Walter Richard Cassels

“ The “touch me not” of the fourth Gospel, when Mary Magdalene stretches out her hand to Jesus, is quite as much a mark of weakness as this. It may not unfairly, on the other hand, be interpreted as a mark of honour, and nothing in Peter forbids this reading. If weakness were indicated, it might be taken as a Docetic representation of the condition of the human body, deprived of the divine Christ, who had ascended from the cross. ”

“ At the part we are considering, the narrative is of the closest and most condensed character: the crucifixion between the two malefactors; the silence as feeling no pain; the superscription on the cross, and the parting of the garments, are all told without wasting a word. The reproach of the malefactor, apparently addressed to those who are parting the garments, is more intended to increase our sympathy for Jesus than to excite it for the speaker, and it is certainly not the writer's purpose to divert our attention from the sufferings of Jesus by presenting those of the generous malefactor. ”

“ In the Epistle of Barnabas, there is the best exposition of the doctrine that the Feast should be turned into mourning and the Passover at which Jesus suffered should be treated as if it had been the Day of Atonement. In Barnabas, the ritual of the great day is discussed in detail, and the rules of procedure for the Priests and the People, apparently taken, Mr. Harris thinks, from a Greek handbook, prove a variety of local usage such as would not have been suspected from the Scripture, read apart from the rest of the literature of the time. ”

“ In Peter, the grave (τάφος) is simply [pg 080] said to be called “Joseph's Garden” (Κήπον Ἰωσηφ) ,98 and described as “his own grave.” The fourth Gospel does not identify the garden as Joseph's at all, but says that “in the place where he was crucified there was a garden,” and in it “a tomb” (μνημεῖον) , and the reason given for taking the body thither is not that it belonged to Joseph, but that the tomb “was nigh at hand,” and that on account of the Jews' Preparation they laid it there. The whole explanation seems to exclude the idea that the writer knew that it belonged to Joseph. ”

“ Now again the general remark has to be made that, in order to convict Peter of a late date, Mr. Harris takes all this “highly evolved gnosis” wherever he can find it, without consideration of epochs, and in some parts upon mere personal conjecture. He even confesses that he does not know the date of the translation of Symmachus, which he nevertheless uses as an argument. He observes, himself, that it is “a little awkward” that the stone, which at one time represents Jesus, has to be treated in the same breath as before the face of Jesus. ”

“ Sylvia, some centuries later, recording the concrete principle upon which Gospel history is written: “Nothing took place which had not been previously foretold, and nothing had been foretold which had not obtained its fulfilment.”
In so far as the Gospel according to Peter is concerned, the impartial verdict must be: It is neither better nor worse than the more fortunate works which have found a safe resting-place within the Canon of the Church. It is almost impossible now to judge of these works as we judge the fragment. ”

“ In the fourth Gospel, only Mary Magdalene comes, and no reason is assigned. In Peter, Mary Magdalene only is named, but she takes her women friends, and though spices are not directly named, they are distinctly implied, and the object of the visit to the tomb, admirably described as “that which women are accustomed to do for those who die and are loved by them,” which they had not been able to do on the day of the crucifixion, through fear of the Jews. Even now the same fear is upon them ”

“ The Gospel according to Peter, as we might expect, contains none of the allusions or quotations to which we refer, and we are therefore reduced to the one indication of age—reference to, or the use of it by, early writers, leaving the approximate date to which it may be set back wholly to conjecture. ”

“ He is hustled along, clothed in purple and set upon a seat of judgment; the crown of thorns is put upon his head, they spit in his eyes and smite him on the cheeks, pierce him with a reed and scourge him. In the Synoptics, especially, the ill-usage is as much as possible lengthened and intensified. In Matthew, the mockery begins when Jesus is in the house of Caiaphas (xxvi. 67 f.) : “Then did they spit in his face and buffet him; and some smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ: who is he that struck thee?” ”

“ A little study of the opening words will show some interesting parallels with Peter. “The Lord hath reigned! Let the people be enraged! Sitting on the Cherubim, let the earth be shaken. The Lord in Zion is great and high above all the people.” Here we have a parallel to the “Jews burning with rage,” and to the enormous stature of the risen Christ, and, perhaps to the quaking of the earth. Nor is it without interest that Justin, having spoken of this great and high Christ, should turn immediately to another Psalm (xix.) ”

“ There is nothing whatever to warrant the conclusion that its use at the time when our Gospels were written would have been an anachronism, but the fact that a different expression happened to be used in a few writings. The author of the fragment employs the phrase twice only, and it is thoroughly consistent with his impressive style throughout the episode, that he should apply to the time when these astounding events are said to have taken place the appropriate term, already suggested by the author of the Apocalypse, of “the Lord's day,” instead of “the first day of the week.” ”

“ That a writer who had our canonical Gospels before him should so depart from their lines, alter every representation without dogmatic purpose, insert contradictory statements, and omit episodes of absorbing interest and passages which would have enriched his narrative, is a theory which cannot be established. ”

“ And Pilate sent to Herod and asked for his body; 5. and Herod said: ‘Brother Pilate, even if no one had begged for him, we should have buried him, because the Sabbath is at hand, for it is written in the Law: The sun must not go down upon one put to death.’ ” It is to be noted that, whilst in the four canonical Gospels the request for the body is immediately followed by the entombment, in our fragment the request is made in anticipation, when a favourable moment for the request presented itself, and the actual reception of the body follows later, in its proper place. ”

“ It is devoutly to be hoped that the Cemetery of Akhmîm may still give us more of this and other important early works; but there is no reason why we should not, even now, endeavour to derive what information we can from this instalment, and the worst—or the best—which can happen is that future acquisitions may enable us to correct the errors—or confirm the conclusions—of the present. So long as we confine ourselves to the legitimate inferences to be drawn from the actual fragment before us, we cannot go far wrong. ”

“ Here there is an occasion for applying with equal—or, as we shall presently see, greater—propriety the argument of “highly evolved prophetic gnosis” to the writers, and so explaining their representation. But there is more to be suggested in connection with the matter. In the first and second Synoptics, only one angel assists at the scene, who in the second Synoptic is called “a young man” (νεανίσκος) . Now the “two men” of great stature in Peter only go into the tomb and come out again with Jesus ”

“ The doubt only proceeds from indefinite statement on the part of the writer, and preconceived ideas on the part of critics.
It is evident, from the statement that Jesus was delivered for crucifixion “before the first day of the Unleavened bread of their feast,” that the Gospel of Peter adopts the same chronology as the fourth Gospel, in contradiction to that of the three Synoptics, and represents Jesus as put to death on the 14th Nisan. His agreement with the fourth Gospel, however, is limited to the mere matter of date, for on all other points the author takes a widely different view. ”

“ Zahn, of course, argues that the commands of Herod can only have been given to the previously named Jews, the judges of Jesus, “and perhaps to their servants” (und etwa deren Diener) , and he finds fault with Harnack for here bringing in “soldiers” from the canonical Gospels, without warrant from the text. He declares them to be directly excluded by the leading tendency of the Gospel of Peter (l.c. p. 27) . This supposed “leading tendency,” of hatred of the Jews, is a good deal exaggerated. ”

“ There is nothing more difficult, as is proved every day in our time, than to fix the precise date at which words or expressions first came into use, and especially—in the absence of voluminous literature opposing the presumption—the denial of antiquity to a work, on the ground of its employing an expression supposed only to have come into general use a few years later than its otherwise probable date, is both rash and unjustifiable. ”

“ It is of greater moment to observe that Mr. Harris, in applying this test, is only able to “suspect” that, in this episode in Peter, the speaker who asks the question is Christ the “stone,” and the answer from the cross, the “wood;” but as the first “speaker” is a voice “out of the heavens,” it is difficult to connect it with “Christ the Stone,” to whom the question is actually addressed. According to this, he puts the question to himself. Such exegesis, applied to almost any conceivable statement, might prove almost any conceivable hypothesis. ”

“ Peter simply contributes a new detail to the common tradition. There is no appearance of his deriving this from our canonical Gospels, from which he differs in substance and in language. Neither Peter nor the Synoptics know anything of the co-operation of Nicodemus.
The narrative in the fragment continues:
25. Then the Jews and the elders and the priests, seeing the evil they had done to themselves, began to beat their breasts (ἤρξαντο κόπτεσθαι) and to say: “Woe for our sins; judgment draweth nigh and the end of Jerusalem.” ”

“ Here only one angel comes down, whilst in Peter there are two men, whom some critics—amongst whom may be mentioned Nestle, with whom Harnack is inclined to agree, more especially as they are never called angels, but merely “two men”—identify as Moses and Elias. The angel rolls away the stone, which in Peter rolls away of itself, and sits upon it, whilst in Peter the two men enter into the tomb. No account is given in Mark of the opening of the tomb, the women simply finding the stone rolled away, and a young man (νεανίσκον) sitting on the right side arrayed in a white robe (xvi. 4 f.) ”

“ This fragment distinctly pretends to be a narrative of Simon Peter; and its matter is generally such as must have satisfied Serapion's ideas of orthodox doctrine, if suspicion of Docetic tendencies had not made him believe that it contained a superadded leaven of heresy. This may not appear very clearly in the fragment, but we know from other sources, as we shall presently see, that they existed in the Gospel, and even here the representation that Jesus suffered no pain; that he is always called “the Lord,” or the “Son of God;” ”

“ He argues that there can be no question here of a descent into hell by one coming out of the grave who cannot even hold himself upright, but must be led; that, however much the inanimate body of Jesus may still be called “the Lord,” his “Self” is already in death ascended to heaven; the selfless (selbstlose) body cannot possibly in the meantime [pg 089] have gone into Hades.110 In this conclusion, however, he is at variance with almost all critics, who generally take the view rendered above.111
The passage which we have quoted from Matthew (xxvii. 52 f.) ”

“ VI We do not propose to enter here upon an inquiry whether there is any evidence within our short fragment that the Gospel according to Peter was used by other early writers. The slight traces which alone we could hope to find, and which several able critics do find,57 cannot be decisive of anything, and whilst there may be a faint literary interest in pursuing such researches, they need not detain us here. A short consideration may, however, be given to Tatian. ”

“ Now, although it must be admitted that the Greek may be rendered in this way, yet it would be necessary to add αὐτὸν to justify such use of the verb. In connection with this argument they cite the words of Isaiah lviii. 2, in the Septuagint version, referred to by Justin: “For as the prophet said, they dragged him, and set him on the judgment seat, and said: Judge for us!” The Septuagint has: αἰτεῖτέ με νῦν κρίσιν δικαίαν ... λέγοντες. It is asserted that the idea of setting Jesus on the judgment seat came from the passage of the fourth Gospel which is quoted above, understood transitively. ”

“ II THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO PETER4
(1) ... but of the Jews no man washed his hands, neither Herod nor any one of his judges; and as they were not minded to wash, Pilate rose. (2) And then Herod the King commandeth the Lord to be taken, saying unto them: “Whatsoever I commanded that ye should do, that do unto him.” ”