The Apocalypse of Peter Overview

THE APOCALYPSE OF PETER

• Date: 132-135?

• Claimed Author: Peter

• Provence: Unknown

• Original Language: Greek

• References: Clement of Alexandria, Methodius, Macarius, Eusebius, Sozomon, The Muratorian Fragment, the Stichometry of Nicephorus, Theophilus of Antioch?

• This text has no relationship to the Gnostic “Apocalypse of Peter” found in Nag Hammadi

• This text is listed as canonical in Codex Claromontanus (along with the Shepherd of Hermas and Acts of Paul) and was used in public worship on Good Friday by the fifth century

• The Ethiopic text that we have today seems to be original, but the slightly different Akhmim text seems to have been adapted to fit with “The Gospel of Peter”

• The Apocalypse of Peter is the earliest Christian text describing Heaven and Hell

  • The Apocalypses of Paul and Thomas seem to take Peter’s vision of Heaven and Hell, and some have even claimed its influence goes all the way to Dante (although others would say that goes back to Jewish and Greco-Roman literature)

• Some scholars claim it taught universalism and so ended up being suppressed

pgs. 600-612 & https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1003.htm

1-2. Peter and the disciples come to ask Jesus about the signs of his coming and “the end of the world” while they’re on the Mount of Olives. Jesus tells them to learn from the fig tree: when its shoots come forth, and twigs grow, then will the end of the world come. Peter doesn’t understand, since the fig tree grows shoots every year. Jesus explains that the fig tree is Israel: some false Messiah will come, and they will follow him. Then they will reject him and be slain and martyred. That is when the fig tree shoots forth, and Enoch and Elijah will come to teach them that this false Messiah came to deceive them.

3. Jesus shows the souls of all men in his right hand: they see how the sinners are separated and weep as they are afflicted. Peter asks if “it were better for them if they had not been created.” Jesus asks how they could say such a thing: “You would not have more compassion than [God] for his image. He tells him how he will show him what will become of them all.

4-5. Jesus describes how animals will give up men that they devoured, and all people will be recreated just as God had created the world, and as Ezekiel had prophesied, saying that bones will connect to bones, sinews, nerves, flesh, skin, and hair. Darkness will cover the earth, and fire will be let loose as streams that flow until there is a gnashing of teeth. Then people will see him coming on a bright cloud with his angels; a crown will be set on his head, and the nations will see it and weep. He will command the righteous to come up and be with him, while he will command the unrighteous to go into the river of fire, where they will be punished according to their evil deeds.

6-10 [21-34]. Peter sees another dark and dirty place where angels clothed “with the air of the place” punish the unrighteous: those who blasphemed “the way of the righteous” hung by their tongues over fire; women who adorned themselves for adultery are hung by their hair  and men who joined them are hung by their loins over the mire; murderers are thrown into a gorge of evil with creeping things, where they are attacked by beasts (those murdered by them say “O God, righteous is your judgment”); the excrement of those in torment goes down into a lake where women sit into it going up to their necks and their children who they had conceived out of wedlock and aborted are crying and rays of fire smite the women in their eyes; those who were false witnesses gnawed their tongues and had fire in their mouths; those who reveled in their riches and didn’t pity the orphans and widows are clothed in filthy rags, rolling around in stones sharper than swords and heated with fire; those who behaved as the other sex or committed homosexuality are brought up to a high rock to be cast down to the bottom only to go up and do it again; those who had made and worshipped idols hit one another with hot rods of iron; those who forsook the way of God tossed and turned as they roasted in fire.

14. Jesus then describes that he will give his righteous elect “the baptism and the salvation for which they have besought me”. He will bring them to a field full of flowers and rejoice with them. Jesus then tells Peter to go into the city and preach about the suffering Son so that people may rejoice.

15-16 [1-20]. Jesus goes with them to the holy mountain to pray. They see two good-looking, very bright men. Peter asks who these two people are, and Jesus says they are “Moses and Elijah”. Peter asks where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the rest of the fathers are, and Jesus shows him a great, open garden, full of perfumes and plants. Peter rejoices and then asks if Jesus wants them to make a tabernacle for all of them. Jesus responds:

“Satan makes war against you, and has veiled your understanding; and the good things of this world prevail against you. Your eyes therefore must be opened and your ears unstopped that you may see a tabernacle, not made with men’s hands, which my heavenly Father has made for me and for the elect.”

They see it and rejoice.

17. A voice from heaven says it is pleased with His Son, who kept his commandments, and a white cloud comes over their heads and takes Jesus, Moses, and Elijah away. They see heaven opened and men “in the flesh” greet the three. Then heaven is shut, and they go down the mountain, praying and glorifying God.

(Ethiopic continues: Peter explains these things to Clement. However, later, Peter can’t stop thinking about the destiny of sinners. He weeps for hours, and Jesus says to him not to tell sinners what he is going to tell him lest they continue in their sin: He is returning for His righteous and elect, but he will pity sinners because of the prayers of his righteous and elect. Peter tells Clement to hide the apocalypse in a box so that the foolish will not read it).