cheenc03a.pdf

SIMON PETER
SIMON PETER
Acts they ire related by the author lhimrelf in their proptr
place. But all rhesc and similar n~~euen~icrrer in the Cathohc
Acts sm be traced back to later interpolation.
(6) One such interpolation is plainly seen in the
e~aode of the men who come from Jerusalem 'on
Peter then dies 162)
(i) Ccrtain pious men from the East rou~hto c;lm,.off the
relics of the mrrryn: with the rcmlt that an carthq1,ake
immediately enrucd in Rome. and ihe inhahiranti nrlacked ihc
Orirntrlr, who at once took nighr. The Ro-nr de sited the
rciics 3 R. m. ourride the city (the Latin and long~r I%ektertr
add: at n place named Crtacumbar on the Appian Way) -d
watched overthcmfor one yearandseven months; at the ex iry
ofwhich time they brought ihrm torhe finalrerting-piace diCh
had meanwhile bean iu preparation (66). The deathday of
borh s~porllei war June 29 (67).
Many point5 in there interesting con,positionr invite
inquily : but we muit here confine ourseiver to the one
36, fundamental question, that, namely,
as to the relative priority of the prethe
Acts, Catholic and the Catholic Acts. If we
CaWIOlic
are to settle the point as to whether
Peter ever war in Rome, it is of the utmost impoitance
to know ahich of the two assertions, that he was there
along with Pnul, and that he was not, was the original
one. (a) Now here it would be quite useless to
put the question as if it were whether the priority
belongs altogether to the pre-Cntholic Actnor altogether
to the Catholic. In a literature which exhibits so little
innard unity almost every indication of posteriority
admits of being regarded as a Inter interpol'ztion, and
so can be deprived of its evidential value.
two apostles: the opposite advice of Agrippa and its
success cmnot but seem strange. It seems intended to
explain the fact that two separate places of death of the
apostles were known. This fact raises doubts as to the
simultaneity of their drathr and thus tellr against the
priority of the contents of the Catholic as compared
with the pre-Catholic Acts. Against the priority of the
whole book it cumlot, however, have this effect, as this
feature can easily have been introduced Later.
(d) Let us therefore fix our attention in the first
instance npon one point that is really central, namely
the tendency of the Catholic Acts. It ir quire
manifestly Petio-Pauline. The appearance ar if Paul
will have to come forward against the preaching of
Peter we may be sure has been deliberately produced at
the outset, in order that the complete agreement
between the two may afterwards become ail the more
CO~SP~CUOUS. Peter confirms all that is raid by Paul.
and converrel,.. The controverries between Tewish and
"
(c) Although, however, Paul in the doctrinal discussions
is represented as completely on a level with
Peter. it cnnnot at all be denied that in the conflict.
with Simon the part he plays is quite subordinate, 1.
these everything of importance is said and done by
Peter. In order to hue an" , oat . at all. Paul has to be
lwice asked by Nero why he says nothing, and even
then he does not intervene in the action with Simon.
D U merely ~ expatiates upon his oxvn doctrine. The few
words which are put info his mouth in the further
leulings with Simon cannot alter our judgment that his
figure came only at a later stage into the picture which
,riginally brought Peter alone face to face with Simon.
This conclusion is confirmed in the best possible way
3y what Agrippasays in arguing for a different sentence.
!hat Paul is relatively innocent and therefore deserves a
milder punishment, as it is also by the facts that only
:leven words, neither more nor fewer, are devoted to
:i~e account of his beheading, and that it is nowhere
;aid that he was buried. Here accordingly we have
3°C poinf at any rate in which the posteriority of the
mein contents of the Catholic Acts as compared with
:he pre-Cuthollc ir clearly dircernible. Cpfurther SIMON
>1acur, 9 gr.
Or are we to suppose. neuerthelers, that the pre-
Zutholic Acts, on this piincipal point at least-that of
Peter's presence in Rome without that of Paul-are the
more recent? The circumrtance that, in their begin-
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