Early Christian Apocalypse

The earliest and most influential Christian apocalypse outside the canonical New Testament, composed in the 2nd century CE. Vivid visions of heavenly paradise and hellish torment that became the literary precursor to all medieval otherworldly visions, including Dante's Inferno. A near-canonical text — mentioned in the Muratorian Fragment as worthy of scripture, read liturgically in Palestinian churches on Good Friday — yet ultimately rejected from the canon and largely lost until the 1886 discovery of the Akhmim papyrus in Egypt. Where other apocalypses draw on Jewish Sheol and the valley of Hinnom, Peter's heaven mirrors the Elysian Fields and Islands of the Blest, while its hell echoes the tortures of Tartarus and the Acherusian Lake. The text begins in the middle of an eschatological discourse of Jesus and breaks off abruptly in a catalogue of sinners and their punishments. This translation is from Harnack's edition (Leipzig, 1893), rendered from the Akhmim papyrus — the most complete surviving witness.

Many of them will be false prophets, and will teach divers ways and doctrines of perdition: but these will become sons of perdition.

And then God will come unto my faithful ones who hunger and thirst and are afflicted and purify their souls in this life; and he will judge the sons of lawlessness.

And furthermore the Lord said: Let us go into the mountain. Let us pray.

And going with him, we, the twelve disciples, begged that he would show us one of our brethren, the righteous who are gone forth out of the world, in order that we might see of what manner of form they are, and having taken courage, might also encourage the men who hear us.

And as we prayed, suddenly there appeared two men standing before the Lord towards the East, on whom we were not able to look; for there came forth from their countenance a ray as of the sun, and their raiment was shining, such as eye of man never saw; for no mouth is able to express or heart to conceive the glory with which they were endued, and the beauty of their appearance.

And as we looked upon them, we were astounded; for their bodies were whiter than any snow and ruddier than any rose; and the red thereof was mingled with the white, and I am utterly unable to express their beauty; for their hair was curly and bright and seemly both on their face and shoulders, as it were a wreath woven of spikenard and divers-coloured flowers, or like a rainbow in the sky, such was their seemliness.

Seeing therefore their beauty we became astounded at them, since they appeared suddenly.

And I approached the Lord and said: Who are these?

He saith to me: These are your brethren the righteous, whose forms ye desired to see.

And I said to him: And where are all the righteous ones and what is the aeon in which they are and have this glory?

And the Lord showed me a very great country outside of this world, exceeding bright with light, and the air there lighted with the rays of the sun, and the earth itself blooming with unfading flowers and full of spices and plants, fair-flowering and incorruptible and bearing blessed fruit.

And so great was the perfume that it was borne thence even unto us.

And the dwellers in that place were clad in the raiment of shining angels and their raiment was like unto their country; and angels hovered about them there.

And the glory of the dwellers there was equal, and with one voice they sang praises alternately to the Lord God, rejoicing in that place.

The Lord saith to us: This is the place of your high-priests, the righteous men.

And over against that place I saw another, squalid, and it was the place of punishment; and those who were punished there and the punishing angels had their raiment dark like the air of the place.

And there were certain there hanging by the tongue: and these were the blasphemers of the way of righteousness; and under them lay fire, burning and punishing them. And there was a great lake, full of flaming mire, in which were certain men that pervert righteousness, and tormenting angels afflicted them.

And there were also others, women, hanged by their hair over that mire that bubbled up: and these were they who adorned themselves for adultery; and the men who mingled with them in the defilement of adultery, were hanging by the feet and their heads in that mire.

And I said: I did not believe that I should come into this place.

And I saw the murderers and those who conspired with them, cast into a certain strait place, full of evil snakes, and smitten by those beasts, and thus turning to and fro in that punishment; and worms, as it were clouds of darkness, afflicted them. And the souls of the murdered stood and looked upon the punishment of those murderers and said: O God, thy judgment is just.

And near that place I saw another strait place into which the gore and the filth of those who were being punished ran down and became there as it were a lake: and there sat women having the gore up to their necks, and over against them sat many children who were born to them out of due time, crying; and there came forth from them sparks of fire and smote the women in the eyes: and these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion.

And other men and women were burning up to the middle and were cast into a dark place and were beaten by evil spirits, and their inwards were eaten by restless worms: and these were they who persecuted the righteous and delivered them up.

And near those there were again women and men gnawing their own lips, and being punished and receiving a red-hot iron in their eyes: and these were they who blasphemed and slandered the way of righteousness.

And over against these again other men and women gnawing their tongues and having flaming fire in their mouths: and these were the false witnesses.

And in a certain other place there were pebbles sharper than swords or any spit, red-hot, and women and men in tattered and filthy raiment rolled about on them in punishment: and these were the rich who trusted in their riches and had no pity for orphans and widows, and despised the commandment of God.

And in another great lake, full of pitch and blood and mire bubbling up, there stood men and women up to their knees: and these were the usurers and those who take interest on interest.

And other men and women were being hurled down from a great cliff and reached the bottom, and again were driven by those who were set over them to climb up upon the cliff, and thence were hurled down again, and had no rest from this punishment: and these were they who defiled their bodies acting as women; and the women who were with them were those who lay with one another as a man with a woman.

And alongside of that cliff there was a place full of much fire, and there stood men who with their own hands had made for themselves carven images instead of God. And alongside of these were other men and women, having rods and striking each other and never ceasing from such punishment.

And others again near them, women and men, burning and turning themselves and roasting: and these were they that leaving the way of God

Fragments

Clement of Alexandria, Eclogues 48.

For instance, Peter in the Apocalypse says that the children who are born out of due time shall be of the better part: and that these are delivered over to a care-taking angel that they may attain a share of knowledge and gain the better abode.

Clement of Alexandria, Eclogues 49.

But the milk of the women running down from their breasts and congealing shall engender small flesh eating beasts: and these run up upon them and devour them.

Macarius Magnes, Apocritica IV, 6 and 16.

The earth, it says, shall present all men before God at the day of judgment, being itself also to be judged, with the heaven also which encompasses it.

Clement of Alexandria, Eclogues 41.

The scripture says that infants that have been exposed are delivered to a care-taking angel, by whom they are educated and so grow up, and they will be, it says, as the faithful of a hundred years old are here.

Methodius, Convivium II, 6.

Whence also we have received in divinely-inspired scriptures that untimely births are delivered to care-taking angels, even if they are the offspring of adultery.

Colophon

The Apocalypse of Peter stands as a watershed text in Christian literature. Written before the mid-2nd century (cited in the Muratorian Canon, c. 170 CE), it circulated widely and came close to canonical inclusion. Clement of Alexandria (c. 200 CE) quoted it in his Hypotoposes and Eclogues as authoritative scripture; Sozomen records it being read liturgically in Palestinian churches on Good Friday. Yet it was ultimately rejected from the canon. Eusebius dismissed it as spurious; later church fathers relegated it to the apocrypha. The text vanished from widespread knowledge until 1886, when French archaeologists discovered the Akhmim papyrus in Upper Egypt — a single manuscript containing approximately half the original work.

The text begins mid-discourse and breaks off abruptly in a catalogue of punishments, leaving the lost portions preserved only in fragmentary quotations by Clement, Methodius, and Macarius Magnes. Its theological kinship with 2 Peter and its influence on later medieval visions (the Passion of Perpetua, the Vision of Paul, the History of Barlaam and Josaphat, and ultimately Dante) is profound and well-documented.

The imagery of the Petrine paradise — where saints are crowned with flowers, robed in luminous garments, singing amid fragrant air and unfading blooms — draws not from Jewish apocalyptic tradition but from Platonic and Greek eschatology. The Elysian Fields and Islands of the Blest find their echo here. Conversely, its catalogue of torments mirrors the Tartarus and Acherusian Lake of Greek underworld mythology. This blending of Judaic moral severity with Hellenistic cosmological imagery makes the Apocalypse of Peter a unique testament to 2nd-century Christian syncretism.

A separate text of the same name, the Nag Hammadi Apocalypse of Peter, is preserved independently and represents an entirely different tradition.

Translated from Harnack's edition of the Greek text (2nd edition, Leipzig, 1893), derived from the Akhmim papyrus discovered in Upper Egypt.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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