Apocalypse of Peter

The Apocalypse of Peter (also Apocalypse of Peter ) is a 135 authored in Egypt Christian text that belongs to the Apocrypha. It was written by the famous apostle Peter, but is a forgery ( pseudepigraphy )

Time and place of composition

As Peter Apocalypse probably 4 Ezra and 2 Peter used it was probably written around 100 AD. It is mentioned in the Muratorian Fragment and used by Theophilus of Antioch and Clement of Alexandria, had thus found around 180 AD already widespread ( so was probably written at least a few decades before). The attempt at a more precise dating to around 135 or shortly thereafter relates the parable of the fig tree in Chap. 2 to the Jewish Bar Kochba. This "revelation" was probably written down probably by a Jew Christian who drew from Greek and Jewish eschatological sources in Alexandria.

Dissemination and recognition

A Greek and an Ethiopian version have survived. The Peter - Revelation was about 150 AD from common, especially in the Greek-speaking East, and has been estimated by some church fathers (but remained generally always controversial ). In probably written in the city of Rome, the Muratorian Canon Peter - disclosure has been recognized (but referred to as controversial ). It was never translated into Latin, hence hardly read more from about 200 AD in the Latin West, as there declined the Greek - knowledge strong. In the east it was estimated: Clement of Alexandria even wrote a commentary on it, and in the canon directory of the Codex Claromontanus it is called at the end. On the other hand, it is not included in the canon of Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea she was among the spurious books. She appeared in the Middle Ages after strong.

Scope and content

The Peter - Revelation is a rather small book; it has about half the circumference of Hebrews. The text provides a very detailed description of the future hell and its caused by Ezrael penalties which have the Christian imagination fed to Dante's " Inferno" the Divine Comedy.

Like many other detailed images of the torments of hell in the Middle Ages, for example, goes back and the representation of the Last Judgment on a mosaic of Torcello (early 12th century) to the Peter Apocalypse.