Peter in Rome
Shim’on Bar Klofo
After the death of James ... it is said that those apostles and disciples of the Master that were still alive came together from all quarters and, together with those that were kin to the Master according to the flesh (for the majority of them remained still alive) took counsel as to whom they should judge worthy to succeed James. They all with one consent pronounced Simeon son of Clopas, of whom the book of the Gospels also makes mention; to be worthy of the throne of the community in that place. He was a cousin, as they say, of the Savior. Indeed, Hegesippus records that Clopas was a brother of Joseph. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.Il.I-2)
The martyrdom of James left the disciples of Yeshua reeling. The Desposyni (kinsmen of the Master) and the surviving disciples converged on Jerusalem. The kinsmen of Yeshua mourned the loss of their brother- the patriarch of their clan, the scion of the house of David. Everyone keenly felt James' absence. Since the earliest days of the assembly, James the Righteous provided stewardship over the throne of David, holding that office in readiness for the return of the Son of David. His death left the believers like sheep without a shepherd. They looked for someone who might step into the position of headship that James had left empty.
Only a man from among the Master's near kinsmen could fill the seat of steward over the throne of David. Even if Simon Peter himself was present (he probably was not), he could not take up the scepter of leadership in the place of James because he did not hail from the house of David.
The disciples and kinsmen of Yeshua agreed that Simeon son of Clopas (Shim'on bar Klofo) was the obvious choice for succession. His father, Clopas, was the brother of Joseph of Nazareth and one of the two disciples to whom the Master appeared on the Emmaus Road (Luke 24:18). His mother, Mary, stood at the foot of the cross with Mary the mother of the Master and Mary from Magdala while the Master died (John 19:25). Hegesippus says that Simeon son of Clopas presided over the Assembly for forty years, and he lived until his martyrdom at the age of 120 years. If the tradition is correct, he must have already been in his late sixties or early seventies at the time of his appointment to the office.
The brothers of the Master considered him a worthy heir to the house of David and the natural replacement for James. The disciples considered him a spiritual father over the whole assembly. After the deaths of the apostles, Simeon son of Clopas was, without a doubt, the leading personality in the assembly of Yeshua. He led the disciples of Yeshua through an apocalyptic period of time that saw wars, rumors of war, persecutions, martyrdoms, the fall of Jerusalem, and the beginning of the current exile.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Tobit the Heretic
The assembly up to that time had remained a pure and uncorrupted virgin, since, if there were any that attempted to corrupt the sound standard of the preaching of salvation, they were still then lurking, as it were, in some obscure and dark hole. (Eusebius, quoting Hegesippus, Ecclesiastical History 3.32.7)
The apostles and brothers of the Master unanimously declared Simeon son of Clopas worthy to take stewardship over the throne, but other candidates also received consideration. Another man from among the Master's kinsmen named Thebuthis asked to be considered for the position. The Hebrew name Tobit ("good," r'aro) might lie behind the phonetically similar Greek name Thebuthis (Osfoulic).
Thebuthis was apparently a man from the house of David and an influential voice among the Desposyni. He did not receive the position, and he chose to take that loss as a slight to his dignity. He did not reveal his irritation at first. He concealed his contempt for Simeon and continued to teach within the assembly, but over the next several decades, he began to sow seeds of contention and theological confusion among the disciples.
So long as Simeon son of Clopas remained alive and at the head of the assembly, the theological subterfuge of Thebuthis did not take deep root. After Simeon's death in the first or second decade of the second century, however, the teachings of Thebuthis divided the unity of the assembly:
Therefore, they called the assembly a virgin, for it was not yet corrupted by vain discourses. But Thebuthis, because he was not made overseer, began to corrupt the assembly. He also was sprung from the seven sects among the people. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.22.4-6)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Yeshua Ben Chananiyah
Josephus, Jewish War 6:300-309/V.3
After the death of James, a prophet of the LORD appeared in Jerusalem. Josephus tells the story of Yeshua ben Chananiyah, a common farmer, who traveled to Jerusalem for the Festival of Sukkot (62 CE). The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he began to prophesy in the Temple and throughout the city. Day and night, he wandered the city streets, calling out the same mournful lament:
A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegroom and the bride, and a voice against this whole people! (Jewish War 6:301/v.3)
The lament of Yeshua ben Chananiyah alludes to a prediction about the destruction of Jerusalem and Judea in Jeremiah 7:34:
I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a ruin. (Jeremiah 7:34)
Throughout the festival, day and night, the mournful prophet paced the city streets, repeating his gloomy oracle. The Sadducean leaders and chief priests ordered him to be arrested and flogged for disturbing the peace. They demanded an explanation, but he would not speak a single word in his defense. They gave him a severe flogging, but he opened not his mouth. As soon as they released him, he immediately continued with the same grim pronouncement as if "some sort of divine fury possessed the man."
The chief priests arrested him again. They would have put him to death if they had the authority to do so, but after the martyrdom of James, the new Roman governor, Albinus, sternly warned them against exercising that power. Since they could not do anything worse than flog the mad prophet, they agreed to turn him over to the Roman procurator. (Thirty years earlier, they did the same thing to another renegade prophet named Yeshua.) Albinus was in Jerusalem for the festival. The man stood silently before his tribunal and refused to answer any questions. Albinus decided that if a Jewish flogging could not cure the man, a Roman scourging would do the job. The Romans used thongs of leather or rawhide embedded with glass and shards of metal for scourging. The mysterious prophet "was whipped till his bones were laid bare," but he made no supplication for himself, nor did he shed a single tear. Each time the stroke fell upon his back, he answered in the most pathetic, sorrowful voice possible, "Woe! Woe to Jerusalem!"
After the scourging, Albinus tried to interrogate him again: "Who are you? From where do you come? Why do you utter these words?" The man made no reply other than to say, "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegroom and the bride, and a voice against this whole people!"
Albinus took him to be a madman and dismissed him.
Yeshua ben Chananivah left the lavish courtyard of the praetorium and continued with his dirge. He walked the streets and walls of Jerusalem for the next seven years. He associated with no one; he lived as a homeless man, circling about the city, always crying out, "Woe! Woe to Jerusalem!"
Ruffians and wicked fellows regularly assaulted him and beat him. The chief priests tried punishing him to silence him. He suffered daily abuse and insult, but he spoke no unkind words toward those who slapped him or mistreated him. He spoke no words to them at all except for his mournful lament, "Woe! Woe to Jerusalem!"
Others showed the man kindness. They brought him food and water, which he gratefully accepted, but he never spoke to his benefactors or gave them any reply at all except, "Woe! Woe to Jerusalem!"
His cry grew louder at the festivals when the city filled with people. His voice never seemed to grow hoarse, nor did his body ever seem to grow weary. The sound of his voice, the cadence of his dirge, became a regular part of Jerusalem's soundscape, "Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house!"
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Shim’on Magus Arrives in Rome
Because faith in our Savior and our Master, Jesus Christ, had spread among all men, the enemy of man's salvation contrived a plan for seizing the imperial city for himself. He brought the above-mentioned Simon [Magus] there, assisted him in his deceitful arts, led many of the people of Rome astray, and brought them under his own power. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.13.I)
In the Pseudo-Clementine literature, Simon Peter and his disciple Clement have many adventures pursuing Simon Magus and refuting his heretical ideas in Judea and all across the Diaspora in places like Syrian Antioch and Syrian Laodicea, but eventually, the magician made his way to Rome. The historian Tacitus once commented, "All things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center [in Rome] and become popular." Around the time that Paul of Tarsus was released and sailed from Rome on his journey to Spain, Simon Magus arrived in the city.
The early church considered Simon Magus to be the father of heresy and Gnosticism. Simon Magus found a way to use the philosophical dualism of the Greeks and an early form of Neo-Platonism to supplant Judaism, retell the story of the Bible, and ultimately co-opt the good news of Yeshua.
His clever, new system of theosophy transformed the good news into something completely different. Simon presented himself as the same divine power that appeared among the Jews as the Son of God. He claimed that he was a direct manifestation of "the being who is the father over all." This "father god" was not the God of the Bible, rather, he was a higher being, unknown and unrevealed, similar to the Platonic conception of an unknowable, transcendent deity.
He taught that the God of the Jews was a much lower, malevolent, angelic being who had created the corrupt material world and trapped a spiritual essence within it. This evil angel authored the Scriptures and kept men in subjugation under his capricious law, i.e., the Torah. Simon Magus promised his followers that if they believed in him, they need no longer heed the evil, angelic powers that masqueraded as the gods or the God of the Bible.
Simon Magus was the first to teach the cancellation of the Torah. Gnosticism taught that the evil God of the Jews used the Torah's laws as a means to keep men in bondage to the material world. Yeshua was not the Son of the God of the Jews, but the son of a higher god. He came down to fight the lower angels (including the LORD) and to liberate the spiritual essence of humanity from the Torah, from the material world, and from the God of the Jews.
Simon Magus employed signs and wonders to back up his claims. His satanic reversal of the gospel laid all the necessary foundations for Christian Gnosticism. It used the Scriptures in reverse to prove the exact opposite of what they were saying. The early church writers traced all the Gnostic Christian sects that plagued the second, third, and fourth centuries back to Simon Magus. Eusebius complained, "For [the Gnostics], after the manner of their forefather [Simon Magus], slip into the Church, like a contagious and leprous disease. They terribly sicken those into whom they are able to inject with the deadly and vile poison they conceal in themselves."
As a powerful sorcerer, Simon Magus can be compared to the false prophet of Revelation: "He deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast [Rome]" (Revelation 13:14).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Shim’on Petros Travels to Roma
Acts of Peter 5-7
Early Christian legends say that Simon Peter traveled to Rome for a theological and supernatural showdown with Simon Magus. The tradition is reported across a wide array of early Christian texts. It receives its most concrete development in the apocryphal Acts of Peter and the apocryphal Passion of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Acts of Peter, the earlier of the two works, places Simon Peter and Simon Magus in a public debate and a series of miracle contests. Passion of the Holy Apostles brings both Peter and Paul to thwart Simon Magus.
Both of the apocryphal accounts are the stuff of hagiographic fantasy, but they rest on a firm church tradition about Simon Magus' presence in Rome and a final confrontation with Simon Peter. Critics often dismiss the apocryphal stories as mere fiction, but the legends seem to have a historical basis beneath all the fantastic embellishments.
Eusebius edited out the apocryphal stories and fantastical miracle accounts, but his Ecclesiastical History reports the confrontation between Simon Magus and Simon Peter as a fact of sober, apostolic history. At the historical core, something dramatic happened in Rome involving Peter and the magician. The apocryphal Acts of Peter-although not reliable -attempts to flesh out the bare bones of the legend. We will use the apocryphal narrative's broad strokes to recreate a plausible telling of the story.
The apocryphal Acts of Peter says that the Master appeared to Simon Peter in a vision in Jerusalem and said, "Delay not! Set forth on the morrow, and there shall you find a ship ready, setting sail for Italy."
According to Acts of Peter, Simon Peter went alone and boarded a ship at Caesarea. In reality, his wife accompanied him and, according to standard apostolic protocol, a second apostle. It may have been Silas whom the apostles called Silvanus. At any rate, Silas ended up working with Peter in Rome (cf. I Peter 5:12). Simon Peter's disciple Clement also could have journeyed with him, but if Clement of Rome is the same Clement that Paul mentions in Philippians 4:3, he might have already been in Rome at the time of Simon Peter's arrival. If so, it is reasonable to suppose that he may have been the first to recognize the evil Simon Magus and the one to send a message to Judea requesting Peter's assistance.
Simon Peter's arrival in Rome would have brought several glad reunions and happy introductions. He was surely pleased to reconnect with John Mark, and he must happily have made the acquaintance of Aquila and Prisca. The devout tent-makers originally came from the Jewish community in Pontus, the very apostolate in which Simon Peter had spent the last several years at work.
Word spread quickly among the believers in Rome that Simon Peter had come. According to Acts of Peter, a great host of the disciples gathered to hear the disciple speak. Even those whom Simon Magus had seduced attended the event.
Peter testified on behalf of the Master as he always did when he came to a new place. Conscious of the situation at hand, he also confessed to having thrice denied the Master. He encouraged those disciples who had fallen away to repent and turn back:
Turn back, brethren, elect of the Master, and be strong in God Almighty, the Father of our Master Yeshua the Messiah, whom no man has ever seen at any time, nor will any see, except those who have believed in Him. And be aware of the source from which this temptation has come. I exhort you not only by words alone, but also by deeds and exceeding great works of power. I exhort you to the faith that is in the Messiah Yeshua and that none of you look to any other for salvation, save him who was despised and rejected ... even this Nazarene which was crucified and died and the third day rose again. (Acts of Peter 7)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Confrontation in the Forum
Acts of Peter 22-29
When Simon Magus heard that Simon Peter had arrived and was seeking him, he first tried to avoid the apostle, and then he sent word that he would face him in the city forum on the coming Sabbath. They set up scaffolds, and the people of Rome were told, "Tomorrow morning two Jews are to contend here concerning the teaching of God."
Simon Magus promoted the event among the Roman population, promising to demonstrate his powers. He even sold seating.
On the Sabbath, the forum filled with spectators, including many noble-men, senators, and high-ranking men of Rome. If such a public debate really did take place, the spectators would probably have come only from the Jewish community. These were Jewish questions about the Jewish religion. Most Romans had no interest in such matters.
Simon Peter addressed the crowd. Perhaps John Mark or Silas translated to Latin and Greek for him. He testified according to his custom and also denounced Simon Magus.
The ensuing disputation in Acts of Peter involves Simon scoffing at faith in a crucified carpenter and Simon Peter arguing through a series of standard proof texts from the Prophets and the Psalms. The disputation finds fuller expression in the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions and Homilies. That body of literature develops the theological and philosophical disputation between the two Simons into chapter after chapter of tedious arguments, back and forth.
In Acts of Peter, Simon Magus and Simon Peter compete against one another to perform some high-profile, public resurrections and miraculous signs. None of the material suggests any historical credibility, but it is certainly possible that Simon Peter engaged Simon Magus in a public debate within the context of the Jewish community in Rome. It is also possible that Simon Peter did perform healings and miracles, as he was accustomed to doing, on a caliber that Simon Magus could not duplicate.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Flight of Shim’on Magus
Acts of Peter 31-32
Simon Peter's work in Rome and constant challenges to Simon Magus undercut the magician's credibility. Many of the magician's converts turned back to faith in Yeshua, and the community of believers grew. After some time, Simon Magus conceived of a plan to recapture his followers. It involved a spiritual stunt on a scale he had, hitherto, never attempted. It required leaping from some great height and flying in the air.
He made a public announcement:
Men of Rome! Tomorrow I shall forsake you, godless and impious people that you are, and ascend unto God, whose Power I am, though I have become weak. Whereas you have all fallen, I am "He that stands!" And I shall ascend to my father and say to him, "I, even your son, the one that stands, they have desired to pull down, but I did not give in to them, and I have returned back to myself." (Acts of Peter 31)
The next day, a large crowd gathered in the city square called "Sacred Way" to see him fly. Simon Peter also came. In the version told in Passion of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, even the emperor came to see the spectacle. Nero did enjoy shows, stunts, feats of wonder, and every public entertainment - especially if it involved some type of grisly death scene at the end.
Simon Magus ascended to the high place from which he intended to ascend to heaven. In one version of the story, the emperor built a special wooden tower for the occasion. The magician's head was adorned with laurels, and he presented himself to the spectators below with the melodramatic flair popular in Rome at the time. With a final dramatic flourish, he leapt from the height, and indeed, he did fly. According to the legend, Satan's angels carried Simon Magus aloft, and all the people were amazed:
"And behold, when he was lifted up on high, and all beheld him raised up above all Rome and the temples thereof and the seven hills, the eyes of the faithful turned to Peter" (Acts of Peter 32). "And indeed he was carried up into the air by demons, and did fly on high in the air, saying that he was returning into heaven, and that he would supply them with good things from thence. And the people making acclamations to him, as to a god" (Apostolic Constitutions 6:2.0).
The story alludes to the temptation of Yeshua, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, 'He will command His angels concerning you to guard you, and, 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone" (Luke 4:9-11). With reference to the temptation stories, Simon boasted to his followers, "I have flown through the air ... made stones into bread, flown from mountain to mountain, moved from place to place, been lifted by angel's hands, and have descended upon the earth ... I am the Son of God" (Clementine Recognitions 3.47).
And Peter, seeing the strange sight, cried out to the LORD, and he spoke to the Master saying, "If you allow this man to accomplish that which he has set about to do, those who have believed on you will all take offense and forsake their faith. Let him fall from the height and be disabled, but let him not die, but bring him to naught. Let his leg be broken in three places." Simon Magus plummeted to the ground, and his leg was broken in three places. The people cast stones at him and derided him. Unable to walk, Simon found some to carry him to a physician. Two doctors attempted to perform surgery to mend his wounds, but he was sorely cut under their knives, and so, Simon, the messenger of Satan, came to his end.
According to the version told in Passion of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Peter rebuked the evil spirits, I adjure you, you angels of Satan who are carrying him into the air to deceive the hearts of the unbelievers, by the God that created all things, and by Jesus Christ, whom on the third day He raised from the dead, no longer from this hour to keep him up, but let him go." Immediately, being let go, Simon fell to the pavement of the Sacra Via (Holy Way), and his body split into four parts, having perished by an evil fate.
The fourth-century Apostolic Constitutions offers a fictional, first-person retelling of the apocryphal version of the story, supposedly narrated from Peter's recollections:
I stretched out my hands to heaven, with my mind, and besought God through the Lord Jesus to throw down this pestilent fellow, and to destroy the power of those demons that made use of the same for the seduction and perdition of men, but not to kill him ...When I had said these words, Simon was deprived of his powers, and fell down headlong with a great noise, and was violently dashed against the ground, and had his hip and ankle-bones broken; and the people cried out saying, "There is one only God, whom Peter rightly preaches in truth." (Apostolic Constitutions 6:2.9)
The story about the fall of Simon Magus circulated in Judaism as well, albeit in different folklore forms. (See the death of Balaam in the Midrash at Numbers 31:8 and associated anti-Christian polemics such as Toldot Yeshu.) The competing Jewish versions of the story attest to the widespread popularity of the tradition.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
What Really Happened?
Did Simon Magus really fly? Did Simon Peter really pray him out of the sky? The details of the story do not exactly inspire confidence in its verac-ity. Rather, it should be appreciated as a folktale, an anecdote of the early believers-if not a historical recollection of events.
At the same time, there is really nothing so impossible about the story. If we believe in miracles, the counterfeit powers of Satan, and the power of the Master's Name, why should we balk at a story so well-attested in the early sources?
Some type of confrontation must have happened to inspire the story.
If Simon Magus really is to be blamed for the emergence of Gnosticism, he was no less than an angel of Satan, an agent of deception that did more harm to the Master's disciples than any persecution or massacre. Doubt-lessly, powerful forces of evil were at work in such a man.
Something significant happened in Rome at some point between 62 CE (when Paul was released) and 64 CE (when the Neronian persecution began) to alert Nero and his government to the existence of the disciples of Yeshua. Until the persecution of 64/65 CE, the civil authorities considered the Master's disciples as a part of Judaism and entitled to all the legal advantages and protection afforded to Jews. Yet the Neronian persecution exclusively targeted a people called "Christians" and no other group. The Jewish community was not swept up in the persecution against the believers as they had been under Claudius. Therefore, at some point before the great persecution of 64 CE, the Roman authorities realized that the Christian community was distinct from official Judaism and could be separated from the rest of the Jewish community. The fall of Simon Magus, a large-scale publicity stunt that went terribly badly for the magician, may have had the effect of alerting the authorities to the presence of the spreading monotheism in their midst:
This was reported to Nero; and when he noticed that not only at Rome but everywhere great numbers of people were daily abandoning the worship of idols and condemning the practice of the past by coming over to the new religion, Nero, abominable and criminal tyrant that he was, leapt into action to overturn the heavenly temple and to abolish righteousness. (Lactantius, de Mortibus Persecutorum 2)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Gospel of Mark
The splendor of godliness so greatly enlightened the minds of those who heard Peter's teachings that they were not satisfied with hearing [his testimony] only once, and they were not content with the oral teaching of the divine gospel. With all sorts of entreaties they begged Mark, a follower of Peter, and the one whose gospel is extant, that he leave them a written monument of the teaching, which had been orally presented to them. Nor did they cease to ask until they convinced the man. This was the occasion of the written gospel which bears the name Mark. (Clement of Alexandria, Hypotyposes 8)
The notorious fall of Simon Magus increased Simon Peter's prestige among the Romans, and many new believers were added to the number. Simon Peter testified to the believers in Rome according to his custom, and he told them the stories of the Master. At that time, John Mark served as Simon Peter's interpreter, rendering the apostle's Aramaic and Hebrew into Greek and Latin. The disciples in Rome were delighted to hear Simon Peter's firsthand stories and eyewitness testimony. They begged John Mark to compile a written transcript of Peter's stories and the sayings of the Master.
Mark knew that Simon Peter would not be interested. In those days, the sages did not write books or create documents of their teachings. The disciples of the great rabbis and Jewish sages applied themselves to memorizing their teachers' words and passing those words on orally. Judaism considered the Hebrew books of the Tanach (Torah, Prophets, and Writings) as the written Scriptures. They considered the traditions of the fathers and teachings of the rabbis as the Oral Torah-something not to be committed to writing but only passed on orally from teacher to disciple. The Jewish disciple was responsible for passing on that body of oral tradition to the next generation. A disciple like Simon Peter committed his life to memorizing, preserving, and transmitting his teacher's interpretations, explanations, and exegesis of Scripture. A rabbi taught his disciples in the name of his own teacher, and his teacher's teacher, and his teacher's teacher's teacher ... transmitting a body of oral tradition as vast as the sea. This was the method of higher religious education in the days of Yeshua: "The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others" (2 Timothy 2:2).
For that reason, it did not enter the mind of Simon Peter to write a book. Nevertheless, Mark wrote down everything he heard Peter say, without embellishing or rearranging the material. Papias implies that the Markan ordering of events and sayings of the Master was not a "systematic arrange-ment." Instead, Mark simply recorded things as he remembered hearing them from Peter. The Gospel of Mark might be better titled as "The Gospel of Peter." This explains why the second-century Justin Martyr refers to the Gospels as the Memoirs of Apostles:
Mark, who had been Peter's interpreter, wrote down carefully, but not in order, all that he remembered of the Master's sayings and doings. For he had not heard the Master or been one of His followers, but later, as I said, he was one of Peter's. Peter used to adapt his teaching to the occasion, without making a systematic arrangement of the Master's sayings, so that Mark was quite justified in writing down some things just as he remembered them. For he had one purpose only-to leave out nothing that he had heard, and to make no misstatement about it. (Papias)
As Peter had preached the word publicly at Rome and declared the gospel by the Spirit, many who were present requested that Mark, who had followed him for a long time and remembered his sayings, should write them out. And after composing the gospel, Mark gave it to those who had requested it. When Peter learned of this, he neither directly forbade nor encouraged it. (Clement of Alexandria, Hypotyposes 8)
Mark wrote in a ragged, inarticulate form of common Greek. The style and voice recalled the sparse, bare-bones narrative style of biblical text and rabbinic teaching. Mark was not a historian, author, or rhetorician, and Greek was not his first language. The Greek of Mark reads "Hebrai-cally," as if it is a hyper-literal translation of a Semitic original. Semitisms and Hebraic idioms clutter the text. They may have made sense to Jewish readers, but they were surely lost on the Greek-speaking Gentiles in Rome. It was no work of art, and it did not begin to compare with the literature of the sophisticated, classical world. Despite all those weaknesses, the Gospel of Mark quickly went viral (by ancient standards) as scribes began copying and disseminating the work. Every believing community that heard about its existence wanted a copy for themselves.
When Simon Peter heard about it, he felt somewhat ambivalent about the concept of a written gospel. It was not the first time something like it had been done. Matthew had written out the sayings of the Master as he remembered them before leaving for his apostolate. Thomas created a similar collection of sayings. Mark's version was something more than a mere collection of sayings. It was Simon Peter's own testimony.
Simon Peter was not entirely certain that Mark had done a good thing by writing it all down. Had not the Master sent His apostles to testify on his behalf as eyewitnesses? "He neither directly forbade nor encouraged" the copying and reading of the written testimony. According to Eusebius, however, Peter did eventually make peace with the idea and endorsed Mark's work. He "was pleased with the zeal of the men, and the work obtained the sanction of his authority" for public reading (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.15.2).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
First Peter
Peter makes mention of Mark in his first epistle which, they say, that he wrote in Rome itself, as is indicated by him, when, cryptically speaking, he calls the city Babylon. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.I5.2)
When Silas announced his intention to travel to the congregations of Ana-tolia, Simon Peter asked him to carry a letter to the new believers he had left behind in his apostolate by the Black Sea. Silas may have helped him compose the letter as well. Simon Peter wrote, "Through Silvanus, our faithful brother (for so I regard him), I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!" (I Peter 5:I2).
Simon Peter addressed the epistle to new believers. The epistle exhorts the new believers to mature in their faith by entering into obedience to the new life, and it encourages them to stand fast in the face of rising persecu-tion. The authenticity of the epistle is often questioned, but there is no real reason to suggest that it is not an authentic letter composed by Simon Peter. The epistle speaks in an authentic Jewish voice and in the language of apostolic midrashim, allusions, and prophetic interpretations. At the end of the letter, Simon Peter sent the greetings of John Mark, whom he identified as "my son." exactly the way that Paul spoke of his disciple Timothy. This indicates that Peter considered Mark his personal disciple.
Simon Peter also sent greetings from "she who is in Babylon, chosen together with you." That was how he personified the assembly of believers in Rome. He referred to the Roman believers as "chosen together" with his readers. The apostles used the word "Babylon" as a cryptic code word for Rome-the modern Babylon of their day. Eusebius explains, "Cryptically speaking, he calls the city Babylon."
Simon Peter addressed the letter "to the elect sojourners of the Diaspora of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia" (I Peter 1:1). Was he addressing the epistle to Jewish believers or God-fearing Gentile believers? That question assumes a Pauline perspective, which makes a sharp distinction between "the circumcision" and "the uncircumcision."
Unlike Paul, Simon Peter did not prohibit (or even discourage) Gentile believers from undergoing conversion and taking on legal Jewish identity. He certainly did not require it, but neither did he think it should be forbidden. Most likely, many of the Gentiles in those congregations had undergone that transition-not for the sake of attaining salvation, but merely for the sake of assimilating into Jewish identity. (See the Epistle to the Galatians for Paul's attempt to curb that tendency in Galatia.) Simon Peter did not single out those who chose to remain as Pauline God-fearers. He ignored that category and addressed the epistle to Jews and proselytes without concern over the distinctions. He characterizes all of his readers as "God's elect sojourners" living as strangers in the Diaspora-language specific to Jewish identity.
This is why his epistle seems to address new, Gentile converts to the faith but, at the same time, categorizes them unambiguously as Jews. Most of them had already undergone a conversion.
Simon Peter anticipated that most of his readers were formerly Gentile pagans, so he warned them to "not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance" (I Peter I:I4). These pagan Gentiles had recently been "born again to a living hope" (I Peter 1:3), "born again ... of imperishable seed" (I Peter 1:23), and they were "like newborn babies" (I Peter 2:2). This indicates that the intended readership were recent converts who had just recently passed through the water of the mikvah: "Baptism now saves you-not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience-through the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah" (I Peter 3:21). Formerly, they were Gentile idolaters, therefore Peter states, "The time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries" (I Peter 4:3). Now they had become "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession" (I Peter 2:9). When they were still Gentile idolaters, they "were not a people," but now they had become part of "the people of God" (I Peter 2:10). Previously they had not received mercy, but now they had. Therefore, Peter tells the new ex-Gentiles, "Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles" (I Peter 2:12).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Rising Persecution
The epistle addresses concerns over rising persecution. Simon Peter observed that the Roman attitude toward the believers was changing. In previous decades, the Roman authorities hardly seemed to notice the existence of the believers. Things were changing rapidly. In Rome, the magistrates and officials-even Nero himself-had begun to distinguish between Jews and disciples of Yeshua. They saw that the disciples posed a threat to the social integrity of the state that the rest of the Jewish community did not. The Roman officials realized that the superstitions of the "Christians" were contagious and that they spread across social, ethnic, civic, and national boundaries.
The Roman world (and especially Nero) resented the moral purity and lofty sexual ethics of the Christians. Those who fell under the superstitious influence of the Christians abandoned their habitual indulgence in "sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries." Peter said, "[The Gentiles] are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and [because you do not,] they malign you" (I Peter 4:4). The Roman world began to malign the believers as deviants. They slandered the believers, claiming that they carried out secret, shameful rituals involving vile, sexual indecencies shocking enough to embarrass even the most brazen Roman. Of course, there was no proof of such a thing, but slander of a salacious nature is always eagerly believed. Worst of all. the Romans observed that the believers were abandoning the temples. The priesthoods complained that the gods were becoming irate over the insult.
All over the empire, people were beginning to speak about the "Chris-tians" with contempt. Simon Peter counseled his readers, "If you are reviled for the name of the Messiah, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you ... if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name" (I Peter 4:12-16).
He urged his readers to conduct themselves as model citizens and, thereby, silence the critics who claimed that the Christians were disloyal to the state. He said, "Submit yourselves for the Master's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men" (1 Peter 2:13-15). He told his readers to "honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor" (I Peter 2:17).
When they did face persecution, they should not think it strange. After all, they were disciples of the suffering Messiah: "Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of the Messiah, keep on rejoicing" (I Peter 4:12-13). Though they might face persecution for a little while, this was a necessary testing of their faith. Soon they would be recompensed for their endurance. He reminded them, "The end of all things is near" (I Peter 4:7).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.