2. Peter in the NT writings.— The earliest litera- ture preserved from apostolic times, the letters of St. Paul, contains explicit and important informa- tion about Peter. These documents do not, to be sure, purport to give any detailed account of his career, and the data which they do preserve are usually incidental to other interests, but this very fact makes the information all the more significant. St. Paul's statements clearly represent items of general knowledge current at that early date re- garding ' Cephas.' While St. I'aul's references are relatively few in number, they contain implications of much importance. Peter is seen to have been the lirst to obtain a vision of the Risen Lord (1 Co 15") ; and thus from the outset he occupied a posi- tion of primacy in tlie community and was also first among the apostles, while St. Paul reckons himself last (1 Co 15"). St. Paul vigorously re- sented the insinuation of his enemies, to the ellect that Peter's chronological priority carried with it a superior authority, particularly for Gentile Chris- tians ; but, on the other hand, St. Paul did not think his apostleship or mission at all dill'erent in kind or superior in authority as compared with that of Peter. The seducers in Galatia were not really preaching Peter's gospel — they were per- verting it (Gal 1') ; it was as truly founded ujion
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faith in Jesus the >fessiah as was St. Pauls (Oal 2'") ; and both apostles had been eciuipiied in the .same authoritative way for the performance of their respective apostofic duties (Ual 2"). Peter had been eoniuiissioned to i>reach the gospel to the Jews, and this work must have seemed to St. Paul quite as important as — ^iierhajis in .some respects more important tlian— his own specilic task of Gentile evan^telization. lie never doubted that God's primary concern was for the welfare of the Jews, and that He had even designed them to be the ultimate heirs of the Kingdom, notwithstand- ing tlieir temporary rejection of the gospel (Ko 11). In the meantime, the Gentiles were reaping the prohts to be derived from tlie Jews' rejection, St. Paul being especially commissioned to carry on this temjiorary enterprise of evangelizing the Gentiles, but the original and fundamental task was still Peter's.
The importance of this phase of St. Paul's think- ing—an item .sometimes ob.scured by a too one-sided emphasis upon the legalistic controversy — is further attested by the high estimate he continues to place upon Judaism, and the value hp attaches to Chris- tianity's Jewish connexions. The Jew has had the advantage in every way (Ko 3' O'"), and St. Paul's ancestry entitles liim to a full share in that ad- vantage (Ko 11', 2 Co 11=^, Ph 3'). True, his ancestral heritage must now be brought to its proper consummation in the new faith, toward which all the Divine purposes down through the ages had been tending. From St. Paul's point of view it was altogether essential, however, that Christianity should have had this Jewish origin ; and so it was especially fitting, he thought, that those olive branches which had been temporarily severed from the Jewish trunk — as was the case with all Jews who rejected Christianity — should one day be restored to their rightful place along with the few wild olive branches that had in the meantime been grafted upon the native stock (Ro ll""-)- It fell to Peter's lot to engage in the work of preserving, or restoring, the original branches, a work with which St. Paul was in full sympathy and to which he would gladly have given himself at all costs had circumstances permitted (Ro 9'). Hence it is not strange that he should cite the Jewish churches as models (1 Th 2'*), that he should refer with manifest satisfaction to their approval of his initial missionary activities (Gal 1-*), that he should reckon his own evangelizing activity as formally beginning at Jerusalem (Ro 15'*), that he should take occasion to pay Peter a two weeks' visit in Jerusalem (Gal I''), or that he should in all sincerity seek the approval of the Jerusalem Church upon his Gentile work (Gal 2^"-). Furthermore, his high estimate of the Jewish community's sig- nificance found very tangible expression in the collection, which was no mere perfunctory keeping of a past agreement, but an expression of genuine appreciation of the Jewish Christians' willingness to share tlieir special prerogatives with the Gentiles who fulfilled the condition of faith (Gal 2'°, Ro j526-2sj_ These facts must be borne in mind when attempting to evaluate St. Paul's testimony to the significance of Peter's jiosition in the early history of Christianity. It is quite erroneous to conclude, as some interpreters have done, that St. Paul's controversy with the legalists really meant any conscious effort on his part to oppose or to supplant Peter, whose unique position in the early com- munity and whose leadership in the work of evan- gelizing the Jews are clearly attested and highly esteemed by St. Paul.
Unfortunately, St. Paul did not have occasion to mention Peter as often as we could wish ; conse- quently, the latter's career cannot be restored with any degree of fullness from the Pauline letters. I
Whether he was among the apostles in Jerusalem, whom St. Paul, had he so chosen, might have visited immediately after his conversion (Gal 1"), is not clear ; but three years later he was there and entertained St. Paul for two weeks (Gal 1"). He was also in Jerusalem fourteen years later, when the legalistic controversy was going on (Gal 2'''"). Soon afterwards, perhaps accompanying St. Paul and Barnabas on their return, he came to Antioch in Syria, where his reactionary attitude upon the question of table-fellowship with Gentiles evoked St. Paul's vigorous censure. An incidental reference to Peter as a travelling missionary ac- companied by his wife and deriving support from those to whom he ministered (1 Co 9'), and mention of a Cephas-party in Corinth (1 Co l'-3--), complete the list of Pauline data. These scanty particulars do not permit of any very extended interpretation, yet they do make it clear that Peter was prominent in the counsels of the mother Church, that he con- tinued to prosecute his work as an evangelist, and that his fame had reached even to Asia Minor and Greece early in the fifties.