Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter
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The Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter, not to be confused with the Apocalypse of Peter, is a text found amongst the Nag Hammadi library, and part of the New Testament apocrypha. Like the vast majority of texts in the Nag Hammadi collection, it is heavily gnostic. Since the surviving text, although not the text it is likely to have been copied from, is in Coptic, it is also known as the Coptic Apocalypse of Peter.
The text takes gnosticism's docetic interpretations of the crucifixion to the extreme, picturing Jesus as laughing and warning against people who cleave to the name of a dead man, thinking they shall become pure. Like some of the rarer Gnostic writings, this one also doubts the established Crucifixion story which places Jesus on the cross. Instead, according to this text, there was a substitute:
"'He whom you saw on the tree, glad and laughing, this is the living Jesus. But this one into whose hands and feet they drive the nails is his fleshly part, which is the substitute being put to shame, the one who came into being in his likeness. But look at him and me.'"
References
- [Translation by James Brashler and Roger A. Bullard]
- [Online translation of the Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter]
See also
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