Missions Methods and Principles
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 57, No. 1 – Fall 2014
Managing Editor: Terry L. Wilder
By Markus Bockmuehl. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012. 240 pages. Paperback, $25.00.
In modern New Testament studies the apostle Peter has often taken a back seat to Paul. However, in recent decades there has been a revival in studying the historical Peter—the premier disciple of Christ. In 2010 Markus Bockmuehl published The Remembered Peter—an academic work of specialized studies that was the culmination of a decade of study (xiii).1 This present volume is a follow-up book that uses the research of the first volume but is less technical and in more of a narrative form. It is aimed at helping form a fresh perspective on Peter that is accessible to the graduate student or senior-level undergraduate and even teachers and pastors, and it is supposed to be a discussion starter rather than a compendium of final answers (xiv, 17).
Bockmuehl is a fellow of Keble College and professor of Biblical and Early Christian Studies at the University of Oxford. His expertise in early Christian studies is evident in this interesting book that examines the living memory about Peter through the first two centuries of the Christian church. Building on the work of Ulrich Luz and his emphasis on Wirkungsgeschichte (“history of effects”), Bockmuehl is interested in the streams of remembrances of Peter that passed from generation to generation (8). Thus, Bockmuehl believes “the experienced and remembered effects of a person’s words and actions are often as valuable a clue to their meaning as a knowledge of the original causes and circumstances” (11). His premise is that through the passing of time can come a mature perspective on persons and events that is difficult to obtain at the time they occurred. He notes, “Contemporary observers often turn out to be pretty poor witnesses to the history of their own times. What they perceive as successes may well turn out in retrospect to be little short of disastrous” (10). However, this assumption seems reasonable and warranted for all material except for the Bible, whose writers were guided by the Holy Spirit (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:21).
After a brief examination of remembrances of Peter in the biblical canon, the book primarily focuses on the living memory of Peter in the East and then in the West. It is a thought-provoking and sometimes fruitful approach. Bockmuehl starts with a selective group of writings in the second century, and then he works his way chronologically backwards to and through the biblical texts. For instance, in examining living memory of Peter in the East, Bockmuehl examines writings of Serapion of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, Syrian noncanonical gospels, and the Pseudo-Clementine writings. For Eastern (in origin) biblical texts he examines John, Matthew, 2 Peter, and Galatians. Herein lies the weakness of this otherwise interesting book: the persistent doubts of the veracity of the biblical text. For instance, he believes that 1 Peter likely contains just some original writing from the apostle Peter, and that a disciple of Peter added to the material and composed 1 Peter (6, 30-31). At least he rejects that 1 Peter is totally pseudepigraphical (126-31). He agrees with many scholars today that nothing in 2 Peter was written by Peter himself (32, 89-90). Thus, 2 Peter may be a (possibly distorted) memory about Peter, but Peter did not write any of it. In the Gospels and Acts narratives he unfortunately sometimes lessens the veracity of details as “redactional interests” (115), imaginative extrapolation (118), or “archaizing” tendencies (124). He also tends to date New Testament writings too late (e.g., AD 100 for 2 Peter). Dating them earlier would help fit them with the traditional author.
Although the emphasis is on the geography, chronology, and message of the living memories of Peter in textual evidence, Bockmuehl also extrapolates some data from an examination of Peter’s tomb at the Vatican (148-49), Peter’s house at Capernaum (37-39), and the two competing locations for the site of Bethsaida- Julias (169-74). One wishes he devoted more space to these stimulating studies.
So, what does Bockmuehl find? Here is some of what he sets as “tenuous” (181). Peter was not a foil of Paul but rather was a bridge builder between church factions (150). Peter’s ethnically-diverse upbringing in Bethsaida was conducive for him to be open to Jesus’ worldwide evangelistic mission (181). Jesus did call him to lead the church, but any line of personal succession after Peter is doubtful. Yet, “all bishops who confess the faith of Peter constitute the ‘rock’ … on which the church is founded (182)”—thus a type of succession is through all genuine pastors. Peter did die in Rome, as did Paul, and Peter’s tomb at the Vatican could be genuine (149).
Bockmuehl’s book is a helpful addition to modern Petrine studies, and it is a good reminder not to give Petrine studies short shrift. It is a testament to the importance of living memory and an example of the importance of Patristic studies today. The book is a thought-provoking study, and it can motivate the reader to do further research in this area. The related website that organizes, categorizes, and translates primary source materials can be helpful in this regard (http:// simonpeter.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/). However, a stronger belief in the accuracy of the New Testament writings could lead Bockmuehl to firmer, more elaborate, and less tenuous conclusions about Peter.
- Markus Bockmuehl, The Remembered Peter in Ancient Reception and Modern Debate. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 262 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010). ↩︎
