The Gospel of Peter Overview

THE GOSPEL OF PETER

• Date: 150-200, >150?

• Sect: Gnostic (unintentionally)

• References: Origen, Eusebius

• Despite early debates and its early dating, it appears that the text is based on the Canonical Gospels

pgs. 154-158 & https://www.gospels.net/peter

1. Herod commands that Jesus be taken off to be executed. Here, Herod is made to be even more evil and directly commands that Jesus be executed.

4:10. Jesus composes himself as if he doesn’t feel pain as he is crucified. The thief on the cross tells the soldiers that Jesus did no wrong, and they are angered, so they decide not to break his legs so that he’ll die more slowly. The Divine ‘Logos’ is shown to have suffered in the flesh here. The thief on the cross speaks to the political powers by saying that Jesus wasn’t unjust and suffered for it.

5. As Jesus is on the cross, it is so dark that people must use lamps—and even then they trip in the dark as if it were midnight; after Jesus dies, at 3 PM, the sun shines again. Since Jesus’ death makes everything pitch black, but the day and time return afterwards, it is no wonder the disciples and others didn’t know that he had resurrected.

7-8. The Jewish elders say that they have done evil, they lament, and say that Jerusalem will come to an end because of the signs that happened when Jesus died (which means Jesus must have been righteous). Then, they decide to ask Pilate to have guards watch the tomb so that the disciples don’t steal the body from it. The Jews saw that Jesus was just at his death, but were bitter and hard-hearted so that they still wanted Jesus to stay dead and his movement to end.

9. The night before Jesus’ resurrection, a loud voice comes from the sky, it opens up, and two “men” come down to the tomb; the stone in front of it starts to roll by itself, and the “men” enter. This explains how the tombstone was rolled and why the angels sat by the tomb.

10. The guards awake after the two “men” go into the tomb and then see three men go out—one being supported by the other two—with a cross following them. They all reach for heaven, but one reaches beyond the heavens. A voice comes from the heavens asking, “Have you preached to those who sleep?” and the cross answers, “Yes”. The cross speaks and explains that Jesus harrowed Hades.

11. The guards see Jesus descend from heaven and enter the tomb, and they go off at night to tell Pilate that he really was God’s Son, but Pilate says that it was they who wanted to kill the Son of God. The soldiers plead with Pilate not to tell any king or master about it because “it is better…to make ourselves guilty of the greatest sin before God than to fall into the hands of…the Jews.” The guards and Pilate witnessed Jesus’ resurrection but didn’t mention it for their own sake. Throughout this narrative, two male guards must see everything, because the witness of women (found in the Canonical Gospels) obviously scandalized the early author of this apocryphon.

12. Mary Magdalene is said to be “a woman disciple of the Lord”. She “had not done at the sepulchre of the Lord what women are accustomed to do for their dead loved ones”.

Mary Magdalene is explained to be a disciple (perhaps one of the 70 or 500?) and has a special place in Jesus’ ministry. Perhaps the thing that Mary does that “women are [not] accustomed to do for their dead loved ones” is to go see Jesus alone and without men?