Peter, St. In Christianity, foremost of the
apostles. His name was Simon but according to the gospels Jesus called him from his work as fisherman and gave him the name ‘Cephas’, the Aramaic equivalent of Greek ‘Peter’ (
petra, ‘rock’). According to early tradition Peter visited Rome where he was martyred (1
Clement 5,
etc.); but the claim that he was its
bishop is an anachronism. According to the 2nd-cent.
Acts of Peter, the apostle, while fleeing from Nero's persecution, met Jesus on the road. Peter asked, ‘Domine, quo vadis?’ (‘Lord, where are you going?’). When Jesus answered ‘I am coming to be crucified again’, Peter turned back to the city to face his
martyrdom. His tomb in St Peter's basilica may be authentic. Feast day, 29 June.
The two Letters of Peter are found among the
Catholic Epistles of the New Testament. 2 Peter is a warning against false and corrupt teachers; 2. 1–3. 3 seems to be borrowed from
Jude; features such as the treatment of Paul in 4. 15–16 suggest a date well after Peter's death.
Other 2nd-cent. books attributed to Peter include the
Gospel of Peter (a
docetic retelling of Jesus' death and
resurrection based on the four New Testament gospels) and
The Apocalypse of Peter (a description of heaven and hell put into the mouth of Christ after his resurrection).
