The Gospel according to Peter, and the Revelation of Peter...London: C. J. Clay and Sons, 1892.
Such is the title of the newly discovered MS. as edited and lectured on respectively by J. A. Robinson, Fellow and Assistant Tutor of Christ's College, and M. R. James, Fellow and Dean of King's College, Cambridge, from the transcript published by M. Bouriant, in vol. ix. of the Memoirs of the French Archeol. Mission at Cairo. The Greek fragments are given with critical notes; and the lecturer's own English version of each. The Gospel is interesting chiefly as an instance of a spurious production of the Docetm; the Revelation, as a source of the natural dreams of heaven and hell still prevalent in Christendom, especially in the Latin body. They probably date from the second century, though the copy of the fragment found seems to have been written in the eighth of our era. Peter's Gospel is a fable to propagate the hateful heterodoxy that the Lord consisted of two persons! that the divine left Jesus on the cross!! and that the human alone remained to die!!! Not only was Atonement ruined, but the Person divided and destroyed.
This is insinuated plainly enough in the following brief extract:— “And the Lord cried aloud, saying, My strength, my strength, Thou hast forsaken me! And having said this, he was taken up.”
There also follows the figment of two men from heaven entering the grave, and three men coming out, two of them supporting the one and a cross following them!! the heads of the two reaching to heaven, but the head of the one towering up above the heavens. “And heard a voice from the heavens that said, Hast thou preached obedience unto them that sleep? And from the cross! was heard, yea.” The aim of fables like these is obvious. What a condition of rapid departure from the truth it argues when such stuff as this found currency among Christian Professors, and got the notice of leading men, not always indignant!