Saint Peter, known as Peter the Apostle, Peter the Rock, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, and one of the first leaders of the early Church.
FactSnippet No. 464,716 |
Saint Peter, known as Peter the Apostle, Peter the Rock, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, and one of the first leaders of the early Church.
FactSnippet No. 464,716 |
Saint Peter appears repeatedly and prominently in all four gospels as well as the Acts of the Apostles.
FactSnippet No. 464,717 |
Saint Peter is mentioned, under either the name Peter or Cephas, in Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians and the Epistle to the Galatians.
FactSnippet No. 464,719 |
Saint Peter became the first listed apostle ordained by Jesus in the early Church.
FactSnippet No. 464,720 |
In Luke, Simon Saint Peter owns the boat that Jesus uses to preach to the multitudes who were pressing on him at the shore of Lake Gennesaret.
FactSnippet No. 464,721 |
Matthew additionally describes Saint Peter walking on water for a moment but beginning to sink when his faith wavers.
FactSnippet No. 464,722 |
Simon Saint Peter was twice arraigned, with John, before the Sanhedrin and directly defied them.
FactSnippet No. 464,724 |
Simon Saint Peter applied the message of the vision on clean animals to the gentiles and follows his meeting with Cornelius the Centurion by claiming that "God shows no partiality".
FactSnippet No. 464,725 |
Saint Peter is regarded as the first leader of the early Church, though he was eclipsed in this leadership by James the Just, "the Brother of the Lord".
FactSnippet No. 464,727 |
Saint Peter is always listed first among the Twelve Apostles in the gospels and in the Book of Acts.
FactSnippet No. 464,728 |
Saint Peter is frequently mentioned in the gospels as forming with James the Elder and John a special group within the Twelve Apostles, present at incidents at which the others were not present, such as at the Transfiguration of Jesus, at the raising of Jairus' daughter and at the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.
FactSnippet No. 464,729 |
Saint Peter is often depicted in the gospels as spokesman of all the Apostles.
FactSnippet No. 464,730 |
Saint Peter is their spokesman at several events, he conducts the election of Matthias, his opinion in the debate over converting Gentiles was crucial, etc.
FactSnippet No. 464,732 |
In John's gospel, Saint Peter is the first person to enter the empty tomb, although the women and the beloved disciple see it before him.
FactSnippet No. 464,733 |
In Luke's account, the women's report of the empty tomb is dismissed by the apostles, and Saint Peter is the only one who goes to check for himself, running to the tomb.
FactSnippet No. 464,734 |
Saint Peter was considered along with James the Just and John the Apostle as pillars of the Church.
FactSnippet No. 464,735 |
Saint Peter was eclipsed in this leadership by James the Just, "the Brother of the Lord.
FactSnippet No. 464,736 |
Dunn proposes that Saint Peter was a "bridge-man" between the opposing views of Paul and James the Just [italics original]:.
FactSnippet No. 464,737 |
Saint Peter was probably in fact and effect the bridge-man who did more than any other to hold together the diversity of first-century Christianity.
FactSnippet No. 464,738 |
Paul affirms that Saint Peter had the special charge of being apostle to the Jews, just as he, Paul, was apostle to the Gentiles.
FactSnippet No. 464,739 |
Common view of Peter is provided by Jesuit Father Daniel J Harrington, who suggests that Peter was an unlikely symbol of stability.
FactSnippet No. 464,741 |
Saint Peter'storians have furnished other evidence of Peter's sojourn in Antioch.
FactSnippet No. 464,743 |
One is that Saint Peter had a group of 12 to 16 followers, whom the Clementine writings name.
FactSnippet No. 464,744 |
Lactantius, in his book called Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died, written around 318, noted that "and while Nero reigned, the Apostle Saint Peter came to Rome, and, through the power of God committed unto him, wrought certain miracles, and, by turning many to the true religion, built up a faithful and stedfast temple unto the Lord.
FactSnippet No. 464,746 |
Eusebius of Caesarea relates that when Saint Peter confronts Simon Magus at Judea (mentioned in Acts 8), Simon Magus flees to Rome, where the Romans began to regard him as a god.
FactSnippet No. 464,747 |
Tradition locates his burial place where the Basilica of Saint Peter was later built, directly beneath the Basilica's high altar.
FactSnippet No. 464,749 |
The Church of Quo Vadis, near the Catacombs of Saint Peter Callistus, contains a stone in which Jesus' footprints from this event are supposedly preserved, though this was apparently an ex-voto from a pilgrim, and indeed a copy of the original housed in the Basilica of St Sebastian.
FactSnippet No. 464,750 |
Jerome wrote that "at Nero's hands Saint Peter received the crown of martyrdom being nailed to the cross with his head towards the ground and his feet raised on high, asserting that he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord.
FactSnippet No. 464,752 |
The skull of Saint Peter is claimed to reside in the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran since at least the ninth century, alongside the skull of Saint Paul.
FactSnippet No. 464,753 |
The majority of Saint Peter's remains, however, are still preserved in Rome, under the high altar of St Peter's Basilica.
FactSnippet No. 464,754 |
Clement of Rome's First Letter, a document that has been dated from the 90s to the 120s, is one of the earliest sources adduced in support of Saint Peter's stay in Rome, but Zwierlein questions the text's authenticity and whether it has any knowledge about Saint Peter's life beyond what is contained in the New Testament Acts of the Apostles.
FactSnippet No. 464,755 |
However, Saint Peter never bore the title of "Pope" or "Vicar of Christ" in the sense the Catholic Church considers Saint Peter the first Pope.
FactSnippet No. 464,756 |
Saint Peter is the light, and yet you are the light: he is the Priest, and yet he maketh Priests: he is the rock, and he made a rock.
FactSnippet No. 464,757 |
Saint Peter is often depicted in both Western and Eastern Christian art holding a key or a set of keys.
FactSnippet No. 464,758 |
Saint Peter was instructed by Christ to strengthen his brethren, i e, the apostles.
FactSnippet No. 464,759 |
Saint Peter greets some fifty people in Rome by name, but not Peter whom he knew.
FactSnippet No. 464,760 |
Oscar Cullmann, a Lutheran theologian and distinguished Church historian, disagrees with Luther and the Protestant reformers who held that by "rock" Christ did not mean Saint Peter, but meant either himself or the faith of His followers.
FactSnippet No. 464,761 |
Saint Peter writes: "In the life of Peter there is no starting point for a chain of succession to the leadership of the church at large.
FactSnippet No. 464,763 |
Forty-four said, Saint Peter's faith is the rock, The remainder looked upon the whole body of believers as the rock.
FactSnippet No. 464,764 |
The Orthodox hold that Saint Peter did not act as leader at the Council of Jerusalem, but as merely one of a number who spoke.
FactSnippet No. 464,765 |
The final decision regarding the non-necessity of circumcision was spelled out by James, the Brother of the Lord (though Catholics hold James merely reiterated and fleshed out what Saint Peter had said, regarding the latter's earlier divine revelation regarding the inclusion of Gentiles).
FactSnippet No. 464,766 |
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that Peter was the first leader of the early Christian church after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
FactSnippet No. 464,768 |
Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, recorded in multiple revelations that the resurrected Saint Peter appeared to him and Oliver Cowdery in 1829, near Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, in order to bestow the apostleship and keys of the kingdom as part of a restoration of priesthood authority.
FactSnippet No. 464,769 |
An old tradition, which involves the legend of Habib the Carpenter, mentions that Saint Peter was one of the three disciples sent to Antioch to preach to the people there.
FactSnippet No. 464,770 |
Saint Peter appears in the writings of Baha'u'llah, the Prophet-Founder of the Baha'i Faith, often referred to as The Rock:.
FactSnippet No. 464,771 |
Daniel B Wallace writes that, for many scholars, "the issue of authorship is already settled, at least negatively: the apostle Peter did not write this letter" and that "the vast bulk of NT scholars adopts this perspective without much discussion".
FactSnippet No. 464,772 |
Two Epistles attributed to St Saint Peter differ in style, character, and the construction of the words, which proves that according to the exigencies of the moment St Saint Peter made use of different interpreters.
FactSnippet No. 464,773 |
Fragmentary Gospel of Saint Peter contains an account of the death of Jesus differing significantly from the canonical gospels.
FactSnippet No. 464,775 |
In traditional iconography, Saint Peter has been shown very consistently since early Christian art as an oldish, thick-set man with a "slightly combative" face and a short beard, and usually white hair, sometimes balding.
FactSnippet No. 464,776 |
Narrative images of Saint Peter include several scenes from the Life of Christ where he is mentioned in the gospels, and he is often identifiable in scenes where his presence is not specifically mentioned.
FactSnippet No. 464,777 |