The Apocalypse of Peter

NHC VII, 3

The following translation has been committed to the public domain and may be freely copied and used, changed or unchanged, for any purpose. It is based on the Coptic text of Nag Hammadi Codex VII, 3. The Nag Hammadi texts were written in the fourth century, subsequently buried, and then rediscovered in 1945. This text portrays a conversation between Jesus and Peter concerning the crucifixion.

This translation by Samuel Zinner is from the Coptic text edited by James Brashler in Birger A. Pearson, ed., The Coptic Gnostic Library: Nag Hammadi Codex VII (Leiden: Brill, 1996). The following previous translations were consulted: James Brashler in The Coptic Gnostic Library; James Brashler and Roger A. Bullard in James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990); Marvin Meyer in idem, ed., The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (New York: HarperOne, 2007); Henriette W. Havelaar in Hans-Martin Schenke, Hans-Gebhard Bethge, Ursula Ulrike Kaiser, eds., Nag Hammadi Deutsch: Studienausgabe (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013). Zinner’s translation was edited by Mark M. Mattison with the generous support of Other Gospels.

Symbols

 [ ] Gap in the text (known as a “lacuna”)
 ( ) Editorial insertion to clarify the text
[70] Page number of the Coptic codex (hyperlinked)

[70] Apocalypse of Peter

Introduction: The Savior Talks to Peter

While the Savior was sitting in the interior section of the temple where the tenth pillar meets, and while he was resting above the congregation of the living, indestructible Majesty, he said to me: “Peter, blessed are those belonging to the Father, because they have transcended the heavens. He, through me, has revealed life to those who originated from life.

“I reminded those built on a strong (foundation) that they should obey my instruction and distinguish words of injustice and transgressing against the Law from words of justice, because they [71] come from the sublimity of every word from the fullness of truth. They have been enlightened in graciousness by him whom the principalities sought but found not. Neither was he spoken of, not even among one of the generations of the prophets. He has appeared in each of these: in the revealed one, the Son of Man exalted above the heavens, and in a <multitude> of persons who share a single nature.

“However, you, Peter, be completed, in accord with your name, together with me, the one who chose you, because through you I have made a beginning of the remnant I have called to knowledge. Be strong, therefore, for as long as the imitation of his justice who called you at the first.

He called you in order that you could rightly understand him with regard to the distinction between the shedding (of blood) that shredded the sinews of his hands and feet, the crowning by those of the middle region, and the body of his brightness. He brought forth with the hope of [72] serving because of an honorable reward. In this way, tonight he will rebuke you three times.”

Opposition to Jesus and Peter

However, while he said these things, I saw the priests and the people rushing toward us with stones, as if to kill us, but I was afraid we were going to die.

And he said to me: “Peter, many times have I told you that they are blind without a leader.

If you want to understand their blindness, put your hands <and> your cloak over your eyes and describe what you see.”

When I did this, however, I saw nothing, and I said: “I see nothing.”

Then he told me: “Do it once more.”

And fear <and> joy overtook me, because I saw a different light, brighter than daylight.

It then descended onto the Savior, and I told him what I had seen, and he spoke to me again: “Lift your hands (to your ears) and hear what [73] the priests and the people say.”

I heard the priests while they sat with the scribes. The crowds were shouting with their voices.

Those Who are Blind and Deaf

When he heard these things from me, he said to me, “Prick up your ears, and hear what they are saying,” and I heard once again.

“As you sit here, they are praising you.”

And when I had said this, the Savior answered: “I told you these people are blind and deaf. Now listen to the things told to you in a mystery, and guard them. Tell them not to the sons of this age, because you will be reviled in these ages, on account of their being ignorant of you. You, however, will be praised with knowledge, because in the beginning, many will receive our teaching, but once again they will reject it, in accord with the desire of the father of their error, given that they will carry out his desire, and he will show with his judgment who servants of the word are.

“Those, however, who have [74] commingled with these will be their prisoners, because they lack insight. The one without guile, however, good, pure, will be delivered over to the executioner, in the restored kingdom of those who praise Christ. And they praise men who promote this lie, men who will come after you. They will cling to the name of a dead man, imagining in this way that they will be purified, but they will instead become greatly polluted.”

An Evil, Deceitful Leader

“They will fall into an open error, and into the hand of an evil, deceitful man with teachings of many shifting forms, and they will be ruled by heresy, because some of them will blaspheme the truth and preach evil teachings, and they will utter evil against one another. And because they stand by the power of the archons, some of them will be given the name of a man and a naked woman of many shifting and sensual forms. And [75] those who speak these things will inquire of dreams, and if they allege that a dream originates from a demon worthy of their error, they will be allotted destruction instead of indestructability.

“This is because evil cannot bring forth good fruit, because every source brings forth according to its own kind, because not every soul originates from the truth, nor from deathlessness, because, according to our view, all the souls of these ages have death appointed over them, so that they remain ever slaves. Being created for the desires of the soul, and their eternal destruction, in which and from which they exist, they love the material creatures that came into existence together with them.”

Immortal Souls

“Immortal souls, however, do not resemble these, O Peter. However, as long as the hour is indeed not yet come, the deathless (soul) will indeed resemble a soul that dies. It will not, however, disclose its nature, despite it alone being [76] deathless and contemplating deathlessness. It possesses faithfulness, and wishes to renounce these mortal (souls), because people, if they are wise, do not gather figs from thistles or thorns, nor grapes from brambles, because a thing always continues in that (state of being) in which it exists. If something is not in a good (state of being), it becomes its destruction and death. The soul, by contrast, abides in the eternal (state), the (state) of life and deathlessness of life that are like it.

“All that perdures not, therefore, will dissolve into what is not, because the deaf and blind consort only with what is like to them.”

Leaders Who Wander

“Some, however, will wander (starting out) from evil words and lying mysteries. Others who will not understand mysteries, and despite speaking about what they do not understand, will brag that the mystery of the truth belongs to them alone. In haughtiness [77] they will envy the deathless, devoted soul, because all the authorities, principalities, and powers of the ages have wished to remain with these since the creation of the world, so that those who do not perdure and who have grown ignorant, being unsaved, may be glorified by those that do perdure. And they have not been brought to the way by them, even though they always desired to be imperishable, because if a deathless soul obtains power by a noetic spirit, it is immediately joined by one who has strayed.”

Leaders Who Invent Error

“Others, however, who are many, and who oppose truth and are messengers of error, will invent their error and their law against the pure thoughts that are mine. As they see myopically, they think that good and evil originate from a single source. They make merchandise out of [78] my word. And they will promote a harsh fate; in it the generation of deathless souls will run in vain, until my arrival, because they will remain among them. And I will forgive the transgressions to which their enemies caused them to succumb, and I will redeem them from their slavery and will give them liberty, because they will create a fake remnant in the name of a dead man, who is Hermas, the firstborn of injustice, so that the little ones might not be faithful to the light that exists.

“These, however, are the perpetrators who will be thrown into the outer limits of darkness, separated from the sons of light, because they refuse to enter, and they do not let those (enter) who are ascending for the approval of their liberation.”

Leaders Who Rejoice Over the Martyrdom of ‘The Little Ones’

“Still others of them, however, out of sensuality imagine that they will complete [79] the wisdom the brotherhood that truly exists possesses, the spiritual communion with those joined in harmony, through which the wedding of indestructability will be revealed. The kindred nation of the sisterhood will appear, being a fake. These oppress their brothers, and say to them: ‘Through this communion our God has compassion, because salvation comes to us through this.’ They know not the judgment of those who rejoice over what was done against the little ones, who watched when the little ones were sought out and imprisoned.

Leaders Who Call Themselves Bishops and Deacons

“There will be others, however, of those outside our number who will call themselves bishops, but also deacons, as though they had received their authority from God. They acquiesce to the judgment of the leaders. Those people are evaporated canals.”

I said: “I am frightened over what you have told me, that [80] in our belief the little ones are in fact fakes. In fact, multitudes will lead astray multitudes of living ones, destroying them among them. And when they speak your name, they will be believed.”

The Root of their Error will be Pulled Out

The Savior answered: “For a time period proportional to their error, they will rule over the little ones. And after the completion of their error, the unaging one of undying understanding, will be renewed, and they will (then) rule over (those who are now) their rulers. He will pull out the root of their error, and shame it, and it will be exposed on account of all the insolences it had taken to itself. These kinds of people, O Peter, will never change.

“Come, therefore, let us go on to the completion of the will of the indestructible Father, because behold, those who will bring judgment on themselves are arriving, and they will shame themselves. Me, however, they cannot touch.

“You, however, O Peter, will stand among them. Fear not on account of your lack of courage. [81] Their minds will be closed, because what is unseen has resisted them.”

The Crucifixion of the Savior’s Physicality

When he had said this, I saw them apparently seizing him.

I said: “What is it that I am seeing, O Lord? Is it you yourself they seize? And are you clinging to me? Who is the one above the cross, happy and laughing? And is it a different person whose feet and hands they hammer?”

The Savior said to me: “He whom you see above the cross happy and laughing is the living Jesus. He, however, into whose hands and feet they are driving the nails is his physicality, being the substitute. They are shaming that which accords with his likeness. Look, however, at him and at me.”

When I, however, had looked, I said: “Lord, no one is looking at you. Let us run away from this place!”

He, however, answered me: “I have told you to leave the blind alone (with the blind). See how they know not what they say, [82] because they have shamed their glorious son[1] instead of my (lowly) servant.”

The Living Savior

I, however, saw someone almost reaching us who looked like him, even him who was laughing above the cross, but he was commingled with a pure spirit, even he, the Savior. And there was a great ineffable light round about them, and a multitude of ineffable and unseen angels was praising them.

I, however, was the one who saw him when this one who glorifies had been revealed.

He, however, said to me: “Be strong, because these mysteries have been entrusted to you, so you can know through revelation that he whom they crucified is the firstborn, the dwelling of demons, and the vessel of clay in which they live, of Elohim, of the cross, who is under the Law. He who stands near him, however, is the living Savior, the primary part in him whom they seized, and he has been liberated, standing in joy as he looks at his persecutors being divided among themselves. [83] He therefore laughs at their lack of insight, and he is aware they were born blind. For this reason the suffering one must indeed remain, because the body is the substitute, but what was liberated was my non-bodily body, but I am the noetic spirit filled with brilliant light. He whom you saw drawing near to me is our noetic fullness, which unites the perfect light with my pure spirit.

Conclusion

“Therefore, these things that you have witnessed, you will convey them to those of a different nation, who do not belong to this age, because no grace will dwell inside anyone who is not deathless, but only inside those who were chosen from a deathless nature, which has demonstrated that it is able to accept him who bestows his wealth.

“I have therefore said, ‘Whoever has, more will be given, and that one will have much, but whoever has not,’ namely, the one of this place, who is totally dead, and who has been made transitory by the planting of creation and generation, [84] who when one of deathless nature appears imagines<s> he is the one being seized, ‘it will be taken away from him, and it will be added to what there already is.’

“You, therefore, be courageous, and do not fear anything, because I will be with you so that none of your enemies will prevail over you. Peace be to you. Be strong!”

After he had said these things, he[2] returned to his senses.

Apocalypse of Peter

[1] More literally, “the son of their glory.” The persecutors consider this son to be glorious. The text therefore implies that this son is not actually glorious.

[2] I.e., Peter.