), Schneider and Marguerat (the kaı divides the list into two groups of ¥ two, one of four, and one of three); cf. G. BETORI, Perseguitati a causa del nome. Strutture dei racconti di persecuzione in Atti 1,12-8,4 (AnaBib 97; Roma 1981) 29; G. SCHNEIDER, Die Apostelgeschichte (Freiburg – Basel – Wien 1980) I, 207, n. 70 ; MARGUERAT, Les Actes des Apôtres, 50, n. 23.