Apocalypse of Peter: Read Online
The Apocalypse of Peter is an early Christian apocalypse that describes visions of the fate of the righteous and the wicked.
Early Christian Writings · Historical Source Library
Apocalypse of Peter Overview and Study Guide
The Apocalypse of Peter is an early Christian apocalypse that describes visions of the fate of the righteous and the wicked. It became well known in parts of the second-century church and survives through different textual witnesses, especially a Greek fragment discovered at Akhmim and a more extensive Ethiopic form. Its vivid scenes helped shape later Christian imagination about postmortem judgment.
Apocalypse of Peter Summary
The apocalypse frames moral instruction as revealed vision. Peter is shown contrasting destinies for the righteous and for people guilty of different forms of injustice. The punishments are often reciprocal or symbolically fitted to the sin, a feature that gave the work exceptional imaginative power. The righteous, by contrast, are associated with transformed bodies, beauty, fragrance, light, and nearness to God. The text’s purpose is not curiosity alone: it presses the reader toward repentance by presenting ethical consequences as an unveiled future reality.
Historical and Literary Context
The work belongs to the early Christian apocalyptic tradition in which revelation discloses realities normally hidden from ordinary sight. Rather than offering a systematic geography of the afterlife, it uses morally charged scenes to portray divine judgment. Different wrongs receive corresponding punishments, while the righteous receive beauty, light, and rest. These scenes should be read as apocalyptic rhetoric designed to make ethical choices visible in dramatic form.
Authorship and Attribution
The work is pseudepigraphically attributed to Peter, meaning it speaks under apostolic authority without providing historical evidence that the apostle Peter composed the surviving text. Ancient Christians themselves disagreed about its ecclesial status. It was known and sometimes valued, but it did not become part of the New Testament canon.
Date and Setting
The Apocalypse of Peter is commonly dated to the first half of the second century CE. Its precise place of origin is uncertain. Its early reception shows that it circulated soon enough to be discussed alongside other Christian writings during debates over reading and authority.
Manuscripts, Transmission, and Reception
No single complete early Greek manuscript survives. The Akhmim discovery preserved an important Greek portion, while the Ethiopic tradition preserves a fuller form. Other fragments and quotations contribute to reconstruction. Because the witnesses differ, readers should avoid assuming that every surviving line represents one fixed original edition.
Major Themes in Apocalypse of Peter
- Judgment: Human actions are placed before divine evaluation, making accountability the organizing theme.
- Retributive imagery: Punishments often correspond symbolically to the offense, turning moral teaching into memorable visual scenes.
- Reward of the righteous: Light, beauty, rest, and transformed existence contrast with the punishments of the wicked.
- Repentance and warning: The vision functions pastorally as a call to change before judgment.
- Apocalyptic revelation: Peter receives hidden knowledge through visionary disclosure, linking the work to a wider Jewish and Christian apocalyptic world.
People and Communities
Peter is the named visionary authority. Jesus appears in the revelatory frame, and groups of righteous and wicked persons fill the visionary scenes. The text is less interested in sustained character development than in representative human actions and their consequences.
Places and Textual World
The visionary geography is theological rather than cartographic. Earthly settings give way to scenes of judgment and blessedness. The work’s manuscript history, however, reaches from Greek-speaking Christianity to Ethiopic preservation, showing a long transmission beyond its original setting.
How Apocalypse of Peter Is Structured
- Revelatory setting: A teaching scene opens into disclosure about the future and the fate of humanity.
- Blessed destiny: The righteous are described through images of beauty, light, and transformed life.
- Punishments of the wicked: A sequence of morally matched punishments dominates the best-known portion of the work.
- Eschatological warning: The revelation closes the gap between present behavior and future judgment, reinforcing repentance and faithfulness.
What This Work Is—and Is Not
The Apocalypse of Peter should not be confused with the later Coptic/Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter found at Nag Hammadi. It is also distinct from the canonical book of Revelation. Similar imagery does not prove direct literary dependence in every case; the works participate in a broader apocalyptic tradition.
Questions About Apocalypse of Peter
Is the Apocalypse of Peter in the New Testament?
No. It was known and valued by some early Christians but did not become part of the New Testament canon.
Did the apostle Peter write it?
The work is attributed to Peter, but modern scholarship generally treats that attribution as pseudepigraphic rather than historical authorship.
When was the Apocalypse of Peter written?
It is commonly dated to the first half of the second century CE.
How does the text survive?
Important witnesses include a Greek fragment from Akhmim and a fuller Ethiopic version, along with additional fragments and quotations.
Is it the same as Revelation?
No. Revelation is a canonical New Testament apocalypse; the Apocalypse of Peter is a separate early Christian apocalyptic work.
Historical English Source Edition
The reader presents the historical English source wording below.
Contents
The Apocalypse of Peter.
1. ...many of them will be false prophets, [3877] and will teach divers ways and doctrines of perdition: but these will become sons of perdition. [3878] 3. And then God will come unto my faithful ones who hunger and thirst and are afflicted and purify their souls in this life; and he will judge the sons of lawlessness. [3879]
4. And furthermore the Lord said: Let us go into the mountain: [3880] Let us pray. 5. And going with him, we, the twelve disciples, begged that he would show us one of our brethren, the righteous who are gone forth out of the world, in order that we might see of what manner of form they are, and having taken courage, might also encourage [3881] the men who hear us.
6. And as we prayed, suddenly there appeared two men standing before the Lord towards the East, on whom we were not able to look; [3882] 7, for there came forth from their countenance a ray as of the sun, and their raiment was shining, such as eye of man [3883] never saw; for no mouth is able to express or heart to conceive the glory with which they were endued, and the beauty of their appearance. 8. And as we looked upon them, we were astounded; for their bodies were whiter than any snow and ruddier than any rose; [3884] 9, and the red thereof was mingled with the white, and I am utterly unable to express their beauty; 10, for their hair was curly and bright and seemly both on their face and shoulders, as it were a wreath [3885] woven of spikenard and divers-coloured flowers, or like a rainbow in the sky, such was their seemliness.
11. Seeing therefore their beauty we became astounded at them, since they appeared suddenly. 12. And I approached the Lord and said: Who are these? 13. He saith to me: These are your brethren the righteous, whose forms ye desired to see. 14. And I said to him: And where are all the righteous ones and what is the æon in which they are and have this glory?
15. And the Lord showed me [3886] a very great country outside of this world, exceeding bright with light, and the air there lighted with the rays of the sun, and the earth itself blooming with unfading flowers and full of spices and plants, fair-flowering and incorruptible and bearing blessed fruit. 16. And so great was the perfume that it [3887] was borne thence even unto us. 17. And the dwellers in that place were clad in the raiment of shining angels and their raiment was like unto their country; and angels hovered about them there. 18. And the glory of the dwellers there was equal, and with one voice they sang praises alternately to the Lord God, rejoicing in that place. 19. The Lord saith to us: This is the place of your high-priests, [3888] the righteous men.
23. And there were also others, women, hanged by their hair over that mire that bubbled up: and these were they who adorned themselves for adultery; and the men who mingled with them in the defilement [3892] of adultery, were hanging by the feet and their heads in that mire. And I said: I did not believe that I should come into this place.
24. And I saw the murderers and those who conspired with them, cast into a certain strait place, full of evil snakes, and smitten by those beasts, and thus turning to and fro in that punishment; and worms, [3893] as it were clouds of darkness, afflicted them. And the souls of the murdered stood and looked upon the punishment of those murderers and said: O God, thy judgment is just.
25. And near that place I saw another strait place into which the gore and the filth of those who were being punished ran down and became there as it were a lake: and there sat women having the gore up to their necks, and over against them sat many children who were born to them out of due time, crying; and there came forth from them sparks of fire and smote the women in the eyes: and these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion.
29. And in a certain other place there were pebbles sharper than swords or any spit, red-hot, and women and men in tattered and filthy raiment rolled about on them in punishment: and these were the rich who trusted in their riches and had no pity for orphans and widows, and despised the commandment [3897] of God.
31. And other men and women were being hurled down from a great cliff and reached the bottom, and again were driven by those who were set over them to climb up upon the cliff, and thence were hurled down again, and had no rest from this punishment: and these were they who defiled [3898] their bodies acting as women; and the women who were with them were those who lay with one another as a man with a woman.
32. And alongside of that cliff there was a place full of much fire, and there stood men who with their own hands had made for themselves carven images instead of God. And alongside of these were other men and women, having rods and striking each other and never ceasing from such punishment.
[3877] False prophets. Cf. Matt. vii. 15; xxiv. 5, 11. Cf. Pastor of Hermas, Mand. xi.
[3878] Sons of perdition. Cf. 2 Peter ii. 1-3; iii. 7, 16; 2 Thess. ii. 3, and Ep. of Lyons and Vienne, Euseb. H. E. v. 1.
[3879] Purify their souls. Cf. 2 Peter i. 18. Sons of lawlessness. Cf. Pastor Herm. Vis. iii. 6.
[3880] Mountain. Cf. 2 Peter i. 18.
[3881] The righteous. Cf. 2 Peter i. 1; iii. 19. What manner of. Cf. 2 Peter iii. 11. Encourage. Cf. Pastor Herm. Vis. iii. 3.
[3882] Not able to look. Cf. 2 Cor. iii. 7 ff.
[3883] Eye of man, etc. Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 9.
[3884] Snow and rose. Cf. Bk. of Enoch cvi. 2.
[3885] Wreath. Cf. Ep. of Lyons and Vienne, ap. Euseb. H. E. v. 1, 36.
[3886] Apparently all the disciples are supposed to have had the vision of heaven, but Peter alone that of hell. Unfading. Cf. 1 Peter i. 4.
[3887] Odour. Cf. Ep. of Lyons and Vienne, l. c., and Passion of S. Perpetua, ch. xiii.
[3888] High priests. Cf. Didache 13, 3.
[3889] Squalid. Cf. 2 Peter i. 19. Punishment. Cf. 2 Peter ii. 9. Punishing angels. Cf. Pastor Herm. Sim. vi. 3. Dark. Cf. Jude, vv. 6 and 13.
[3890] Blasphemers. Cf. 2 Peter ii. 12; Pastor Herm. Sim. viii. 6; ix. 18. Fire. Cf. 2 Peter iii. 7.
[3891] Mire. Cf. 2 Peter ii. 22. Pervert righteousness. Cf. Pastor Herm. Sim. viii. 6. Cf. Titus i. 14.
[3892] Cf. Jude 7. Defilement. Cf. 2 Peter ii. 10, 14, 17, 20; Jude 8. Cf. Pastor Herm. Sim. vi. 5.
[3893] Darkness. Cf. 2 Peter ii. 17. Worms. Cf. Isaiah lxvi. 24; Mark ix. 48.
[3894] Restless worms. Cf. Isaiah lxvi. 24; Mark ix. 48. Cf. Esdras, Ante-Nicene Lib., vol. xvi., p. 472; Pastor Herm. Sim. ix. 19; viii. 6.
[3895] Slandered. Cf. 2 Peter ii. 2; Jude 8, 10.
[3896] False witnesses. Cf. Hermas. Mand. viii. 5.
[3897] The rich, etc. Cf. 2 Peter ii. 14. Cf. Pastor Herm. Vis. iii. 9; Sim. ix. 20; Sim. i. 8, and Mand. viii. 5. Commandment. Cf. 2 Peter ii. 21; iii. 2.
[3898] Defiled. 2 Peter ii. 10. Cf. Rom. i. 26 ff.; Jude 8.
[3899] Way of God. 2 Peter ii. 2. Pastor Herm. Vis. iii. 7; viii. 6; ix. 19, 22.
Fragments of the Apocalypse of Peter.
1. Clemens Alexandrinus, Eclog. 48. For instance, Peter in the Apocalypse says that the children who are born out of due time shall be of the better part: and that these are delivered over to a care-taking angel that they may attain a share of knowledge and gain the better abode [after suffering what they would have suffered if they had been in the body: but the others shall merely obtain salvation as injured beings to whom mercy is shown, and remain without punishment, receiving this as a reward]. [3900]
[3900] The part of the quotation between square brackets is assigned by Harnack to Clement himself and not to the Apocalypse.
[3901] Cf. Esdras, Ante-Nicene Lib., vol. xvi., p. 473.
Source and Edition Details
Historical public-domain English source edition