Keywords

New Testament Studies, Kerygmata Petri, Clementine Homilies

Abstract

The following are excerpts from the Clementine Homilies as translated in the Ante-Nicene Fathers series. The choice, arrangement, and titles of excerpts follows the reconstruction given by Johannes Irmscher and George Strecker in New Testament Apocrypha, 2.531-41. The Kerygmata Petri is known only from the Pseudo-Clementine literature and must be distinguished from the Preaching of Peter quoted by Clement of Alexandria. The Kerygmata Petri is a series of fictional sermons of Peter and his disputations with Simon the Gnostic. Though scanty and fragmentary, the evidence concerning Jewish-Christian sects indicates their practices and beliefs were diverse and that there was not one such sect at a certain point in history but a variety of movements at different stages of development. The Kerygmata Petri is believed to be a source for the basic document (dating to the third century c.e.) of the Pseudo-Clementines, which was incorporated into the Recognitions and the Homilies of Clement. The Pseudo-Clementines achieved their final form in the fourth century c.e.