Gospel of Peter - Historical References

Historical References

Into modern times the Gospel of Peter had been known only from early quotations, especially from a reference by Eusebius to a letter publicly circulated by Serapion in 190–203, who had found upon examining it that "most of it belonged to the right teaching of the Saviour," but that some parts might encourage its hearers to fall into the Docetist heresy. Serapion's rebuttal of the Gospel of Peter is otherwise lost.

Origen also mentions that the Gospel of Peter, together uyt "the book of James", was the source for the Church doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary. It would appear that the former text to which Origen was referring is another Gospel of Peter, as evidenced to date: two papyrus fragments from Oxyrhynchus, both in the Ashmolean Museum: P.Oxy 4009 and P.Oxy 2949 contain no such reference and what is referred today as the Gospel Of Peter, discussed below, contains a Passion narrative only.

2nd Clement refers to a passage thought to be from the Gospel of Peter: 2Clem 5:2 For the Lord saith, Ye shall be as lambs in the midst of wolves.

2Clem 5:3 But Peter answered and said unto Him, What then, if the wolves should tear the lambs?

2Clem 5:4 Jesus said unto Peter, Let not the lambs fear the wolves after they are dead; and ye also, fear ye not them that kill you and are not able to do anything to you; but fear Him that after ye are dead hath power over soul and body, to cast them into the Gehenna of fire.

“The saying of 5:2−4, for example, appears to be from the lost Gospel of Peter,” says Bart Ehrman in Lecture 15 of his audiobook, After The New Testament.