Far the best statement of the theology of the Acts is in C. Schmidt's Acta Pauli, 1 83 ff . This also gives full references to earlier literature.
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ACTS (APOCRYPHAL)
ACTS (APOCRYPHAL)
2. The Acts of Peter. — The Acts of Peter is no longer extant in a complete form. " But, apart from late paraphrastic recensions, which re-edit older material in a form more agreeable to Catholic taste, three documents exist, two of them in a fragmentary form, which probably represent por- tions of the original Acts. These are (1) a Coptic text of a Upd^eis Uirpov, (2) the Codex Vercellensis, or Actus Petri cum Simone, and (3) a Greek text of the Mortyrium Petri.
(1) The Coptic Upd^eis IHrpov. — This fragment was found by C. Schmidt at the end of the Gnostic Papyrus P. 8502 in the Egyptian Museum at Berlin (Sitzu7igsber. d. K. Preuss. Akad. xxxvi. [1S96] 839 ff.), and published by him in Die alten Petrusakten, Leipzig, 1903. This relates the story of Peter's paralyzed daughter. At the beginning of the incident, Peter, who had been twitted with the paralysis of his daughter in spite of his powers of miraculous healing, cured her for a short time, and then restored her paralytic condition. Having thus shown his power, he explained that she had originally been paralyzed in answer to his own prayer, in order to preserve her virginity, which was threatened by a certain Ptolemseus. By this miracle Ptolemseus had been converted to Christi- anity, and dying soon afterwards left land to Peter's daughter, which Peter sold, giving the proceeds of it to the poor.
(2) The Codex Vercellensis (Bibliothec. capitul. Vercellensis, cviii. 1). — This MS contains either an extract from or a recension of the last part of the Acts. It begins by describing Paul's departure from Rome to Spain, and the arrival of Simon Magus, who makes Aricia his headquarters. Meanwhile, however, Peter, who had finished 'the twelve years which the Lord had enjoined on him' (on this legend see esp. Harnack's Expansion of Christian- ity, i. [1904] 48 n.), was directed to go to Rome to oppose Simon. Simon, who was first in Rome, perverted Marcellus, a convert of Paul ; and, as soon as Peter arrived, a contest was waged for his faith on the question of the respective powers of Simon and Peter to raise the dead. In this con- test, which is long drawn out, Peter was successful, and Simon retreated. Later on, the latter made an effort to restore his reputation by flying in the air, but the prayer of Peter caused him to fall and break his thigh. He was carried to Aricia and thence to Terracina, where he died.
The story then relates the events which led up to the martjTdom of Peter. The main reason was the decision of the converted concubines of Agrippa the prefect to refuse any further intercourse with him, and the similar conduct of Xanthippe the wife of Albinus, a friend of Nero, and of many other wives who all left their husbands. Peter was warned of the anger of Agrippa, and at first was persuaded by the Christians to leave Rome. At this point the Codex Vercellensis is defective, but the missing incidents can be restored from the Mnrtyrium Petri, which overlaps the Codex Ver- cellensis. From this it appears that Peter on his departure from Rome was arrested by a vision of Christ going to Rome and saying, ' I am going to Home to be crucified.' Peter therefore applied tliis vision to himself, and went back to Rome, where he was crucified by the orders of the prefect Agrippa. Here the Codex Vercellensis is again extant, and runs parallel with the Martyriwn to the end. Peter at his own request was crucified head downwards, in order to fulfil the saying of the Lord, 'Si non feceritis dextram tamquam sinistram, et sinistram ut dcx-tram, et quae sunt sursum tamquam deorsum, et quae retro sunt tam- quam ab ante, non intrabitis in regna coelorum' — a saying which is also found in the Gospel of the Egyptians. After Peter's death Marcellus rook
down his body and buried it in his own tomb, after costly embalming. But Peter appeared to him in a vision and rebuked him for not having obeyed the precept 'Let the dead bury their dead.' Finally, the narrative explains that Nero was angry with Agrippa because he wished to have inflicted worse tortures on Peter, but, while he was planning further persecution of the Christians, he was de- terred by a vision of an angel, so that Peter was the last martyr of that persecution. The Codex ends with the obviously corrupt Une 'actus Petri apostoli explicuerunt cum pace et Simonis amen.' Lipsius {Acta Apocrypha, p. 103) suggests with great probabiHty that 'et Simonis' is a misplaced gloss. In this case the 'actus P. apostoU expUcu- erunt. Amen,' would be the conclusion of the original Acts of Peter, of which the Codex Ver- cellensis is an extract, giving the Roman episode and martyrdom.
(3) The Martyrium Petri. — The text of this early extract from the Acts of Peter is preserved in two MSS. (a) Cod. Patmiensis 48 (9th cent.). This was copied by C. Krumbacher in 1885 and published by Lipsius in 1886 in the Jahrbiicher fur Protest, fheologie, pp. 86-106.— (5) Cod. Athous Vatoped. 79 (lOth-llth cent.). This was copied by Ph. Meyer and published by Lipsius in his Acta Apocrypha. There are also Slavonic and Coptic (Sahidic) versions, the latter preserved directly in three fragments and indirectly in Arabic and Ethiopic translations (see further Lipsius, Act. Apocr. hv f.). Lipsius thinks that the Patmos MS is the best. The contents of the Martyrium are the same as the second part of the Codex Vercellensis, beginning with Simon's flight in the air, and from the comparison of the Codex with the Greek Martyrium it is possible that the original form of this part of the ancient Acta can be reconstructed with some probabihty.