Acts of Peter and Paul

Authorship, Date, and Context

The Acts of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (known in Latin tradition as the Passio Sanctorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli and attributed in manuscripts to Pseudo-Marcellus) is an anonymous Christian apocryphon originally composed in Greek. The text adopts the pseudepigraphical guise of Marcellus, a Roman disciple of Peter and former follower of Simon Magus, synthesizing and embellishing earlier second-century traditions drawn from the separate Acts of Peter and Acts of Paul.

NASSCAL lists a Latin manuscript in Milan's Biblioteca Ambrosiana (C 105 inf.) dated to the fifth/sixth century, showing the work was already circulating by then.

Structure

The work is transmitted in manuscript traditions as a single continuous narrative in 1 chapter, subdivided modernly into eighty-eight numbered sections in the standard critical edition of Lipsius and Bonnet.

The narrative framework develops across four sequential episodes. The opening episode (sections 1 through 21 in the Greek recension) chronicles Paul's voyage from Malta to Rome via Syracuse, Messina, and Puteoli, where the ship captain Dioscorus is mistakenly executed because of his physical resemblance to Paul. The second episode narrates the joyous meeting and fraternal embrace of Peter and Paul in Rome, resolving ethnic tensions between Jewish and Gentile believers. The third episode presents the extended judicial confrontation before Nero against Simon Magus, who seeks to demonstrate his divinity through demonic illusions and attempts a flight from the Capitoline, ending in his fatal plunge when Peter commands the demons to release him while Paul prays on his knees. The fourth episode records the imprisonment and simultaneous martyrdom of both apostles on June 29: Peter crucified upside down on the Vatican hill and Paul beheaded along the Ostian Way, followed by Nero's downfall and the enshrinement of their relics.

Themes and Key Passages

The overarching theological themes emphasize the indivisible harmony of apostolic co-founders Peter and Paul in establishing Roman ecclesiastical authority, the superiority of Christian prayer and truth over the occult illusions of Simon Magus, and the spiritual triumph of martyrdom over despotic imperial persecution.

Enduring dramatic passages include the fraternal embrace between Peter and Paul outside the gates of Rome; the climactic scene in the Roman Forum where Simon Magus takes flight aloft upon invisible demonic wings only to crash onto the Via Sacra and fracture into four pieces at Peter's word; Peter's insistence upon inverted crucifixion because he deemed himself unworthy to suffer upright like his Lord; and the miraculous healing of the blind matron Perpetua, whose sight is restored when she touches the blood-and-milk-stained handkerchief returned from Paul's execution.

Summary by Parts

Paul's maritime journey and arrival in Rome: Grieved by reports that Simon Magus was deceiving citizens and senators in Rome, Paul departs Malta aboard an Alexandrian vessel. At Puteoli, shipmaster Dioscorus extends hospitality to the apostle; however, hostile factions mistakenly identify the bald captain as Paul, and Dioscorus is beheaded by imperial magistrates. Reaching Rome, Paul meets Peter; the two apostles weep with gladness and embrace in public reconciliation, unifying Jewish and Gentile converts into one coherent flock under apostolic teaching.

Imperial courtroom debate and the flight of Simon Magus: Nero summons the apostles and Simon Magus to his palace for formal examination. Simon performs theatrical wonders, shapeshifting from youth to old age and simulating his own beheading by slaughtering a ram in secret. Peter exposes his sorceries with consecrated bread and divine authority. Claiming he will ascend to heaven in the presence of the Senate, Simon constructs a wooden tower in the Campus Martius and flies into the sky borne by demonic spirits. While Paul kneels in fervent prayer, Peter commands the demons in Christ's name to let him drop; Simon plunges headlong onto the pavement of the Via Sacra and dies in ignominy.

Dual apostolic martyrdom and the end of Nero: Incensed by the public humiliation and death of his court sorcerer, Nero condemns both apostles to immediate execution. Peter is led to the Vatican hill near the obelisk, where he requests to be crucified head-downward, offering a cosmic hymn of thanksgiving. Paul, claiming Roman citizenship, is escorted along the Ostian Way; before his decapitation, he gives his veil to the blind matron Perpetua, who instantly recovers her vision. From Paul's severed neck gush streams of milk and blood, converting his three executioners. Nero is deposed by popular uprising and perishes of hunger and cold in the desert, while the martyrs are entombed with great honor on the twenty-ninth of June.

Reception

While definitively rejected from the canonical New Testament and cataloged among apocryphal legends in the Decretum Gelasianum, the Acts of Peter and Paul exerted an immense influence on medieval European liturgy, drama, and sacred art.

The narrative cemented the joint liturgical feast of Saints Peter and Paul on June 29 across both Eastern and Western calendars and provided standard visual models for monumental mosaic cycles, such as those in Monreale Cathedral in Sicily and ancient frescoes at Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. Manuscript witnesses include numerous medieval Greek codices (notably Parisinus Graecus 770 and Vaticanus Graecus 866) alongside the prolific Latin Passio Pseudo-Marcelli. The foundational modern critical edition was produced by Richard Adelbert Lipsius and Max Bonnet in Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha (Leipzig, 1891), with an English translation prepared by Alexander Walker in 1870 for the Ante-Nicene Fathers collection.

Sources

• Alexander Walker; Alexander Roberts; James Donaldson, The Acts of Peter and Paul (1870).
• Tony Burke; NASSCAL, Passion of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (Pseudo-Marcellus) (2023).
• Study The Church; Trinitas Institute, List of New Testament Apocrypha (2022).