Thursday, April 30, 2020

Did Peter go to Rome?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Apostle Peter in Rome. Jesus’ chief disciple examined (Nicola Denzey Lewis). Professor Denzey Lewis is skeptical that Peter ever went to Rome. I don't have a strong view either way. One the one hand, the testimonies that he was there don't start until more than a century after the fact. On the other, I don't find the arguments against them particularly persuasive.

Regarding "the lack of references to him in our earliest Roman Christian literature," it is true that Paul's letter to the Romans does not mention Peter. But the Letter of the Romans to the Corinthians (1 Clement), written near the end of the first century CE, refers to the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul in chapters 5-6. It doesn't specify the location of the death of either.

There is a tradition that Paul too was executed in Rome, but like the one about Peter, it is late.

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