Apocalypse of Peter

For the similarly titled Nag Hammadi text, see Gnostic early apocryphal ones are known: see Apocalyptic literApocalypse of Peter.
ature.) Scholar Oscar Skarsaune makes a case for dating
the composition to the Bar Kochba revolt (132136).[4]
The Apocalypse of Peter (or Revelation of Peter) is
an early Christian text of the 2nd century and an example of apocalyptic literature with Hellenistic overtones.
It is not in the Bible today, but is mentioned in the
Muratorian fragment, the oldest surviving list of New
Testament books, as no longer being allowed to be read
in church. The text is extant in two incomplete versions of a lost Greek original, one Koine Greek,[1] and
an Ethiopic version,[2] which diverge considerably. The
Greek manuscript was unknown until it was discovered
during excavations directed by Sylvain Grbaut during
the 188687 season in a desert necropolis at Akhmim
in Upper Egypt. The fragment consisted of parchment
leaves of the Greek version that had been carefully deposited in the grave of a Christian monk of the 8th or 9th
century. The manuscript is in the Egyptian Museum in
Cairo. The Ethiopic version was discovered in 1910.

2 Content
The Apocalypse of Peter is framed as a discourse of
the Risen Christ to his faithful, oering a vision rst of
heaven, and then of hell, granted to Peter. In the form of
a nekyia[5] it goes into elaborate detail about the punishment in hell for each type of crime, later to be depicted
by Hieronymus Bosch, and the pleasures given in heaven
for each virtue.
In heaven, in the vision,
People have pure milky white skin, curly hair, and
are generally beautiful

The earth blooms with everlasting owers and spices

Before that, the work had been known only through copi People wear shiny clothes made of light, like the anous quotes in early Christian writings. In addition, some
gels
common lost source had been necessary to account for
closely parallel passages in such apocalyptic Christian lit Everyone sings in choral prayer
erature as the Apocalypse of Esdras, the Apocalypse of
Paul, and the Passion of Saint Perpetua.
The punishments in the vision each closely correspond to
the past sinful actions in a version of the Jewish notion of
an eye for an eye, that the punishment may t the crime.[6]
Some of the punishments in hell according to the vision
1 Dating
include:
The terminus post quemthe point after which we know
the Apocalypse of Peter must have been writtenis revealed by its use of 4 Esdras, which was written about
100 AD; it is used in Chapter 3 of the Apocalypse.[3] The
intellectually simple Apocalypse of Peter, with its Hellenistic Greek overtones, belongs to the same genre as
the Clementine literature that was popular in Alexandria.
Like the Clementine literature, the Apocalypse of Peter
was written for a popular audience and had a wide readership. The Muratorian fragment, the earliest existing list
of canonical sacred writings of the New Testament, which
is assigned on internal evidence to the last quarter of the
2nd century (c. 175200), gives a list of works read in the
Christian churches that is similar to the modern accepted
canon; however, it also includes the Apocalypse of Peter.
The Muratorian fragment states: the Apocalypses also
of John and Peter only do we receive, which some among
us would not have read in church. (It is interesting that
the existence of other Apocalypses is implied, for several

Blasphemers are hanged by the tongue.

Women who adorn themselves for the purpose of
adultery, are hung by the hair over a bubbling mire.
The men that had adulterous relationships with them
are hung by their feet, with their heads in the mire,
next to them.
Murderers and those that give consent to murder are
set in a pit of creeping things that torment them.
Men who take on the role of women in a sexual way,
and lesbians, are driven up a great cli by punishing angels, and are cast o to the bottom. Then
they are forced up it, over and over again, ceaselessly, to their doom.
Women who have abortions are set in a lake formed
from the blood and gore from all the other punishments, up to their necks. They are also tormented
1

THE RU'YA BUTRUS

by the spirits of their unborn children, who shoot a

ash of re into their eyes. (Those unborn children are delivered to a care-taking angel by whom
they are educated, and made to grow up.)

of Clements, the Hypotyposes (Outlines), that gave

abridged accounts of all the canonical Scriptures, not
even omitting those that are disputed, I mean the book
of Jude and the other general epistles. Also the Epistle
of Barnabas and that called the Revelation of Peter.[10]
Those who lend money and demand usury upon So the work must have existed in the rst half of the 2nd
usury stand up to their knees in a lake of foul matter century, which is also the commonly accepted date of the
and blood.
canonic Second Epistle of Peter.[11] Although the numerous references to it attest to its being once in wide circulaThe Revelation of Peter shows remarkable
tion, the Apocalypse of Peter was ultimately not accepted
kinship in ideas with the Second Epistle of Peinto the Christian canon.
ter. It also presents notable parallels to the
Sibylline Oracles[7] while its inuence has been
conjectured, almost with certainty, in the Acts
4 The Ru'ya Butrus
of Perpetua and the visions narrated in the Acts
of Thomas and the History of Barlaam and JosThere are more than 100 manuscripts of an Arabic Chrisaphat. It certainly was one of the sources from
tian work entitled the Ru'ya Butrus, which is Arabic for
which the writer of the Vision of Paul drew.
the
'Vision' or 'Apocalypse' of Peter.[12] Additionally, as
And directly or indirectly it may be regarded
catalogues of Ethiopic manuscripts continue to be comas the parent of all the mediaeval visions of the
[8]
piled by William MacComber and others, the number of
other world.
Ethiopic manuscripts of this same work continue to grow.
It is critical to note that this work is of colossal size and
The Gospel parables of the budding g tree and the barren
post-conciliar provenance, and therefore in any of its reg tree, partly selected from the parousia of Matthew
censions it has minimal intertextuality with the Apoca24,[9] appear only in the Ethiopic version (ch. 2). The
lypse of Peter, which is known in Greek texts. Further
two parables are joined, and the setting in the summer
complicating matters, many of the manuscripts for either
has been transferred to the end of the world, in a dework are styled as a Testament of Our Lord or Testailed allegory in which the tree becomes Israel and the
tament of Our Savior. Further, the southern-tradition,
ourishing shoots Jews who have adopted Jesus as Mesor Ethiopic, manuscripts style themselves Books of the
siah and achieve martyrdom.
Rolls, in eight supposed manuscript-rolls.
There is also a section which explains that in the end God
In the rst half of the 20th century, Sylvain Grebaut
will save all sinners from their plight in Hell:
published a French translation, without Ethiopic text, of
this monumental work.[13] A little later, Alfons Mingana
My Father will give unto them all the life, the
published a photomechanical version and English translaglory, and the kingdom that passeth not away,
tion of one of the monumental manuscripts in the series
... It is because of them that have believed in
Woodbrooke Studies. At the time, he lamented that he
me that I am come. It is also because of them
was unable to collate his manuscript with the translation
that have believed in me, that, at their word, I
published by Grebaut. That collation, together with colshall have pity on men... "
lation to some manuscripts of the same name from the
Vatican Library, later surfaced in a paper delivered at a
Thus, sinners will nally be saved by the prayers of those conference in the 1990s of the Association pour l'Etudes
in heaven. Peter then orders his son Clement not to speak des Apocryphes Chretiennes. There seem to be two difof this revelation since God had told Peter to keep it se- ferent mega-recensions, and the most likely explanation is that one recension is associated with the Syriaccret:
speaking traditions, and that the other is associated with
the Coptic and Ethiopic/Ge'ez traditions. The northern
[and God said]"... thou must not tell that
or Syriac-speaking communities frequently produced the
which thou hearest unto the sinners lest they
manuscripts entirely or partly in karshuni, which is Aratransgress the more, and sin.
bic written in a modied Syriac script.
Each mega-recension contains a major post-conciliar
3 Career of the Apocalypse of Pe- apocalypse that refers to the later Roman and Byzantine emperors, and each contains a major apocalypse that
ter
refers to the Arab caliphs. Of even further interest is that
some manuscripts, such as the Vatican Arabo manuscript
Clement of Alexandria appears to have considered the used in the aforementioned collation, contains no less
Apocalypse of Peter to be holy scripture. Eusebius, than three presentations of the same minor apocalypse,
Historia Ecclesiae (VI.14.1), describes a lost work about the size of the existing Apocalypse of John, having

3
a great deal of thematic overlap, yet quite distinct textually.
Textual overlaps exist between the material common to
certain Messianic-apocalyptic material in the Mingana
and Grebaut manuscripts, and material published by Ismail Poonawalla.[14] The manuscripts having the Book
of the Rolls structure generally contain a recension of
the well-known Treasure Grotto text. The plenary
manuscripts also generally contain an Acts of Clement
work that roughly corresponds to the narrative or epitome story of Clement of Rome, known to specialists in
pseudo-Clementine literature. Finally, some of the plenary manuscripts also contain apostolic church order
literature; a collation of that has also been presented at
a conference of the Association pour l'Etudes des Apocryphes Chretiennes.
Collations of these manuscripts can be daunting, because
a plenary manuscript in Arabic or Ethiopic/ Ge'ez is typically about 400 pages long, and in a translation into any
modern European language, such a manuscript will come
to about 800 pages.

[5] The Apocalypse of Peter was presented as a nekyia, or

journey through the abode of the dead, by A. Dieterich,
Nekyia (1893, reprinted Stuttgart, 1969); Dieterich, who
had only the Akhmim Greek text, postulated a general
Orphic cultural context in the attention focused on the
house of the dead.
[6] Pointed out in detail by David Fiensy, Lex Talionis in the
'Apocalypse of Peter'", The Harvard Theological Review
76.2 (April 1983:255258), who remarks It is possible
that where there is no logical correspondence, the punishment has come from the Orphic tradition and has simply
been clumsily attached to a vice by a Jewish redactor. (p.
257).
[7] Specically Sibylline Oracles ii., 225.
[8] Roberts-Donaldson introduction.
[9] The canonic New Testament context of this image is discussed under Figs in the Bible; Richard Bauckham, The
Two Fig Tree Parables in the Apocalypse of Peter, Journal of Biblical Literature 104.2 (June 1985:269287),
shows correspondences with wording of the Matthean text
that does not appear in the parallel passages in the synoptic
gospels of Mark and Luke.

Overall, it may be said of either recension that the text

has grown over time, and tended to accrete smaller works. [10] Clement 41.12 48.1 correspond with the Ethiopian text
There is every possibility that the older portions that are
M. R. James in introduction to Translation and Introducin common to all of the major manuscripts will turn out to
tion to Apocalypse of Peter. The Apocryphal New Testahave recensions in other languages, such as Syriac, Copment (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924)
tic, Church Armenian, or Old Church Slavonic. Work on
[11] Perrin, Norman The New Testament: An Introduction, p.
this unusual body of medieval near eastern Christianity is
262
still very much in its infancy.

[12] These may be found in Georg Grag, Die Arabische

Christliche Schriftsteller, in the Vatican series Studi e Testi.

Notes

[1] The Greek Akhmim text was printed by A. Lods,

L'evangile et l'apocalypse de Pierre, Mmoires publis
par les membres de la mission archologique au Caire, 9,
M.U. Bouriant, ed. (1892:2142-46); the Greek fragments
were published by M.R. James, A new text of the Apocalypse of Peter II, JTS 12 (1910/11:367-68).
[2] The Ethiopic text, with a French translation, was published
by S. Grbaut, Littrature thiopienne pseudo-Clmentine,
Revue de l'Orient Chrtien, new series, 15 (1910), 198
214, 30723.
[3] For the date of the Ethiopic version, see C. Mauer in E.
Henecke, E. Schneemelcher and R. Wilson, New Testament Apocrypha (Philadelphia/Westminster) 1964.
[4] Oscar Skarsaune (2012). Jewish Believers in Jesus. Hendrickson Publishers. pp. 386388. ISBN 978-1-56563763-4. Skarsaune argues for a composition by a JewishChristian author in Israel during the Bar Kochba revolt.
The text speaks of a single false messiah who has not yet
been exposed as false. The reference to the false messiah
as a liar may be a Hebrew pun turning Bar Kochbas
original name, Bar Kosiba, into Bar Koziba, son of the
lie.

[13] Grebaut [title]

[14] Poonawalla, Shi'ite Apocalyptic in M. Eliade, ed., Encyclopedia of World Religions

6 Further reading
Eileen Gardiner, Visions of Heaven and Hell Before
Dante (New York: Italica Press, 1989), pp. 112,
provides an English translation of the Ethiopic text.

7 External links
Development of the Canon of the new testament:
Apocalypse of Peter
M. R. James 1924 introduction
Bibliography on the Apocalypse of Peter.

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Apocalypse of Peter Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse%20of%20Peter?oldid=634859542 Contributors: DopeshJustin,

Ihcoyc, Emperorbma, Charles Matthews, Wetman, Acegikmo1, David Gerard, Dave6, Naufana, Quadell, Gary D, Arensb, Rich Farmbrough, Number 0, Nard the Bard, Furius, Ignocrates, Summer Song, Sesmith, -Ril-, Koavf, Tommy Kronkvist, Eubot, Darkhorse82,
Elmer Clark, Kazuba, Theelf29, Badagnani, Emersoni, Woling, Nlu, Show no mercy, SmackBot, Paladinltd, Unyoyega, Hmains, Chris
the speller, Jprg1966, Chlewbot, Clinkophonist, Pwjb, Andrew Dalby, JoshuaZ, CmdrObot, Rwammang, Cydebot, Pdar, Rocket000,
A.J.Chesswas, Funnypretty, Knotwork, Everettattebury, Lord Seth, Awwiki, JMyrleFuller, Geekdiva, TXiKiBoT, AlleborgoBot, Robertoreggi, PbBot, Vanished user ewsn2348tui2f8n2o2utjfeoi210r39jf, PipepBot, Leadwind, Egardiner0, El bot de la dieta, Catalographer,
Biblioq, Yoman82, Editor2020, A ntv, Hatso, Addbot, Yobot, AnomieBOT, Testus, Xqbot, Eugene-elgato, Surv1v4l1st, RjwilmsiBot, In
ictu oculi, EmausBot, Lipsio, Couch on his Head and Smiling, Joefromrandb, Helpful Pixie Bot, PhnomPencil, JohnChrysostom, BattyBot,
Tahc, atrick, Ian Suttle (Satoru-kun), JudeccaXIII and Anonymous: 41

8.2

Images

8.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0