Atheists, why would the early Church use the Apocalypse of Peter in it's teachings?

Question

I posted a question about description of h**l in the Apoc. of Peter, but did you know that in the early church they would actually read from the apoc. of peter.

Now if the apoc. of peter is scary and stuff, why would the early church read it to it's followers? And unless the RCC added to the words of Clement of Alexandria, it is even said that Clement thought it was authentic.

wiki

Clement of Alexandria considered the Apocalypse of Peter to be holy scripture. Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiae (VI.14.1) described a work of Clement's that gave "abridged accounts of all the canonical Scriptures, not even omitting those that are disputed, I mean the book of Jude and the other general epistles. Also the Epistle of Barnabas and that called the Revelation of Peter." So the work must have existed in the first half of the second century, which is also the commonly accepted date of the canonic Second Epistle of Peter.

Answer 1

Your information is correct.  Nice work.  The *real* question is: why doesn't the church use it today?

Answer 2

I'm not an atheist (see the avatar?), but I found this:

Müller writes (New Testament Apocrphya, vol. 2, p. 625): "The significance of the Apocalypse of Peter as an important witness of the Petrine literature is not to be underestimated. Peter is the decisive witness of the resurrection event. Hence he is also deemed worthy of further revelations, which he hands on (in revelation documents) with authority. Revelatio and traditio, receiving and handing on, the chain of transmitters, are the central ideas of this understanding of revelation (Berger). Peter's disciple Clement (2 Clem. 5) plays the decisive role here, as witnessed by the Ethiopic version of the Apocalypse, which belongs in the framework of the Clement literature in which Peter hands on the secret revelation to Clement (on Peter as a recipient of revelation cf. Berger, 379ff.). As compared with the Canon, the eschatological functions of Peter are new (Berger, 325). In its description of heaven and h**l the Apocalypse draws on the abundance of ideas from the East which has also left its deposit in the writings of late Jewish Apocalyptic and the mystery religions. The motif of the river of fire, which is one of the pregnant eschatological ideas among the Egyptian Christians, certainly goes back to ancient Egypt. In view of the abundance of traditions in Egypt and the prestige of the Petrine tradition there (veneration of Peter's disciple Mark), an origin in Egypt is probable. The Apocalypse of Peter brings together divergent traditions, for which it has not yet been possible to discover any uniform source."

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/ap...

You can read the text you ask about with criticisms to go along with it and much more by clicking on the link I've provided. You may find it useful to search for the Handbook of Patrology online as well. I've read many ancient Christian texts (Epistle of Barnabas/ Pseudo Barnabas happens to be a favorite of mine), but never the one you've mentioned. You've sparked my curiosity though, so I'll have to read the Apocalypse of Peter before long.

Peace,

Drew

Answer 3

To scare people who had very little education?.There is no god.

Answer 4

Since the only thing holding the Church (of any time) together is fear and ignorance, why not include as much as possible.

Answer 5

As an atheist, I could care less.  

Answer 6

Didn't Paul have a lot of trouble controlling what information the early churches were receiving?  Why do you think that is?

Can you imagine how much more difficult controlling information would be 100, even 200 years down the road from the time of Paul?  How much wider geographically the churches influence had grown from the time of Paul?

Works in the ancient world were often titled pseudonymously...that means they would give the name of a respected person to the title simply to make it "worth" more (in whatever context the author was trying to make it worthy)...that we have a work titled "the Apocalypse of Peter" is almost meaningless...there may have been 100 Apocalypses of Peter out there, each one different and written by different authors...most would have been recognized as forgeries right away, but some may have needed more scrutiny, and a scrutinization process by people more skilled (both in the literally textual arts and the Holy Spirit) to detect frauds.  These things take time, as I'm sure you can well imagine.  Evidence was gathered, and by the time of Christianity's rise to eminence - at the Emperor Constantine's declaration that Christianity was "official" in the Roman Empire - all evidence was presented and we now have the canon of scripture God wanted us to have.

Isn't it a clear showing of the Power of The Lord that it all happened at the same time? Was that truly just a "coincidence?"

Answer 7

Actually the early Church used all so called Heretical scriptures until around 400 AD when those scriptures were "banned".

It is worth pointing out the Gnostic Scriptures which were used supported a hedonistic lifestyle. Would you be so keen to discuss that?

Answer 8

Because people are so much easier to control when they are p!ssing themselves with fear at the sight of their own shadows, that's why.

Why are you asking atheists?

Answer 9

Fear has always been a primary tool used by the church to convert followers into their fold.  This is just another level of the same manipulation.

Answer 10

Sounds like you answered your own question: Because it is scary.

ADD: There are plenty of Apocryphal writings that seem to fit the mood of the NT, and there are plenty of canon books that seem questionable.

The books of the Bible may have been inspired by true believers, but they were voted into canon for political reasons.

ADD ADD: Plus, starting with the First Council of Nicaea the church started using violence and intimidation enforce their decisions on the "official church". Gnostics and non-Trinitarians were hunted down as heretics and burned to death. Many non-canon works were destroyed so as not be taught anymore.

I believe we have the Apocalypse of Peter today only because it was found on an archaeological dig with several other canon and non-canon works.

Answer 11

because they could

Answer 12

Why are you asking atheists?

Answer 13

The early chirch firmly believed that the end of the world, punishment and damnation for their enemeies (roughly anyone who disagreed with them) and the return of the saviour would come in their lifetimes. So much so that they were counseled by Paul not to marry or have children on several occassions.

Of course, they were wrong.

But what a pity they did not take Paul's advice.

Answer 14

Fear is a staple of that pyramid scheme and always has been.