Acts 4:11 → Psalms 118:22

Peter explicitly quotes Psalm 118:22 — "Jesus is 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.'" The introductory formula identifies this as a direct quotation. Psalm 118:22 describes a stone rejected by builders that becomes the chief cornerstone. Peter identifies Jesus as this stone: rejected by the Jewish leaders (the builders) but exalted by God to the place of supreme importance. The connection operates through promise-fulfillment (the psalm's prophetic declaration finds its realization in Jesus); the rejected-then-vindicated stone is a proverbial image applied as prophecy, not a type-antitype correspondence. Jesus himself applied this text to himself (Matt 21:42; Mark 12:10-11; Luke 20:17), and Peter develops this stone Christology further in 1 Peter 2:4-8. The verse also stands at the christological center of the canon-wide longitudinal theme of the rejected-then-exalted deliverer (Joseph, Moses, Jephthah, David), which culminates in the rejected stone God made the cornerstone.