Gospel of Peter

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The Gospel of Peter (abbreviated: PetrEv or EvPetr ) is an apocryphal gospel that, according to research, probably originated in Syria between 70 AD and the first half of the 2nd century. It belongs to the Gospels of the Passion by genre , that is, it deals primarily with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ . The condemnation of Jesus is attributed to the Jewish king Herod rather than the Roman governor Pilate . The PetrEv is the only known gospel that claims to offer an eyewitness account of the resurrection of Jesus.

Authorship, dating, place of origin

The Gospel is written as a first- person narration from the perspective of Simon Peter :

“But I, Simon Peter, and my brother Andrew took our nets and went to the sea. And it was with us Levi, the son of Alphaeus, whom the Lord had called (from customs ...?) "

- Gospel of Peter 14.60

However , it is extremely unlikely that the apostle Peter would write it. It is generally believed that it is a pseudepigraphic script that was written in the name of the well-known and recognized apostle to give authority to the text. Even the minority of researchers who believe that the Gospel of Peter was early dated to shortly before AD 75 (K. Berger, H. Köster, JD Crossan, F. Bovon) do not assume that the apostle Peter wrote it. Mostly it is assumed that there was only a single Gospel of Peter and that the parchment of Achmim presents the text of this Gospel along with a few other fragments.

A majority of researchers are convinced that the author took his information from worship readings from the canonical Gospels and wrote it down from memory with other traditions. This would presuppose the dissemination of the first three Gospels. Therefore, the majority assumes that the PetrEv was created in the 1st half of the 2nd century. The text is quoted for the first time in Serapion of Antioch , therefore the PetrEv must have been written before 190 AD.

Syria is assumed to be the place of origin due to some linguistic peculiarities.

Tradition, text fragments

The existence of a gospel of Peter is attested several times in the early church, especially by Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea . The latter reports in his Church History (VI, 12,3–6) of Bishop Serapion of Antioch (190–203 AD) that at the end of the 2nd century he found a Gospel of Peter in the small community of Rhossos in Syria, where it was used in worship . Euseb reports from Serapion that Serapion initially did not consider it harmful and tolerated it, despite some childish ideas that made themselves felt in the community through this writing, but then on a second visit to the community he noticed the docetical interpretation of this writing and then rejected the script. Serapion made a list of problematic quotes that Eusebius mentions, but which has not been passed down. Everything that is known on the subject indicates that the text fragments known today can be assigned to this font. Eusebius counts the scriptures among the scriptures not recognized in the church, in the wake of Eusebius Hieronymus and the Decretum Gelasianum also reject scriptures as apocryphal literature. Didymus of Alexandria names it explicitly as a forgery together with the Gospel of Thomas.

Achmim Codex, Papyrus Cairensis 10759

In the winter of 1886/87, a team from the French archaeologist Urbain Bouriant found a parchment in a Christian tomb in Achmim, Upper Egypt . The Greek text obtained on it was published by Bouriant in 1892. The Codex contains the Apocalypse of Peter or parts of it, parts of the Greek Book of Enoch , the martyrdom of Julian of Tarsus and the Gospel of Peter and, according to Kraus and Porter, dates from the sixth century, according to Schneemelcher from the eighth to ninth centuries.

As can be seen from the ornamentation at the beginning and end, the writer of the manuscript of Achmim only had this part of the Gospel before him. Therefore the well-known part of the Gospel of Peter consists of the story of Jesus' passion (not complete) and his story of the resurrection . It is therefore unclear whether it is - as with the Gospel of Nicodemus - just a Gospel of the Passion, or whether it was as extensive as the four Gospels in the New Testament.

The official cataloging is Papyrus Cairensis 10759 . The fragment was originally kept in the Egyptian Museum, then in the Coptic Museum in Cairo, where it could no longer be found in 2007. Later it is said to have been in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (until around 2009?), Where it could not be located either when asked by researchers. The original text must therefore be considered lost until further notice.

More text witnesses

Two further small papyrus fragments (P. Oxy. 2949 and P. Oxy. 4009) from Oxyrhynchos in Egypt around 200 AD and 150 AD, which contain only a few and barely legible lines, can most likely be assigned to the Gospel of Peter. The so-called Fayûm fragment P. Vindob G 2325 was also discussed by D. Lüdemann as a possible text witness of the PetrEv. Kraus sees in P. Vindob G 2324 a harmonization, a paraphrase or an excerpt of the synoptic material or otherwise a part of an unknown gospel. Paul Foster sees fragment 2949 as part of a summary or a commentary on the Gospel of Peter because of the low degree of agreement.

content

The text has been divided into 14 chapters by John A. Robinson and 60 verses by Adolf von Harnack .

  • Cape. I: The fragment begins in the middle of the Passion story: Refusal of the Jews to wash their hands in the presence of the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate as a sign of innocence. Then King Herod (not Pilate!) Orders Jesus to be led away and crucified.
  • Cape. II: Joseph of Arimathea asks Pilate to hand over the body of Jesus. He asks Herod's permission, who willingly gives it and declares that he would have been buried before the day of rest (Sabbath) anyway in compliance with the law of Moses (Deut 21: 22f.). Herod hands Jesus over to the Jewish people.
  • Cape. III: Some Jews mock, spit at and beat Jesus.
  • Cape. IV: Crucifixion together with two criminals. Jesus endures everything in silence. Inscription on the cross: "This is the King of Israel". The raffle of his clothes is condemned by one of those who were crucified with him, which angered the losers and prompted them not to break Jesus' thigh "so that his death would be even more agonizing."
  • Cape. V: Disturbing darkness over all of Judea at noon. Jesus gets bile to drink. After his last cry, "My strength, my strength, you have left me", Jesus is "received". Tearing the curtain in the Jerusalem temple.
  • Cape. VI: Jesus is taken from the cross. Earthquake, the sun shines again at the "ninth hour" (3 pm). Buried by Joseph of Arimathäa in his own tomb, which was in the so-called Joseph Garden.
  • Cape. VII: The Jews, elders and priests recognize their guilt and repent of the crucifixion. Peter and the disciples hide for fear of arrest, they fast and weep.
  • Cape. VIII: Gathering of scribes, Pharisees and elders in the face of the repentance of all the people. They realize that Jesus was righteous. Fearing the possible theft of the body and spreading the resurrection message, they ask Pilate for soldiers to guard the grave for three days. Pilate agrees. Closure of the grave with a large stone and seven-fold sealing. Guarding the entrance.
  • Cape. IX: Visit of the sealed tomb by many Jerusalemites early on the Sabbath. - The following night the watchmen hear a loud voice from heaven, see the sky open and two men descend. The stone in front of the grave rolls away by itself. The two men enter the grave.
  • Cape. X: Soldiers wake the captain and the elders, and while they are reporting what they have seen, all those present see three men stepping out of the grave, followed by a cross. A voice from heaven asks: "Did you preach to the dead?" The answer from the cross: "Yes, I did that."
  • Cape. XI: Those on watch consider reporting to Pilate; the sky opens again, a figure descends, goes into the grave. Then the people leave the grave and, fearful, rush to Pilate to report, their conclusion: “He was really God's Son”, whereupon Pilate protests his innocence “of the bloody death of the Son of God”. Ask Pilate to swear the captain and his soldiers to secrecy, for fear of being stoned by his own people. Pilate agrees.
  • Cape. XII: Mary Magdalene and her friends go to the grave early in the morning on the “day of the Lord” to do the usual services to the dead; Fear of discovery by the Jews, worry about the large stone.
  • Cape. XIII: discovery of the open grave; Inside, the women find a young man sitting in a shining robe who tells them twice or three times that Jesus has risen. The women are horrified and run away.
  • Cape. XIV: On the last day of Passover, the twelve disciples go home weeping and mourning. Petrus, Andreas and Levi (and ...?) Hike back to the Sea of ​​Galilee to fish (cf. quotation above for authorship). - Here the manuscript ends in the middle of the sentence.

Other references

In the Coptic Unknown Berlin Gospel , content parallels to Peter's Gospel are perceived.

literature

Source editions

Introductions and comments

  • Joel B. Green: The Gospel of Peter: Source for a Pre-Canonical Passion Narrative? , in: Journal for New Testament Science 78 (1987), pp. 293-301.
  • Raymond E. Brown: The Gospel of Peter and Canonical Gospel Priority , in: New Testament Studies 33 (1987), pp. 321-343.
  • John Dominic Crossan: The Cross That Spoke. The Origins of the Passion Narrative , Harper & Row: San Francisco 1988, ISBN 0-06-254843-3
  • Peter Pilhofer : Justin and the Gospel of Peter , in: Journal for New Testament Science 81 (1990), pp. 60–78.
  • Dieter Lührmann: P.Ox 4009: A new fragment of the Gospel of Peter? , in: Novum Testamentum 35 (1993), pp. 390-410.
  • Alan Kirk, Examining Priorities: Another Look at the Gospel of Peter's Relationship to the New Testament Gospels , in: New Testament Studies 40 (1994), pp. 572-595.
  • John Dominic Crossan: The Gospel of Peter and the Canonical Gospels. Independence, Dependence, or Both? , in: FORUM 1,1 (1998), pp. 7-51.
  • Tobias Nicklas: A "New Testament Apocryphon"? On the controversial reference to the canon of the so-called "Gospel of Peter" , in: Vigiliae Christianae 56 (2002), pp. 260–272.
  • Dieter Lührmann: The Gospels that have become apocryphal. Studies on new texts and on new questions . Supplements to Novum Testamentum 112. Brill: Leiden u. a. 2004, ISBN 90-04-12867-0
  • Paul Forster: Are There Any Early Fragments of the So-Called Gospel of Peter? , in: New Testament Studies 52 (2006), pp. 1–28.
  • Paul Foster: The Gospel of Peter: Introduction and Commentary, in: Texts and Editions for New Testament Study 4, ed. by Stanley E. Porter and Wendy Porter, Leiden, Brill, 2010.
  • Hans-Josef Klauck : Apocryphal Gospels. An introduction , Stuttgart 2002
  • Tobias Nicklas:  Gospel according to Peter. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (eds.): The scientific biblical dictionary on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff., Accessed on January 3, 2018.

Investigations

  • Karlmann Beyschlag: Das Petrusevangelium , in: Karlmann Beyschlag: The hidden tradition of Christ , seven stars: Hamburg and Munich 1969, pp. 27-64.
  • Jürgen Denker: The theological-historical position of the Gospel of Peter. A contribution to the early history of docetism . EHS 23/36. Lang: Frankfurt a. M. u. a. 1975, ISBN 3-261-01391-5
  • Jerry W. McCant: The Gospel of Peter: Docetism Reconsidered , in: New Testament Studies 30 (1984), pp. 258-273.
  • Peter M. Head: On the Christology of the Gospel of Peter , in: Vigiliae Christianae 46 (1992), pp. 209-224.
  • Timothy P. Henderson: The Gospel of Peter ans Early Christian Apologetics , (Scientific studies on the New Testament, 2nd row) Mohr: Tübingen 2011 ISBN 978-3-16-150709-0
  • Fred Lapham: Peter: The Myth, the Man and the Writings. A Study of Early Petrine Text and Tradition . JSNTSup 237. Sheffield Academic Press: London et al. a. 2003, ISBN 0-8264-6214-6
  • Tobias Nicklas: The 'Jews' in the Gospel of Peter (PCair 10759): A test case , in: New Testament Studies 47 (2001), pp. 206-221.
  • Tobias Nicklas: Narrator and character at the same time. On the literary function of "Peter" in the fragment of the Gospel named after him , in: Vigiliae Christianae 55 (2001), pp. 318–326.
  • Joseph Verheyden : Silent witnesses: Mary Magdalene and the Women at the Tomb in the Gospel of Peter , in: Reimund Bieringer, Veronica Koperski, B. Lataire (eds.): Resurrection in the New Testament. Festschrift J. Lambrecht. BETL 165. University Press: Leuven 2002, pp. 457-482.
  • Paul Foster: P. Oxy. 2949-Its Transcription and Significance: A Response to Thomas Wayment in: Academic journal article from Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 129, No. 1, 2010.

References and comments

  1. ↑ Klaus Berger, Christiane Nord: The New Testament and early Christian writings. Frankfurt 1999, p. 676.
  2. ^ François Bovon: Les derniers jours de Jésus. Textes et événements, Genève 1974, pp. 25-28. ISBN 2-8309-1116-4
  3. ↑ Gerd Theißen, Annette Merz: The historical Jesus. A textbook , Göttingen 4th edition 2008, p. 60.
  4. ^ Christoph Christoph Markschies I, p. 686.
  5. ↑ Christoph Markschies I, p. 687.
  6. ↑ Urbain Bouriant: Fragments du texte grec du Livre d'Énoch et de quelques écrits attribués à Saint Pierre. , in: Mémoires de la mission archéologique française au Caire (MMAF) No. 9.1, 1892, pp. 93–147 (Greek text with French translation by Bouriants).
  7. ↑ Christoph Markschies I, 1, p. 355.
  8. ↑ Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha, p. 181.
  9. ↑ Cf. Timothy P. Henderson: The Gospel of Peter and Early Christian Apologetics , Tübingen 2011, p. 13, note 22
  10. ↑ Thomas J. Kraus, Tobias Nicklas (ed.): New Testament Apocrypha , Vol. 1, Berlin / New York 2004, p. 5.
  11. ↑ Christoph Markschies, I, 1, p. 376.
  12. ↑ François Bovon contradicts this: Although the Jews “became aware that they had sinned”, the PetrEv does not expressly say in v.25 that they have shown repentance (Evangelical-Catholic Commentary (EKK) III / 4, Neukirchen- Vluyn 2009, p. 485).