Following Pentecost Peter was based in Jerusalem, a city of one hundred thousand permanent residents and the center of the world for the Jewish Diaspora. Jerusalem drew hundreds of thousands of pilgrims every year. Thousands of Diaspora Jews, like the young Saul and his family, settled in Jerusalem and maintained their contacts with friends and family in the cities of the Roman and Persian empires. Many of those who heard Peter’s Pentecost message returned home to spread that message in faraway places. Over the next twelve years, while Peter was based in Jerusalem, the pilgrims continued to
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