The Acts of Peter

Authorship, Date, and Context

The Acts of Peter is one of the earliest and most influential apocryphal apostolic romances of early Christianity, composed originally in Koine Greek by an anonymous author. Later ecclesiastical writers, notably Photius in the ninth century, attributed the text to the heretical circle of Leucius Charinus. However, modern historical and textual criticism (represented by M. R. James, Wilhelm Schneemelcher, and Robert F. Stoops) demonstrates that the theology of the work is substantially more aligned with mainstream proto-orthodoxy than the Acts of John, albeit marked by strong encratite tendencies promoting absolute sexual continence.

Scholars place its composition in the second half of the second century CE, typically between 150 and 190 CE, most likely originating in Asia Minor where Johannine and Petrine narrative cycles circulated widely. The socio-historical setting reflects the urgent necessity felt by early Christian communities to counteract the seductive influence of pagan sorcery and Gnostic speculations in Rome, dramatizing Peter’s journey to the imperial capital to restore the church following the inroads of Simon Magus and culminating in the apostle’s martyrdom under Nero.

Structure

The primary extant witness, preserved in the seventh-century Latin manuscript of Vercelli (Actus Vercellenses), consists of forty-one continuous numbered chapters, augmented at its conclusion by independent Greek manuscripts and eastern translations of the Martyrdom of Peter, as well as the Coptic Papyrus Berolinensis 8502.

The dramatic narrative advances through four well-defined movements: Paul’s farewell and the crisis of mass apostasy in Rome caused by Simon Magus (chapters 1 to 3); Peter’s divine commissioning, sea voyage, and early miraculous signs at the house of the senator Marcellus (chapters 4 to 19); the climactic public showdown in the Roman Forum featuring competitive resurrections and the thwarting of Simon’s flight (chapters 20 to 32); and Peter’s ascetical preaching on chastity, his famous flight on the Appian Way ("Quo vadis?"), and his inverted crucifixion (chapters 33 to 41).

Themes and Key Passages

The predominant theological themes celebrate the unassailable superiority of Christ’s life-giving power over demonic sorcery and counterfeit wonders, the strict observance of chastity as the hallmark of discipleship, and an esoteric theology of the Cross. Peter’s upside-down crucifixion is framed not merely as personal humility before Christ, but as a cosmic symbol rectifying the inverted, fallen nature of humanity inherited from Adam.

Famous narrative episodes include the watchdog granted human speech to rebuff Simon Magus (chapter 9), the dried herring restored to life and swimming in a bowl of water (chapter 13), the encounter on the Appian Way where Christ tells Peter that he is going to Rome to be crucified (chapter 35), and Peter’s profound theological discourse from the inverted cross regarding the mystery of the cosmic wood (chapter 38).

Summary by Parts

Paul's departure and the devastation wrought by Simon Magus (chapters 1-5): Paul confirms the Roman church and departs for Spain following heavenly visions; during his absence, Simon Magus arrives in Aricia and enters Rome professing to be the great power of God, deceiving the faithful and causing widespread apostasy; warned by Christ in Jerusalem after completing twelve years of ministry, Peter sets sail from Caesarea, baptizes the captain Theon in the Adriatic, and arrives in Rome to lodging with Narcissus.

Peter's arrival in Rome and wonders at Marcellus' estate (chapters 6-19): The wealthy senator Marcellus, having previously fallen under Simon’s sway, repents bitterly and welcomes Peter; to confront Simon barricaded inside his house, Peter endows a large watchdog with human speech to deliver God's summons; challenged by skeptics demanding unmistakable empirical proof, Peter casts a dried, salted herring into a basin of water, causing it to swim vigorously before the multitude; he performs numerous healings and dispenses alms to the needy.

The contest in the Forum and Simon's catastrophic fall (chapters 20-32): Summoned before the prefect Agrippa and the assembled Senate, Peter and Simon wage a public duel of miraculous power; Simon kills a young slave of Marcellus with a whispered incantation but fails to revive him, whereas Peter raises the lad immediately in the name of Jesus; Peter subsequently resurrects the deceased son of a poor widow and the noble heir of the matron Nicostrata; humiliated, Simon attempts a dramatic flight above the Forum supported by demonic spirits, but crashes to the ground upon Peter's prayer, breaking his leg in three places and dying shortly after in Aricia.

Ascetic teachings, the Appian Way encounter, and the inverted cross (chapters 33-41): Peter’s preaching persuades four concubines of Agrippa and the wife of the magistrate Albinus to practice strict chastity, provoking the officials to seek his death; yielding to the entreaties of the brethren, Peter flees Rome along the Appian Way, where he meets Jesus walking toward the city and asks: "Lord, whither goest thou?", to which Christ answers that he comes to be crucified again; recognizing his duty, Peter returns willingly to the city; condemned to crucifixion, he requests to be hung upside down, declaring that fallen man must be righted by the Cross; after his burial by Marcellus, Peter appears in a comforting vision to the grieving church.

Reception

In early Christianity, the Acts of Peter was excluded from the New Testament canon and characterized as apocryphal and spurious by Eusebius of Caesarea (Ecclesiastical History III, 3), who stated that it was never accepted by orthodox authorities nor used by ancient church writers, a judgment reaffirmed in the Decretum Gelasianum. Nonetheless, its vivid narrative traditions were widely absorbed into church historical memory, providing the universal tradition of Peter’s upside-down crucifixion in Rome during the Neronian persecution as recorded by Tertullian (Scorpiace 15) and Origen (cited in Eusebius III, 1).

Textual preservation depends primarily upon the solitary seventh-century Latin manuscript Codex Vercellensis CLVIII (Actus Vercellenses), while the concluding Martyrdom of Peter was preserved independently in two early Greek manuscripts (on Patmos and Mount Athos) and in Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Old Church Slavonic translations. The Coptic Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 provided additional fragments, with standard modern critical editions produced by Richard Adelbert Lipsius and Max Bonnet (1891) and M. R. James (1924).

Sources

• Peter Kirby; M. R. James; Robert F. Stoops; Wilhelm Schneemelcher, Acts of Peter (2026).
• Johann Peter Kirsch, St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles (Catholic Encyclopedia) (1911).