The Innovation of a Master Wonder-worker in the Character of Simon Peter

• Simon Peter undergoes a considerable development from the character’s first introduction in the Gospel of Mark to later narratives, where he gains remarkable miraculous abilities. In Mark, he witnesses Jesus performing numerous miracles without himself being named as the performer of a single one, but in Matthew’s Gospel Peter walks on water (Matt 14:22–33), in Acts he heals two paralytics and raises a woman from the dead (Acts 3:1–10; 9:32–42), and in the fourth-century Latin Acts of Peter, also known as Actus Vercellenses, the character makes a dog speak (Acts Pet. 9.9–15), miraculously restores a shattered marble statue (11.8–23), and revives several people from the dead (27.1–11, 28.63–66). This article examines how Peter’s various miracles contribute to their respective stories, analyses how they respond to the needs of their respective authors, and discusses what they tell us about the use of genre in the narrative tradition about the apostle Peter and his miracles.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Religionsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- Religious Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

gospels

apocryphal acts

miracles

genre

paradoxography

biography

early Christian apostle stories

narratology

characterization

Bibelvetenskap, Nt

Biblical Studies, New testament

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)