Library/New Testament apocrypha
Apocalypse of Peter
Jesus shows Peter hell in punitive tableaux and a shining paradise. Some early lists (Muratorian, Clement of Alexandria) treated it as nearly scripture. It did not last. Enoch’s tours of the dead are its older cousin.
- Status
- New Testament apocryphon
- Date
- early 2nd century CE
- Languages
- Greek (fragment) · Ethiopic (complete)
- Setting
- The Mount of Olives; a tour of the punished and the blessed
What it contains
- The parable of the fig tree
- Punishments
- Paradise
Why it sits outside most canons
Too graphic, and the canon of apocalypses narrowed to John’s.
Themes
- Hell
- Paradise
- Judgment
- Tour of the dead
Passages
Apoc. Pet. (Ethiopic)
I saw another place, opposite that one, very squalid, and it was a place of punishment. Those who were punished there and the punishing angels had a dark raiment.