Now that I’ve said a few things about the Gospel of Peter, I thought it would be interesting to give you a bit of it.  It is a fascinating account, with lots of intriguing differences from the Passion narratives of the New Testament.  As I said in my previous post, its most striking passage involves Jesus’ resurrection.

It may come as a surprise to some of you to hear that the resurrection of Jesus is never narrated, or even described, in the New Testament.  But that’s true.  The NT Gospels explain how Jesus was crucified and buried; they then pick up the action on the third day after with the women finding the empty tomb.  But they don’t say a word about what actually *happened* between those two events, when Jesus came back to life and then emerged from the tomb.  The Gospel of Peter does provide an account.

Below I’ve included the section of the Gospel on Jesus’ Burial, skipped the bit about the discovery of the tomb, and then given the section on the resurrection, ending with the very tantalizing next scene which we are *so* glad is preserved, since otherwise we would not know that this thing claimed to be written by Jesus’ disciple Peter.

As you read these bits, one thing to pay special attention to is how Jews are portrayed.  Spoiler alert: it ain’t good.

This is my translation from the Greek, as found in The Other Gospels, which my colleague Zlatko Plese and I translated and edited.

The Burial of Jesus

(23)  But the Jews were glad and gave his body to Joseph that he might bury him, since he had seen all the good things he did.  (24)  He took the Lord, washed him, wrapped him in a linen cloth,[1] and brought him into his own tomb, called the Garden of Joseph.[2]  (25) Then the Jews, the elders, and the priests realized how much evil they had done to themselves and began beating their breasts, saying “Woe to us because of our sins.  The judgment and the end of Jerusalem are near.”[3]

(26)  But I and my companions were grieving and….

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