Knowing that other scholars were preparing critical and scholarly editions of the newly discovered gospel, J. Rendel Harris of Cambridge University decided to introduce it to the public in a popular account. He opens with a description of its discovery offering his opinions regarding its date and original language. Classifying the work as a Docetic gospel, Harris defines the community in which it arose as well as its use during the Patristic age. He translates the fragment and then proceeds to discuss the sources behind it. Harris is convinced that the author borrowed from the canonical accounts, and he lists other literature that may have incorporated the Gospel of Peter, with special emphasis on the Diatessaron. One of the chief characteristics of the work is its antagonism toward the Jews. In summary, Harris writes, "We have tried to present to our readers some idea of what a heretical gospel was like, judging from the first specimen of any length that has come to light." This intent he has accomplished admirably.
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Book Description
The apocryphal Gospel of Peter was a prominent passion narrative. While scholars debate as to whether or not the document is dependent upon the canonical gospels, it is generally dated between 150 and 250 C.E. The gospel is preserved in three fragments. An eighth century text was discovered in a monk's grave in the modern Egyptian city of Akhmim (sixty miles north of Nag Hammadi). Two small sixth century papyri were uncovered at Oxyrhynchus and published in 1972. The gospel's writer identifies himself as Simon Peter in the first person singular, but this is impossible. He may have written independently of the Synoptics using a source also employed by Luke and Matthew. The opening leaves of the text are lost, so the story begins abruptly with the trial of Jesus before Pilate, and closes with an unusual version of the resurrection. Eusebius wrote that Serapion of Antioch found no objections to the gospel being used in the churches of Western Syria, but thought that it might promote docetic christology.
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About the Author
J. Rendel Harris was born at Plymouth, Devonshire, on January 27, 1852. He was educated at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a fellow in mathematics in 1875-78, 1892, and 1902-04. In the years between, he served as professor of New Testament Greek at Johns Hopkins University (1882-85) and Haverford College (1882-92), and of theology at Leyden (1903-04). After this, he was appointed director of studies at the Friends' Settlement for Social and Religious Study at Woodbrooke, near Birmingham. Harris represented two prestigious libraries during his lifetime: Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, and John Rylands, Manchester, where he became the curator of manuscripts. Most of his publications dealt with biblical and patristic history; he was an extremely prolific writer. Harris died on March 1, 1941, leaving an excellent, albeit unorthodox, mark that has stood the test of time. Included among the topics on which he wrote are: Didache, Philo, Diatessaron, the Apologists, Perpetua, Odes of Solomon, Gospel of Peter, Western and Syriac texts, and numerous works on biblical manuscripts.
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