The only thing we can say with any reasonable measure of possibility is that both Peter and Paul ended up in Rome during the reign of Nero and were executed, most likely following the fire that broke out in Rome the summer of A.D. 64 when Nero blamed the Christians and had many of them killed.5 If they were in Rome at the same time, the evidence might well indicate, as we will see, they were there as rivals, not as co-apostles and founders of the Roman church.
There were Christians at Rome long before Paul or Peter ever set foot in the capital. When Paul writes his letter to the Romans, around the year A.D. 56, it is intended to serve as his “calling card,” as he sets forth an exposition of what he calls “my Gospel” to introduce himself formally to them. He is neither their founder nor their spiritual “father,” and the tone of the letter is more formal and much less personal than when he is writing to one of his own groups. He gives greetings at the end of the letter to various individuals by name, indicating that he has connections with a few dozen of their community (Romans 16:1–16). He does not mention Cephas or Peter. He refers to groups meeting in various homes, so we should imagine a network of cell meetings, perhaps loosely organized, likely diverse in beliefs and practices (Romans 16:4–5). One of Paul’s main purposes in writing the letter was to make a plea for tolerance of different religious observances, including observing holy days and abstaining from certain foods—both clearly touchstone issues between Jewish and non-Jewish Christians (Romans 14:5–9). He also devotes a long section of his letter to his claim that the Jewish people, though temporarily cut off from God if they do not accept Jesus as Messiah and Lord, will soon come around to such a faith once they see the myriads of Gentiles who are turning to the God of Israel through their faith in Christ as a result of his work (Romans 9–11).
There was a sizable Jewish population in Rome with many synagogues. Suetonius, a Roman historian of the period, indicates there were heated disputes among the Jews of the city over “Chrestus,” which led to the emperor Claudius banning them from the city precincts in A.D. 49.6 This is likely a reference to disputes within the various Jewish communities over the newly imported messianic faith in Jesus (i.e., Chrestus = Christus), which had reached Rome by this time. According to the book of Acts, when Paul finally did arrive in Rome, around A.D. 58, under house arrest for fomenting disturbances in the Temple at Jerusalem, he set up shop in a rented house and began presenting his gospel to the local Jewish population. These encounters resulted in heated disputes, leading Paul to denounce the Jews and vow that he would preach only to non-Jews in the future (Acts 28:23–28).
In order to understand the relationship between Peter and Paul we need to leave behind the legendary tales of their heroic co-martyrdom in Rome and examine the evidence in Paul’s genuine letters, our only contemporary sources.
A MAN CALLED PETER
We know precious little about the historical Peter, since as we will see, he has been made over in the New Testament writings in the image of Paul—but we do have some reliable evidence to go on. His Hebrew name is Simon (Shimon), the most common Jewish male name in Palestine in that period—one of Jesus’ four brothers was also named Simon, plus there was Simon the Zealot among the Twelve. Simon had a brother named Andrew; they were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee (Mark 1:16). He is called “Simon bar Jonah,” which is Aramaic for Simon son of Jonah—their father. Simon had a house in the fishing village called Capernaum (“village of Naum”) on the northwest edge of the Sea of Galilee, where he lived with his wife, who is unnamed, and possibly his brother Andrew and family as well (Mark 1:29). They, along with Philip, another of the Twelve, are originally from Bethsaida, a village further to the east, also on the Sea of Galilee (John 1:44). Jesus moved to Capernaum, along with his mother and brothers, as he began his public work, making Simon’s house his home base and headquarters (Matthew 4:13; John 2:12). There is a site today in Capernaum called the house of Peter, which became a Byzantine church, built over a first-century dwelling. Jesus chose Simon along with his brother Andrew, and two other fishermen brothers, James and John, as the core of his twelve apostles (Mark 3:16–17). Jesus gave Simon the surname Cephas, an Aramaic nickname meaning “rock,” which was translated into Greek as Peter—the name most familiar to us today (John 1:42).
Peter, James, and John become a triumvirate among the Twelve; Jesus deals with them separately as his core leaders on a number of occasions (Mark 5:37; 9:2; 14:33). Peter is always mentioned first and functions as the “lead” apostle. The half-dozen stories about him in the gospels emphasize his enthusiasm for Jesus along with his impetuousness, and of course he is known best for denying Jesus three times the night of Jesus’ arrest in order to save his own life, then repenting bitterly. According to Paul, as well as some of our gospel sources, it was Peter who first “saw” Jesus after his death, when he returned to his fishing business in Galilee.
Perhaps our best clue to Peter’s religious background is that according to the gospel of John, he, along with Andrew, as well as the apostle Philip, were disciples of John the Baptizer before they joined forces with Jesus (John 1:35–41). Everything we know about John indicates that he was a fiery apocalyptic preacher, zealous for Israel’s messianic redemption, and a strict adherent to the Torah. Many scholars have associated his message and his Jewish piety with the kind of apocalyptic nationalism that we find in the Dead Sea Scrolls. That Peter would have been drawn to this movement, as was Jesus, gives us a reliable profile of his zealous orientation toward his ancestral faith.
One might expect that the letters in the New Testament bearing Peter’s name might be the best indication of what he believed and taught and what kind of Christianity he espoused. Although scholars do not think either 1 Peter or 2 Peter was actually written by Peter, it is abundantly clear that the letter we call 1 Peter is in fact a production of an early-second-century Pauline group, the same ones who produced 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. The ideas in the letter are so close to those we associate with Paul in the later pseudonymous letters attributed to him that the resemblance is unmistakable. 1 Peter is a Pauline-style letter written in Peter’s name, an obvious attempt to associate Peter’s theology with that of Paul.
Paul knows Peter as Cephas, using his Greek name Peter only twice (Galatians 2:7–8). What Paul reveals is sparse but quite telling. Cephas is second next to James the brother of Jesus, along with John the fisherman as a third, in a new leadership triumvirate that Paul refers to as the “pillars” of the Jerusalem-based Jesus movement (Galatians 2:9). In Judaism this is called a bet din or “house of judgment.” That James is in charge, flanked by Peter as his chief confidant, is quite telling since James is known in all of our sources as extremely zealous for the Torah—much as John the Baptizer had been. According to Matthew, Jesus had given Peter the “keys” of judgment, with binding and loosing power, which in Judaism means he functions as a judge over matters of Jewish law and observance for the Christian community (Matthew 16:19 and especially 18:18).