Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter
Gnostic Christian text (c. 200 CE) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter, also known as the Coptic Apocalypse of Peter and Revelation of Peter, is the third tractate in Codex VII of the Nag Hammadi library. The work is part of Gnosticism, a sect of early Christianity, and is considered part of the New Testament apocrypha. It was likely originally written in the Koine Greek language and composed around 200 CE. The surviving manuscript from Nag Hammadi is a poor-quality translation of the Greek into Coptic, and likely dates from the 4th century.
The work's author is unknown, although it is purportedly written by the disciple Peter (pseudepigrapha) describing revelations given to him during Holy Week by the Savior Christ. Jesus tells Peter "through you I have begun a work for the remnant whom I called to knowledge (gnosis)"[2] and reveals secrets of the future. The work criticizes other Christian groups, comparing them to the blind and deaf. Jesus says that false Christians (presumably the proto-orthodox movement) will hold power for a time, and that they will be haughty, oppose the truth, set up bishops and deacons to rule, mislead their followers, and so on. In contrast, certain blessed ones (presumably Gnostics) have immortal souls, and Jesus reassures Peter that they will eventually reign over the others. Peter has a vision of the coming crucifixion, and Christ explains its true meaning in conversation. The text then propounds docetism: that the divine Christ was invulnerable and never suffered the pains of the mortal world, and certainly did not die during the apparent crucifixion. Rather, only Jesus-the-man suffered in a variant of the substitution hypothesis.