«Erano quelli i giorni degli Azzimi»: Pietro, un segno pasquale per i fratelli tra santità e missione (At 12,1-24).

The story of Peter's release from prison is often considered as an «erratic boulder» in the plot of the Acts. This work tries to show its crucial function in the development of the book. Placed between the episode of the conversion of the first ethnic group in the house of Cornelius and the foundation of the Church of Antioch (chs. 10-11) and the beginning of Paul's mission (chs. 13-14), it shows that by delivering Peter and defeating Herod, God has admittedly opened the doors of evangelization to those who were not Jewish. Thanks to several inter-text references to the exodus and the Jesus Passover, this passage legitimizes the transition from the apostolic witness represented by Peter, to that of the generations which follow and sets the conditions defining possibilities and methods for the ecclesial witness of any time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]