The Gospel of Peter

Discovery & Authorship

Discovered in a monk's grave in 1886, the Gospel of
Peter is a fragmentary gospel, meaning that we do not have the
complete text. What was discovered in that grave was a codex of 9
pages complete, which seems to indicate that the writer was copying
a text which had already been fragmented. Simon Peter is supposedly
the author of this text and that is why it became known as the
Gospel of Peter.

Dating

While there was some initial debate as to the date of
GPeter, the scholarly consensus by 1925 almost unanimously agreed
that this was a later gospel and that it could not have been written
before the second half of the second century. This position held for
almost fifty years before the debate raged up again over the
introduction of two fragments found at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. The
larger of the two fragments reversed the order of events in the
passion narrative making Joseph of Aramathea's request to Pilate
come before the execution! The significance of this lies with the
similarity to the order in Peter 2:1-3, which has the same
order.

And now, the Gospel of Peter:

1 ...but of the
Jews no one washed his hands, neither did Herod nor any one of his
judges. Since they were [un]willing to wash, Pilate stood up.
2 Then Herod the king orders the Lord to be taken away,
saying to them "Do what I commanded you to do to him."

2 Joseph stood
there, the friend of Pilate and the Lord, and knowing that they were
about to crucify him, he went to Pilate and asked for the body of
the Lord for burial. 2 And Pilate sent to Herod and asked for
his body. 3 And Herod replied, "Brother Pilate, even if no
one had asked for him, we would have buried him since the sabbath is
drawing near. For it is written in the Law, "The sun must not set
upon one who has been executed.'" And he turned him over to the
people on the day before the Unleavened Bread, their feast.

3 They took out
the Lord and kept pushing him along as they ran; and they would say,
"Let's drag the son of God since we have him in our power." 2
And they threw a purple robe around him and made him sit upon the
judgment seat and said, "Judge justly, King of Israel." 3 And
one of them brought a crown a thorns and set it on the Lord's head.
4 And others standing around spat in his eyes, and others
slapped his face, while others poked him with a rod. Some kept
flogging him as they said, "Let us pay proper respect to the son of
God."

4 And they
brought two criminals and crucified the Lord between them. But he
kept silence, as one feeling no pain. 2 And when they set the
cross upright, they wrote thereon: "This is the King of Israel."
3 And they laid his garments before him, and divided them
among themselves and gambloed for them. 4 But one of those
criminals reproached them, saying, "We suffer for the evils which we
have done; but this man which hath become the saviour of men, what
has he done to you?" 5 And they were amgry with him, and
commanded that his legs should not be broken, that so he might die
in torment.

5 Now it was
midday and darkness prevailed over all Judaea. They were troubled
and in an agony lest the sun should have set for he still lived. For
it is written that, "The sun should not set upon him that hath been
executed." 2 And one of them said, "Give him vinegar and gall
to drink." And they mixed it and gave it to him to drink. 3
And they fulfilled all things and brought their sins upon their own
heads. 4 Now many went about with lamps, supposing that it
was night, and they laid down. 5 And the Lord cried out aloud
saying, "My power, my power, you have forsaken me." When he had said
this, he was taken up. 6 And in the same hour the veil of the
temple of Jerusalem was rent in two.

6 And then they
pulled the nails from the hands of the Lord and laid him on the
ground. And the whole earth was shaken, and there came a great fear
on all. 2 Then the sun came out, and it was found to be the
ninth hour. 3 Now the Jews rejoiced, and gave his body unto
Joseph to bury it, because he had beheld the good things which he
did. 4 And Joseph took the Lord and washed him and wrapped
him in linen and brought him unto his own tomb, which is called the
"Joseph's Garden."

7 Then the Jews
and the elders and the priests, when they perceived how great evil
they had done themselves, began to lament and to say, "Woe unto our
sins! The judgement and the end of Jerusalem is near!" 2 But
I began weeping with my friends, and out of fear we would have hid
ourselves for we were sought after by them as criminals, and as
thinking to set the temple on fire. 3And beside all these
things we were fasting, and we sat mourning and weeping night and
day until the Sabbath.

8 But the
scribes and Pharisees and elders gathered together, for they had
heard that all the people were murmuring and beating their breasts,
saying, "If these very great signs have come to pass at his death,
he must have been innocent!" 2 And the elders were afraid and
came unto Pilate, begging him and saying, 3 "Give us soldiers
that we may guard his tomb for three days, lest his disciples come
and steal him away and the people suppose that he is risen from the
dead, and do us harm." 4And Pilate gave them Petronius the
centurion with soldiers to watch the tomb. And the elders and
scribes came with them unto the tomb. 5 All who were there
with the soldiers rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb
6 and plastered seven seals on it. Then they pitched a tent
there and kept watch.

9 Early in the
morning, as the Sabbath dawned, there came a large crowd from
Jerusalem and the surrounding areas to see the sealed tomb. 2
But during the night before the Lord's day dawned, as the soldiers
were keeping guard two by two in every watch, there came a great
sound in the sky, 3 and they saw the heavens opened and two
men descend shining with a great light, and they drew near to the
tomb. 4 The stone which had been set on the door rolled away
by itself and moved to one side, and the tomb was opened and both of
the young men went in.

10 Now when
these soldiers saw that, they woke up the centurion and the elders
(for they also were there keeping watch). 2 While they were
yet telling them the things which they had seen, they saw three men
come out of the tomb, two of them sustaining the other one, and a
cross following after them. 3 The heads of the two they saw
had heads that reached up to heaven, but the head of him that was
led by them wen beyond heaven. 4 And they heard a voice out
of the heavens saying, "Have you preached unto them that sleep?"
5 The answer that was heard from the cross was, "Yes!"

11 Those men
took counsel with each other and thought to go and report these
things to Pilate. 2 And while they were thinking the heavens
were opened again and a man descended and entered the tomb. 3
When those who were with the centurion saw that, they hurried to go
by night to Pilate and left the tomb that they were watching. They
told all what they had seen and were in great despair saying, "He
was certainly the son of God!" 4 Pilate answered them,
saying, I do not have the blood of the son of God on my hands. This
was all your doing." 5 Then all they came and begeed and
pleaded with him to order the centurion and the soldiers to tell
nothing of what they had seen. 6 "For," they said, "it is
better for us to be guilty of the greatest sin before God, than to
fall into the hands of the Jews and to be stoned." 7 Pilate
therefore ordered the centurion and the soldiers that they should
say nothing.

12 Early on the
Lord's day, Mary of Magdala, a disciple of the Lord, was afraid of
the Jews, for they were inflamed with rage, so she had not performed
at the tomb of the Lord the things that are cusomary for women to do
for their loved ones that have died. 2 She took with her some
women friends and came unto the tomb where he had been laid.
3 And they feared lest the Jews would see them, and said,
"Even if we were not able to weep and lament him on the day that he
was crucified, let us do so now at his tomb. 4 But who will
roll the stone away for us that is set upon the door of the tomb, so
that we may enter in and sit beside him and do what needs to be
done?" 5 The stone was indeed great. "We fear that someone
might see us. And if we cannot roll the stone away, let us cast down
at the door these things which we bring as a memorial of him, and we
will weep and beat our breasts until we arrive home."

13 And they went
and found the tomb open. They drew near to it and looked in and saw
a young man sitting in the middle of the tomb; He had a fair
countenance and was clad in very bright raiment. He said unto them,
2 Why are you here? Who do you seek? You're not looking for
the one that was crucified? He is risen and is gone. If you don't
believe it, look in and see the place where he was laid down, for he
is not there. For he has risen and is gone to the place that he had
come from. 3 Then the women fled in fear.

14 Now it was
the last day of Unleavened Bread, and many were returning to their
homes since the feast was ending. 2 But we, the twelve
disciples of the Lord, continued weeping and mourning, and each one
srill grieving for what had happened, left for his own home.
3 But I, Simon Peter, and Andrew my brother, took our fishing
nets and went to the sea. With us was Levi, the son of Alphaeus,
whom the Lord...

The texts ends at 14:3. Immediately following this
there is ornamentation indicating that this was copied from a text
which was a fragment, itself.

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