The Apocalypse of Peter

Three different apocalypses surviving from ancient Christianity claim to have been written by Peter. The one presented here was discovered in 1887 in the tomb of a Christian monk, along with the Gospel of Peter; it was subsequently found in a fuller Ethiopic translation.1 This apocalypse was well-known in early Christianity; some churches counted it among the New Testament Scriptures.2 Eventually, though, it came to be excluded from the canon, in part because Christians realized that it was pseudonymous. Even then, however, the book continued to exercise a signiﬁcant inﬂuence on Christian thought. This is the ﬁrst Christian writing to describe a journey through hell and heaven, an account that inspired a large number of successors, including, ultimately, Dante’s Divine Comedy. The book begins with Peter and the other disciples on the Mount of Olives listening to Jesus deliver his “apocalyptic discourse” (see Mark 13). Peter asks about the coming judgment. Jesus responds by describing the terrifying events that will occur when the world is destroyed by ﬁre at the last judgment. He then details the eternal torments that await those destined for hell and the perpetual blessings of those bound for heaven. There is some ambiguity over whether Jesus actually takes Peter on a journey through these two abodes of the dead or simply describes them in such vivid detail that it feels as if Peter is seeing them. There is no ambiguity, however, concerning the respective fates of those destined for one place or the other. In an unsettling way, the horriﬁc punishments of the damned are made to ﬁt their crimes (chaps. 7–12). Those who have followed Christ and kept the commandments of God, however, will be brought into the eternal kingdom, where they will enjoy the blissful life of heaven forever. The book ends with Peter describing ﬁrst-hand what he saw on the Mount of Transﬁguration, possibly in order to validate the legitimacy of the rest of his vision (cf. 2 Pet 1:17–18). The ultimate goal of this ﬁrst-hand description of hellish and heavenly realities is reasonably clear: the way to escape eternal torment is to avoid sin.

For a full discussion, see Ehrman, Lost Christianities, 24–27. Canon of Eusebius.

See the Muratorian Canon and the

Translation by J. K. Elliott, Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993) 600–609; used with permission.

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THE APOCALYPSE OF PETER

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The following translation follows the more complete and, probably, more accurate Ethiopic version of the text.

The Second Coming of Christ and Resurrection of the Dead which Christ revealed through Peter to those who died for their sins, because they did not keep the commandment of God, their creator. And he (Peter) pondered thereon, that he might perceive the mystery of the Son of God, the merciful and lover of mercy. And when the Lord was seated upon the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him. And we besought and entreated him severally and implored him, saying to him, “Declare to us what are the signs of your coming and of the end of the world, that we may perceive and mark the time of your coming and instruct those who come after us, to whom we preach the word of your gospel, and whom we install in your church, that they, when they hear it, may take heed to themselves and mark the time of your coming.” And our Lord answered us saying, “Take heed that no one deceive you and that you be not doubters and serve other gods. Many shall come in my name saying, ‘I am the Christ.’ Believe them not, neither draw near to them. For the coming of the Son of God shall not be plain; but as the lightning that shines from the east to the west, so will I come upon the clouds of heaven with a great host in my majesty; with my cross going before my face will I come in my majesty; shining seven times brighter than the sun will I come in my majesty with all my saints, my angels. And my Father shall set a crown upon my head, that I may judge the quick and the dead and recompense every one according to his works.”

“And you learn a parable from the ﬁg-tree: as soon as its shoots have come forth and the twigs grown, the end of the world shall come.” And I, Peter, answered and said to him, “Interpret the ﬁg-tree to me: how can we understand it? For throughout all its days the ﬁg-tree sends forth shoots and every year it brings forth its fruit for its master. What then does the parable of the ﬁg-tree mean? We do not know.” And the Master answered and said to me, “Do you not understand that the ﬁgtree is the house of Israel? It is like a man who planted a ﬁg-tree in his garden and it brought forth no fruit. And he sought the fruit many years, and when he did not ﬁnd it he said to the keeper of his garden, ‘Uproot this ﬁg-tree so that it does not make our ground unfruitful.’ And the gardener said to his master, ‘Let us rid it of weeds and dig the ground round about it and water it. If then it does not bear fruit, we will straightway uproot it from the garden and plant another in place of it.’ Have you not understood that the ﬁg-tree is the house of Israel? Verily I say to you, when its twigs have sprouted forth in the last days, then shall false Christs come and awake expectation, saying, ‘I am the Christ who has now come into the world.’ And when they perceive the wickedness of their deeds they shall turn away and deny him whom our fathers praised, the ﬁrst Christ whom they cruciﬁed and therein sinned a great sin. But this deceiver is not the Christ. And when they reject him, he shall slay them with the sword, and there shall be many martyrs. Then shall the twigs of the ﬁg-tree, that is, the house of Israel, shoot

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forth: many shall become martyrs at his hand. Enoch and Elijah shall be sent to teach them that this is the deceiver who must come into the world and do signs and wonders in order to deceive. And therefore those who die by his hand shall be martyrs, and shall be reckoned among the good and righteous martyrs who have pleased God in their life.”

And he showed me in his right hand the souls of all people. And on the palm of his right hand the image of that which shall be accomplished at the last day; and how the righteous and the sinners shall be separated, and how those who are upright in heart will fare, and how the evil-doers shall be rooted out to all eternity. We beheld how the sinners wept in great afﬂiction and sorrow, until all who saw it with their eyes wept, whether righteous or angels, and he himself also. And I asked him and said to him, “Lord, allow me to speak your word concerning the sinners, ‘It were better for them if they had not been created.’ ” And the Saviour answered and said to me, “Peter, why do you say that not to have been created were better for them? You resist God. You would not have more compassion than he for his image: for he has created them and brought them forth out of not-being. Now because you have seen the lamentation which shall come upon the sinners in the last days, therefore your heart is troubled; but I will show you their works, whereby they have sinned against the Most High.”

“Behold now what shall come upon them in the last days, when the day of God and the day of the decision of the judgment of God comes. From the east to the west shall all the children of men be gathered together before my Father who lives for ever. And he shall

command hell to open its bars of adamant and give up all that is therein. “And the wild beasts and the fowls shall he command to restore all the ﬂesh that they have devoured, because he wills that people should appear; for nothing perishes before God and nothing is impossible with him, because all things are his. “For all things come to pass on the day of decision, on the day of judgment, at the word of God: and as all things were done when he created the world and commanded all that is therein and it was done, even so shall it be in the last days; for all things are possible with God. And therefore he said in the scripture, ‘Son of man, prophesy upon the several bones and say to the bones: bone unto bone in joints, sinew, nerves, ﬂesh, and skin and hair thereon.’3 “And soul and spirit shall the great Uriel give them at the commandment of God; for God has set him over the resurrection of the dead at the day of judgment. “Behold and consider the corns of wheat that are sown in the earth. As something dry and without soul do men sow them in the earth: and they live again and bear fruit, and the earth restores them as a pledge entrusted to it. “And this which dies, that is sown as seed in the earth, and shall become alive and be restored to life, is man. “How much more shall God raise up on the day of decision those who believe in him and are chosen of him, for whose sake he made the world? And all things shall the earth restore on the day of decision, for it also shall be judged with them, and the heaven with it.”

Ezek 37:4–6

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“And this shall come at the day of judgment upon those who have fallen away from faith in God and have committed sin. Cataracts of ﬁre shall be let loose; and darkness and obscurity shall come up and clothe and veil the whole world; and the waters shall be changed and turned into coals of ﬁre, and all that is in them shall burn, and the sea shall become ﬁre. Under the heaven there shall be a sharp ﬁre that cannot be quenched, and it ﬂows to fulﬁl the judgment of wrath. And the stars shall be melted by ﬂames of ﬁre, as if they had not been created, and the ﬁrmaments of the heaven shall pass away for lack of water and shall be as though they had not been. And the lightnings of heaven shall be no more, and by their enchantment they shall affright the world. The spirits of the dead bodies shall be like them and shall become ﬁre at the commandment of God. “And as soon as the whole creation dissolves, the people who are in the east shall ﬂee to the west, [and those who are in the west] to the east; those in the south shall ﬂee to the north, and those who are in the north to the south. And in all places shall the wrath of a fearful ﬁre overtake them; and an unquenchable ﬂame driving them shall bring them to the judgment of wrath, to the stream of unquenchable ﬁre which ﬂows, ﬂaming with ﬁre, and when the waves thereof part themselves one from another, burning, there shall be a great gnashing of teeth among the children of men.

“Then shall they all behold me coming upon an eternal cloud of brightness; and the angels of God who are with me shall sit upon the throne of my glory at the right hand of my heavenly Father; and he shall set a crown upon my head. And when the nations behold it, they shall weep, every nation for itself. “Then shall he command them to enter

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into the river of ﬁre while the works of every one of them shall stand before them. [Rewards shall be given] to everyone according to his deeds. As for the elect who have done good, they shall come to me and not see death by the devouring ﬁre. But the unrighteous, the sinners, and the hypocrites shall stand in the depths of darkness that shall not pass away, and their chastisement is the ﬁre, and angels bring forward their sins and prepare for them a place wherein they shall be punished for ever, every one according to his transgression. “Uriel the angel of God shall bring forth the souls of those sinners who perished in the ﬂood, and of all who dwelt in all idols, in every molten image, in every object of love, and in pictures, and of those who dwelt on all hills and in stones and by the wayside, whom people called gods: they shall be burned with them in everlasting ﬁre; and after all of them with their dwelling-places are destroyed, they shall be punished eternally.”

“Then shall men and women come to the place prepared for them. By their tongues where-with they have blasphemed the way of righteousness shall they be hanged up. There is spread under them unquenchable ﬁre so that they do not escape it. “Behold another place: there is a pit, great and full. In it are those who have denied righteousness: and angels of punishment chastise them and there they kindle upon them the ﬁre of their torment. “And again behold two women: they hang them up by their neck and by their hair; they shall cast them into the pit. These are those who plaited their hair, not to make themselves beautiful but to turn them to fornication, that they might ensnare the souls of men to perdition. And the men who lay with them in fornication shall be hung by their loins in

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that place of ﬁre; and they shall say one to another, ‘We did not know that we should come to everlasting punishment.’ “And the murderers and those who have made common cause with them shall they cast into the ﬁre, in a place full of venomous beasts, and they shall be tormented without rest, feeling their pains; and their worms shall be as many in number as a dark cloud. And the angel Ezrael shall bring forth the souls of those who have been slain, and they shall behold the torment of those who slew them and say one to another, ‘Righteousness and justice is the judgment of God. For we heard, but we believed not, that we should come into this place of eternal judgment.”

“And near this ﬂame there is a pit, great and very deep, and into it ﬂows from above all manner of torment, foulness, and excrement. And women are swallowed up therein up to their necks and tormented with great pain. These are they who have caused their children to be born untimely and have corrupted the work of God who created them. Opposite them shall be another place where children sit alive and cry to God. And ﬂashes of lightning go forth from those children and pierce the eyes of those who for fornication’s sake have caused their destruction. “Other men and women shall stand above them, naked; and their children stand opposite them in a place of delight, and sigh and cry to God because of their parents saying, ‘These are they who despised and cursed and transgressed your commandments and delivered us to death: they have cursed the angel that formed us and have hanged us up and begrudged us the light which you have given to all creatures. And the milk of their mothers ﬂowing from their breasts shall congeal and from it shall come beasts devouring ﬂesh, which shall come

forth and turn and torment them for ever with their husbands because they forsook the commandments of God and slew their children. As for their children, they shall be delivered to the angel Temlakos. And those who slew them shall be tormented eternally, for God wills it so.”

“Ezrael the angel of wrath shall bring men and women, with half of their bodies burning, and cast them into a place of darkness, the hell of men; and a spirit of wrath shall chastise them with all manner of torment, and a worm that never sleeps shall devour their entrails; and these are the persecutors and betrayers of my righteous ones. “And beside those who are there, shall be other men and women, gnawing their tongues; and they shall torment them with red-hot irons and burn their eyes. These are they who slander and doubt my righteousness. ‘Other men and women whose works were done in deceitfulness shall have their lips cut off; and ﬁre enters into their mouth and their entrails. These are they who caused the martyrs to die by their lying. ‘And beside them, in a place near at hand, upon the stone shall be a pillar of ﬁre, and the pillar is sharper than swords. And there shall be men and women clad in rags and ﬁlthy garments, and they shall be cast thereon to suffer the judgment of an unceasing torment; these are the ones who trusted in their riches and despised the widows and the women with fatherless children . . . before God.”

“And into another place nearby, full of ﬁlth, they cast men and women up to the knees. These are they who lent money and took usury. “And other men and women cast themselves down from a high place and return again and run, and devils drive them. These are the worshippers of idols, and

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they drive them up to the top of the height and they cast themselves down. And this they do continually and are tormented for ever. These are they who have cut their ﬂesh as apostles of a man: and the women with them . . . and these are the men who deﬁled themselves together as women. “And beside them . . . and beneath them shall the angel Ezrael prepare a place of much ﬁre: and all the idols of gold and silver, all idols, the work of human hands, and the semblances of images of cats and lions, of creeping things and wild beasts, and the men and women that have prepared the images thereof, shall be in chains of ﬁre and shall be chastised because of their error before the idols, and this is their judgment for ever. “And beside them shall be other men and women, burning in the ﬁre of the judgment, and their torment is everlasting. These are they who have forsaken the commandment of God and followed the (persuasions?) of devils.”

“And there shall be another place, very high . . . The men and women whose feet slip shall go rolling down into a place where is fear. And again while the ﬁre that is prepared ﬂows, they mount up and fall down again and continue to roll down. Thus shall they be tormented for ever. These are they who honored not their father and mother and of their own accord withheld themselves from them. Therefore shall they be chastised eternally. “Furthermore the angel Ezrael shall bring children and maidens, to show them those who are tormented. They shall be chastised with pains, with hanging up(?) and with a multitude of wounds which ﬂesh-devouring birds shall inﬂict upon them. These are they who trust in their sins and do not obey their parents and do not follow the instruction of their fathers and do not honor those more aged than they.

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“Beside them shall be girls clad in darkness for a garment, and they shall be seriously punished and their ﬂesh shall be torn in pieces. These are they who did not preserve their virginity until they were given in marriage and with these torments shall they be punished and shall feel them. “And again, other men and women, gnawing their tongues without ceasing, and being tormented with everlasting ﬁre. These are the servants who were not obedient to their masters; and this then is their judgment for ever.”

“And near by this place of torment shall be men and women who are dumb and blind and whose raiment is white. They shall crowd one upon another, and fall upon coals of unquenchable ﬁre. These are they who give alms and say, ‘We are righteous before God,’ whereas they have not sought after righteousness. “Ezrael the angel of God shall bring them forth out of this ﬁre and establish a judgment of decision(?). This then is their judgment. A river of ﬁre shall ﬂow, and all those judged shall be drawn down into the middle of the river. And Uriel shall set them there. “And there are wheels of ﬁre, and men and women hung thereon by the force of the whirling. And those in the pit shall burn; now these are the sorcerers and sorceresses. Those wheels shall be in all decision by ﬁre without number.”

“Thereafter shall the angels bring my elect and righteous who are perfect in all uprightness and bear them in their hands and clothe them with the raiment of the life that is above. They shall see their desire on those who hated them, when he punishes them and the torment of every one shall be for ever according to his works. “And all those in torment shall say with

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one voice, ‘Have mercy upon us, for now we know the judgment of God, which he declared to us before-time and we did not believe.’ And the angel Tatirokos shall come and chastise them with even greater torment, and say to them, ‘Now do you repent, when it is no longer the time for repentance, and nothing of life remains.’ And they shall say, ‘Righteous is the judgment of God, for we have heard and perceived that his judgment is good, for we are recompensed according to our deeds.’ ”

“Then will I give to my elect and righteous the baptism and the salvation for which they have besought me, in the ﬁeld of Akrosja (Acherusia) which is called Aneslasleja (Elysium). They shall adorn with ﬂowers the portion of the righteous, and I shall go . . . I shall rejoice with them. I will cause the peoples to enter into my everlasting kingdom, and show them eternal good things to which I have made them set their hope, I and my Father in heaven. “I have spoke this to you, Peter, and declared it to you. Go forth therefore and go to the city of the west and enter into the vineyard which I shall tell you of, in order that by the sufferings of the Son who is without sin the deeds of corruption may be sanctiﬁed. As for you, you are chosen according to the promise which I have given you. Spread my gospel throughout all the world in peace. Verily people shall rejoice; my words shall be the source of hope and of life, and suddenly shall the world be ravished.”

And my Lord Jesus Christ, our King, said to me, “Let us go to the holy mountain.” And his disciples went with him, praying. And behold there were two men there, and we could not look upon their faces,

for a light came from them, shining more than the sun and their raiment also was shining and cannot be described and nothing is sufﬁcient to be compared to them in this world. And the sweetness of them . . . that no mouth is able to utter the beauty of their appearance, for their aspect was astonishing and wonderful. And the other, great, I say, shines in his aspect above crystal. Like the ﬂower of roses is the appearance of the color of his aspect and of his body . . . his head. And upon his shoulders . . . and on their foreheads was a crown of nard woven from fair ﬂowers. As the rainbow in the water, so was their hair. And such was the comeliness of their countenance, adorned with all manner of ornament.

And when we suddenly saw them, we marvelled. And I drew near to God, Jesus Christ, and said to him, “O my Lord, who are these?” And he said to me, “They are Moses and Elijah.” And I said to him, “Where then are Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the rest of the righteous fathers?” And he showed us a great garden, open, full of fair trees and blessed fruits and of the odor of perfumes. The fragrance was pleasant and reached us. And of that tree . . . I saw many fruits. And my Lord and God Jesus Christ said to me, “Have you seen the companies of the fathers?” “As is their rest, such also is the honor and the glory of those who are persecuted for my righteousness’ sake.” And I rejoiced and believed and understood that which is written in the book of my Lord Jesus Christ. And I said to him, “O my Lord, do you wish that I make here three tabernacles, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah?”4 And he said to me in wrath, “Satan makes war against

Matt 17:4; Mark 9:5; Luke 9:33

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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 human hands, which my heavenly Father has made for me and for the elect.” And we beheld it and were full of gladness.

And behold, suddenly there came a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased:5 [he has kept] my commandments.” And then came a great and exceedingly white cloud over our heads and bore away our Lord and Moses and Elijah. And I trembled and was afraid; and we looked up, and the heaven opened and we beheld men in the ﬂesh and they came and greeted our Lord and Moses

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and Elijah and went to another heaven. And the word of the scripture was fulﬁlled: “This is the generation that seeks him and seeks the face of the God of Jacob.”6 And great fear and commotion took place in heaven, and the angels pressed one upon another that the word of the scripture might be fulﬁlled which says, “Open the gates, you princes.”7 Thereafter was the heaven shut, that had been open. And we prayed and went down from the mountain, glorifying God, who has written the names of the righteous in heaven in the book of life.

Matt 17:5

Ps 24:6

Ps 24:7, 9