Saint Peter Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Scholarly views==== Some church historians consider Peter and Paul to have been [[martyr]]ed under the reign of Nero,<ref name="ODCC self"/><ref name="St-Paul-Outside-the-Walls homepage"/> around AD 65 after the Great Fire of Rome.{{refn | group = note | name=historians}}<ref name="Wylen, pp.190-192"/><ref name="Dunn, pp. 33-34"/> Currently, most Catholic scholars,<ref>"most scholars, both Catholic and Protestant, concur that Peter died in Rome" Keener, Craig S., [https://books.google.com/books?id=8C2Y_HaL5W0C The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary], p. 425, n. 74, 2009 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company</ref> and many scholars in general,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title = Saint Peter the Apostle|year=2013|author=O'Connor, Daniel William|encyclopedia= [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/453832/Saint-Peter-the-Apostle/5632/Tradition-of-Peter-in-Rome|page=5|access-date=12 April 2013|quote=[M]any scholars… accept Rome as the location of the martyrdom and the reign of Nero as the time.}}</ref> hold the view that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero.{{refn|group=note|[[Margherita Guarducci]], who led the research leading to the rediscovery of Peter's reputed tomb in its last stages (1963–1968), concludes Peter died on 13 October AD 64 during the festivities on the occasion of the "dies imperii" of Emperor Nero.<ref>Rainer Riesner, ''Paul's Early Period: Chronology, Mission Strategy, Theology'' (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998) p. 65</ref>}} While accepting that Peter came to Rome and was martyred there, there is no historical evidence that he held episcopal office there.<ref name=BrownMeier>{{Cite book|title=Antioch and Rome: New Testament Cradles of Christianity |publisher=Paulist Press |year=1983 |page=98 |quote=As for Peter, we have no knowledge at all of when he came to Rome and what he did there before he was martyred.|author1=Brown, Raymond E. |author2=Meier, John P. |name-list-style=amp |isbn=978-0-8091-0339-3}}</ref><ref name=Cullman>{{Cite book|first=Oscar |last=Cullmann |title=Peter: Disciple, Apostle, Martyr, 2nd ed. |publisher=Westminster Press |year=1962 |page=234 |quote=From the second half of the second century we do possess texts that mention the apostolic foundation of Rome, and at this time, which is indeed rather late, this foundation is traced back to Peter and Paul, an assertion that cannot be supported historically. Even here, however, nothing is said as yet of an episcopal office of Peter.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|first=Henry |last=Chadwick |title=The Early Church, rev. ed. |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1993 |page=18 |quote=No doubt Peter's presence in Rome in the sixties must indicate a concern for Gentile Christianity, but we have no information whatever about his activity or the length of his stay there. That he was in Rome for twenty-five years is third-century legend.}}</ref><ref>J.N.D. Kelly, ''Oxford Dictionary of the Popes'' (Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 6. "Ignatius assumed that Peter and Paul wielded special authority over the Roman church, while Irenaeus claimed that they jointly founded it and inaugurated its succession of bishops. Nothing, however, is known of their constitutional roles, least of all Peter's as presumed leader of the community."</ref><ref>''Building Unity'', Ecumenical Documents IV (Paulist Press, 1989), p. 130. "There is increasing agreement that Peter went to Rome and was martyred there, but we have no trustworthy evidence that Peter ever served as the supervisor or bishop of the local church in Rome."</ref> According to two studies published by the German philologist {{Interlanguage link|Otto Zwierlein|de}} in 2009<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4V222SlC4oC&q=Zwierlein+Petrus+Gruyter&pg=PP1|title=Petrus in Rom|first=Otto|last=Zwierlein|date=20 February 2010|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|via=Google Books|isbn=978-3-11-024058-0}}</ref> and 2013 respectively,<ref>Zwierlein, Otto: ''Petrus und Paulus in Jerusalem und Rom. Vom Neuen Testament zu den apokryphen Apostelakten''. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2013. {{ISBN|978-3-11-030331-5}}.</ref> "there is not a single piece of reliable literary evidence (and no archaeological evidence either) that Peter ever was in Rome."<ref name="Zwierlein review">[[Pieter Willem van der Horst]], review of Otto Zwierlein, ''Petrus in Rom: die literarischen Zeugnisse. Mit einer kritischen Edition der Martyrien des Petrus und Paulus auf neuer handschriftlicher Grundlage'', Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009, in ''[[Bryn Mawr Classical Review]]'' [http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2010/2010-03-25.html 2010.03.25] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505161124/http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2010/2010-03-25.html |date=5 May 2010 }}.</ref><ref>[[James Dunn (theologian)|James Dunn]], review of Zwierlein 2009, in ''[[Review of Biblical Literature]]'' [http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7189 2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725092129/http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7189 |date=25 July 2011 }}.</ref>{{refn|group=note|Zwierlein's thesis has caused debate.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBPGDQAAQBAJ&q=Siecienski+Zwierlein&pg=PA48|title=The Papacy and the Orthodox: Sources and History of a Debate|first=A. Edward|last=Siecienski|date=20 February 2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|via=Google Books|isbn=978-0-19-024525-2}}</ref><ref name=Vision>{{cite web|url=http://subscribe.vision.org/first-followers/bid/41962/Petrus-im-Rom-or-Peter-in-Rome-revisited|title="Petrus im Rom" or Peter in Rome revisited|first=Staff|last=Bloggers|access-date=9 June 2017|archive-date=20 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120102549/http://subscribe.vision.org/first-followers/bid/41962/Petrus-im-Rom-or-Peter-in-Rome-revisited}}</ref> Zwierlein has made a summary of his view available online in English.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.philologie.uni-bonn.de/philologie/personal/zwierlein/st_peter_in_rome.pdf|title=Has St. Peter ever been in Rome?|access-date=2 November 2013|archive-date=6 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306171055/https://www.philologie.uni-bonn.de/philologie/personal/zwierlein/st_peter_in_rome.pdf}}</ref> An edited volume in German was also written in rebuttal against Otto Zwierlein's views.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://rosetta.reltech.org/TC/v17/TC-2012-Rev-Heid-Bockmuehl.pdf|title=Review of ''Petrus und Paulus in Rom''.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jesusmemoirs.wordpress.com/2017/06/19/otto-zwierlein/|title=Otto Zwierlein on the Traditions about Peter in Rome|first=Michael J.|last=Kok|date=19 June 2017}}</ref>}} [[Timothy Barnes (classicist)|Timothy Barnes]] has criticised Zwierlein's views as "a nadir in historical criticism".<ref>{{cite book |title=Peter in Early Christianity |last=Barnes |first=Timothy D. |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-8028-7171-8 |editor-last=Bond |editor-first=Helen K. |page=86 |chapter=’Another Shall Gird Thee’: Probative Evidence for the Death of Peter |editor-last2=Hurtado |editor-first2=Larry W. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DabDCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA86}}</ref> [[First Letter of Clement|Clement of Rome's First Letter]], a document that has been dated from the 90s to the 120s, is one of the earliest sources adduced in support of Peter's stay in Rome, but Zwierlein questions the text's authenticity and whether it has any knowledge about Peter's life beyond what is contained in the New Testament [[Acts of the Apostles]].<ref name="Zwierlein review"/> The letter also does not mention any particular place, only saying: "Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured not one or two, but numerous labours and when he had at length suffered martyrdom, departed to the place of glory due to him" (ch. 5).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scripturecatholic.com/the-primacy-of-peter/|title=The Primacy of Peter|date=7 August 2017}}</ref> A letter to the Romans attributed to [[Ignatius of Antioch]] might imply that Peter and Paul had special authority over the Roman church,<ref name="ODCC Peter" /> telling the Roman Christians: "I do not command you, as Peter and Paul did" (ch. 4), although Zwierlein says he could be simply referring to the Epistles of the Apostles, or their mission work in the city, not a special authority given or bestowed. Zwierlein questions the authenticity of this document and its traditional dating to c. 105–10, saying it may date from the final decades of the 2nd century instead of from the beginning.<ref name="Zwierlein review"/> The ancient historian [[Josephus]] describes how Roman soldiers would amuse themselves by crucifying criminals in different positions,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Flavius|first1=Josephus|title=Jewish War, Book V Chapter 11|url=http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/war-5.htm|publisher=ccel.org|access-date=1 June 2015}}</ref> and it is likely that this would have been known to the author of the ''Acts of Peter''. The position attributed to Peter's crucifixion is thus plausible, either as having happened historically or as being an invention by the author of the ''Acts of Peter''. Death, after crucifixion head down, is unlikely to be caused by [[suffocation]], the usual "cause of death in ordinary crucifixion".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=V8IjAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA350 The Holy Bible, according to the authorized version (A.D. 1611)] – [[Frederic Charles Cook]] – J. Murray (1881) p. 350</ref> [[File:Domenico Fetti 007.jpg|thumb|''Peter's vision of a sheet with animals'', [[Domenico Fetti]], 1619]] Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page