Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] An unusually large fragment of a lost gospel, the Gospel of Peter by Bart D. Ehrman, read by John Paul Middlesworth.
[00:00:10] I've been doing a thread on lost gospels, as these are represented by fragments of manuscripts that have been discovered and by quotations in the writings of church fathers. I was getting ready to post my favorite one today, and then I wondered, have I talked about that one before on the blog? Turns out, yes, some years ago. It is a fragment that may be a lost portion of the also lost gospel of Peter. The gospel of Peter is not completely lost. We have a chunk of it, but how large a chunk, we really can't say. I've talked about it on the blog several times, but I've decided I need to say something about it again to make sense of the fragment that will be coming in a later post. And to talk about the gospel of Peter itself will require a couple of posts. So here's the first.
[00:00:58] For my money, this is one of the most interesting ancient, non canonical gospels. As I indicated, we have only a large fragment of the book, which begins smack dab in the middle of an episode and ends literally in the middle of a sentence. To show why that's so tantalizing, let me first say a bit about what the gospel is. At least that part of it we still have the gospel comes from one of the most remarkable archaeological discoveries of christian texts in the 19th century. In the winter season of 1886 to 87, a french archaeological team headed by M. Grabant was digging in Achmeen in Upper Egypt, in a portion of a cemetery that contained graves ranging from the 8th to the 12th century CE.
[00:01:42] They uncovered the grave of a person they took to be a christian monk who had been buried with a book. Among other things, the book contained a fragmentary copy of a gospel written in the name of Peter. It is a parchment manuscript of 66 pages, averaging 13 by 16 cm, containing a small anthology of four texts in Greek, all of them fragmentary. The manuscript itself is not fragmentary. The works copied into it are incomplete. The Gospel of Peter, the apocalypse of Peter, the Book of Enoch, and the martyrdom of St. Julian. The first page is adorned with a cross. The second page starts at the top, frustratingly in the middle of a sentence, or at least an episode.
[00:02:28] But none of the Jews washed his hands, nor did Herod or any of his judges, since they did not wish to wash. Pilate stood up.
[00:02:39] Whoa. That's where it starts. Obviously, this is in the middle of Jesus trial before Pilate. And as I'll explain the rest of what we have gives an account of Jesus trial, crucifixion and resurrection. But since this is the beginning of the text, we have after a page of decoration, and yet it starts in mid sentence. It appears that the scribe producing this manuscript had before him only a fragmentary text.
[00:03:06] But what happened before this episode in the original gospel? How long was the account?
[00:03:12] Was it a narrative only of Jesus passion? Or was it a complete gospel starting, say, with his birth, as with Matthew and Luke? Or with his baptism, as with Mark and John? Or something else?
[00:03:26] What other strange things happen in the gospel? As you'll see in a second, some strange things happen in the part that's preserved. What was Jesus said to have done? What was he said to have said? Was it a full account of his life? There is no way to know, but see tomorrow's post.
[00:03:47] This beginning sentence itself is really interesting, though it is not hard to know what happened immediately previous to this statement. Pilate has just washed his hands of Jesus blood at his trial. That is a story found only in the gospel of Matthew. And not even Matthew stresses that none of the Jews washed his hands.
[00:04:08] That is a key to something that will be emphasized throughout this gospel of Peter. It is the Jews who are at fault for Jesus death, not the roman governor Pilate. In fact, in the next verse, it is King Herod, the king of the Jews, who orders Jesus death, not Pilate. Okay, then this account is more anti jewish than anything youll find even in the New Testament.
[00:04:33] Pages two through ten of the manuscript contain an account of Jesus trial, death, and resurrection, similar in many respects to the accounts of the New Testament gospels, but with striking differences and few extensive verbatim agreements.
[00:04:48] Throughout the text, the Jews are vilified for demanding Jesus death. After the crucifixion, for example, they realize just what they have done.
[00:04:58] Then the Jews, the elders, and the priests realized how much evil they had done to themselves and began beating their breasts, saying, woe to us because of our sins. The judgment and the end of Jerusalem are near.
[00:05:13] Verse 25. Here, then, is the notion found scattered throughout christian sources of the second and third century, that the roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE was divine retribution for the execution of Jesus.
[00:05:29] In addition to maligning the Jews and exonerating Pilate, the text provides a number of narrative details not found in other gospel accounts of the passion on the cross. One of the robbers reviles not Jesus, but the roman soldiers for killing Jesus. The soldiers respond by not breaking his legs, thus prolonging his suffering and forcing him to die in agony. He is buried by Joseph of Arimathea. And then the real strangeness begins, as in Matthew's gospel. The jewish leaders then ask pilate for soldiers to guard the tomb. The gospel of Peter, however, provides more elaborate detail. The centurion in charge is named Petronius, who, along with a number of soldiers, rolls a huge stone in front of the tomb and seals it with seven seals. Then they pitch their tent and stand guard. Then comes perhaps the most striking passage of the narrative, an actual account of Jesus resurrection and emergence from the tomb, an account found in none of our other early gospels. A crowd has come from Jerusalem and its surrounding neighborhoods to see the tomb.
[00:06:38] During the night hours, they hear a great noise and observe the heavens open up. Two men descend in great splendor. The stone before the tomb rolls away of its own accord, and the two men enter. The soldiers standing guard awaken the centurion, who comes out to see the incredible spectacle. From the tomb there emerge three men. The heads of two of them reach up to the sky. They are supporting the third, whose head reaches up beyond the skies.
[00:07:08] Behind them emerges a cross. A voice then speaks from heaven.
[00:07:14] Have you preached to those who are asleep?
[00:07:17] The cross replies, yes. Verses 41 and 42.
[00:07:23] A giant Jesus and a walking, talking cross. How did this ever get lost?
[00:07:30] It is striking that, unlike the authors of the NT Gospels, the author of this account writes in the first person on two occasions, once without identifying himself, I and my companions, verse 26, but the other time indicating that he is none other than the disciple Peter. This comes at the very end, in a verse that is enormously tantalizing, in no small part because it breaks off mid sentence right before giving us information that we very much want. Jesus has been raised, but it was the final day of the feast of unleavened bread, and many left to return to their homes now that the feast had ended. But we, the twelve disciples of the Lord, wept and grieved, and each one returned to his home, grieving for what had happened. But I, Simon Peter, and Andrew, my brother, took our nets and went off to the sea. And with us was Levi, the son of Alpheus, whom the Lord and there it ends. It appears that what will happen next will be an appearance of Jesus to these disciples at the sea of Galilee, like John 21. But how much more was there in the gospel? Were there other resurrection appearances? What did Jesus say to his disciples? How did they react? How did the gospel actually end? We will probably never know.
[00:08:55] Ill continue in the next post with more info on this gospel of Peter. Before giving a post of a tiny fragment that might also have come from it. The matter is hotly debated among experts.
