Home > Apocrypha > Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles

Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles

Estimated Range of Dating: 150-225 C.E.

Online Text for Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles

• English Translation by Douglas M. Parrott and R. McL. Wilson

Online Resources for Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles

• The Acts of Peter and the Twelve (PDF)

Offline Resources for Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles

• Wilhelm Schneemelcher, ed., translation by R. McL. Wilson, New Testament Apocrypha : Writings Relating to the Apostles Apocalypses and Related Subjects (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1992), pp. 412-425.
• Stevan Davies, The Revolt of the Widows: The Social World of the Apocryphal Acts (Southern Illinois Univ Pr 1980).
• Andrea Lorenzo Molinari, The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles (NHC 6.1): Allegory, Ascent, and Ministry in the Wake of the Decian Persecution (Society of Biblical Literature).

Information on Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles

Douglas M. Parrott writes (The Anchor Bible Dictionary, v. 5, pp. 264):

This tractate is the first in the miscellaneous collection of Sahidic Coptic tractates comprising Nag Hammadi Codex VI. For all its brevity (12 pages) it is a remarkably complex document. The first half consists mainly of an account, with heavy allegorical overtones, about a pearl merchant who attracts the poor but is shunned by the rich, and who turns out not to have the pearl he is hawking; it is available only to those willing to journey to his city. The pearl merchant's name is Lithargoel, which means, according to the text, a lightweight, glistening stone (5.16-18) (Wilson and Parrott 215 n.). The account takes place in on island city identified simply as "Habitation" (the Coptic for which may be a translation of the Greek word meaning "inhabited world").

Parrott states on its dating (op. cit., p. 265):

The earliest portion of the tractate - the allegory - probably should be dated not later than the middle of the 2d century, because of the affinity with Herm. Sim., which is dated in the mid-century or before. The tractate as a whole, then, may have been put together in its present form toward the end of the 2d century, or early in the 3d.

Discuss this now at the Ancient Mediterranean Cultures forums!

Early Christian Writings is copyright © 2001-2006 Peter Kirby <E-Mail>.