The Preaching of Peter

A popular document in early Christianity, the Preaching of Peter was widely assumed by early church fathers to have been composed by the apostle Peter himself. Most scholars today, however, think that it was written years after his death, sometime during the ﬁrst part of the second century. The book no longer survives intact but is known only through the quotations of later authors, especially Clement of Alexandria, who lived at the end of the second century and the beginning of the third. On the basis of these fragmentary remains it is impossible to judge the original length or contents of the document. Some of its major emphases, however, are reasonably clear: according to its author, Christianity is superior to both to the cults of pagans, who naively worship idols and living creatures, and to the religion of the Jews, who in their ignorance worship angels and celestial bodies rather than the true God. In particular, the book emphasizes that Christ fulﬁlled the predictions of the Jewish Scriptures and brought salvation to all people. Everyone who learns the truth of Christ is to repent for the forgiveness of their sins. It is possible, given its themes, that the book was one of the ﬁrst “apologies” for early Christianity, that is, a reasoned defense of the views of Christian over against the attacks of its cultured despisers among both pagans and Jews.

Clement of Alexandria Strom. 1.29.182

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.5.39–41

And in the Preaching of Peter you may ﬁnd the Lord called “Law and Word.”

But that the most notable of the Greeks do not know God by direct knowledge but indirectly, Peter says in his Preaching, “Know then that there

Translation by J. K. Elliott, Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993) 21–24; used with permission.

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is one God who made the beginning of all things and has power over their end,” and “The invisible who sees all things, uncontainable, who contains all, who needs nothing, of whom all things stand in need and for whose sake they exist, incomprehensible, perpetual, incorruptible, increated, who made all things by the word of his power . . . that is, the Son.” Then he goes on, “This God you must worship, not after the manner of the Greeks . . . showing that we and the notable Greeks worship the same God, though not according to perfect knowledge for they had not learned the tradition of the Son.” “Do not,” he says, “worship”—he does not say “the God whom the Greeks worship,” but “not in the manner of the Greeks”: he would change the method of worship of God, not proclaim another God. What, then, is meant by “not in the manner of the Greeks”? Peter himself will explain, for he continues, “Carried away by ignorance and not knowing God as we do, according to the perfect knowledge, but shaping those things over which he gave them power for their use, wood and stones, brass and iron, gold and silver, forgetting their material and proper use, they set up things subservient to their existence and worship them; and what things God has given them for food, the fowls of the air and the creatures that swim in the sea and creep on the earth, wild beasts and four-footed cattle of the ﬁeld, weasels too and mice, cats and dogs and apes; even their own foodstuffs do they sacriﬁce to animals that can be consumed and, offering dead things to the dead as if they were gods, they show ingratitude to God since by these practices they deny that he exists. . . .” He continues again in this fashion, “Neither worship him as the Jews do for they, who suppose that they alone know God, do not know him,

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serving angels and archangels, the month and the moon: and if no moon be seen, they do not celebrate what is called the ﬁrst sabbath, nor keep the new moon, nor the days of unleavened bread, nor the feast of tabernacles, nor the great day (of atonement).” Then he adds the ﬁnale of what is required: “So then learn in a holy and righteous manner that which we deliver to you, observe, worshipping God through Christ in a new way. For we have found in the Scriptures, how the Lord said, ‘Behold, I make with you a new covenant, not as the covenant with your fathers in mount Horeb.’1 He has made a new one with us: for the ways of the Greeks and Jews are old, but we are Christians who worship him in a new way as a third generation.”

Clement of Alexandra Strom. 6.5.43

Therefore Peter says that the Lord said to the apostles, “If then any of Israel will repent and believe in God through my name, his sins shall be forgiven him: and after twelve years go out into the world, lest any say, ‘We did not hear’.”

Clement of Alexandria Strom. 6.6.48

For example, in the Preaching of Peter the Lord says, “I chose you twelve, judging you to be disciples worthy of me, whom the Lord willed, and thinking you faithful apostles I sent you into the world to preach the gospel to people throughout the world, that they should know that there is one God; to

Jer 31:31–32

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declare by faith in me [the Christ] what shall be, so that those who have heard and believed may be saved, and that those who have not believed may hear and bear witness, not having any defence so as to say, ‘We did not hear.’ . . .” And to all reasonable souls it has been said above: Whatever things any of you did in ignorance, not knowing God clearly, all his sins shall be forgiven him, if he comes to God and repents.

Clement of Alexandria Strom. 6.15.128

Peter in the Preaching, speaking of the apostles, says, “But, having opened the books of the prophets which we had, we found, sometimes expressed by parables, sometimes by riddles, and sometimes directly and in so many words the name Jesus Christ, both his coming and his death and the cross and all the other torments which the Jews inﬂicted on him, and his resurrection and assumption into the heavens before Jerusalem was founded, all these things that had been written, what he must suffer and what shall be after him. When, therefore, we gained knowledge of these things, we believed in God through that which had been written of him.” And a little after he adds that the prophecies came by divine providence, in these terms, “For we know that God commanded them, and without the Scripture we say nothing.”

John of Damascus, Parall. A 12

(Of Peter): Wretched that I am, I remembered not that God sees the mind and observes the voice of the soul. Allying myself with sin, I said to myself, “God is merciful, and will bear with me; and because I was not immediately smitten, I ceased not, but rather despised pardon, and exhausted the long-suffering of God.” (From the Teaching of Peter): Rich is the man who has mercy on many, and, imitating God, gives what he has. For God has given all things to all his creation. Understand then, you rich, that you ought to minister, for you have received more than you yourselves need. Learn that others lack the things you have in superﬂuity. Be ashamed to keep things that belong to others. Imitate the fairness of God, and no one will be poor.

Origen, de Principiis i, prol. 8

But if any would produce to us from that book which is called The Doctrine of Peter, the passage where the Saviour is represented as saying to the disciples, “I am not a bodiless demon,” . . .

Gregory of Nazianaus, epp. 16 and 20

“A soul in trouble is near to God,” as Peter says somewhere—a marvellous utterance.