1. James D. G. Dunn, Unity and Diversity in the New Testament: An Inquiry into the Character of Earliest Christianity (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1977). [back]
2. Crossan and Reed, Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Text (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2001), 81–82. [back]
3. Clement of Alexandria states that Peter had children, and that when Peter’s wife was being led away to martyrdom, he followed her, comforting her, and urging her, “Remember thou the Lord.” Another tradition states that the martyr St. Petronilla was Peter’s daughter. On the strength of that tradition, her remains are today under the altar of St. Petronilla, which is just to the right of the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica. [back]
4. Pope Francis, Homily on the Feast of Pentecost, Vatican City, May 19, 2013. [back]
5. See Acts 11:26—literally “followers of the Messiah.” The term first distinguished disciples of Jesus from Jews, although it was not until early in the second century that Christians began to regularly use the term for self-designation. [back]
6. See Martin Hengel, Saint Peter: The Underestimated Apostle (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 57–79. Hengel describes the clash between Peter and Paul as a protracted split with far-reaching consequences. [back]
7. Stephen J. Binz, Scripture: God’s Handbook for Evangelizing Catholics (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 2014), 135. [back]
8. Karen H. Jobes, “1 Peter” in Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 28–41. [back]
9. 2 Peter is far more complex than 1 Peter for establishing a setting and time frame for the work. Commentators are divided on whether or not Peter had a hand in writing this work. Because the subject is more broad than this work warrants, I will refrain from commenting on 2 Peter and refer the reader to recent commentaries such as those by Richard J. Bauckham and Gene L. Green. [back]
10. Papias, Exegeses of the Logia of the Lord, quoted by Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, 3.39.15. [back]
11. This is also the position of Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origin, and Jerome. [back]
12. Thomas J. Craughwell, St. Peter’s Bones (New York: Image, 2013), 105. [back]
13. The Roman Gaius writing to the Phrygian Proclus, from Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2, 25, 6–7. [back]
14. A fascinating account of the discovery of Peter’s tomb can be found in John Evangelist Walsh, The Bones of Saint Peter (Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2011). [back]
15. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 3, 3, 3. [back]
16. Jerome, Chronicon 14. [back]
17. Shepherd of Hermas 8, 3, also Liber Pontificalis. [back]
18. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 3, 3, 2. [back]