Peter’s Paradoxical Cross

Abstract

This article examines two ways in which the cross on which Peter hangs in various apocryphal accounts of his death is actually paradoxical. First, the earliest account, the second-century Martyrdom of the Holy Apostle Peter (the final section of the Acts of Peter), recounts that Peter returns to face his fate after meeting Christ in the famous Quo vadis? scene. However, the author presents a death that is ultimately not very Christlike at all, for the narrative effectively denies the physicality of the event. Two later authors, Pseudo-Linus and Pseudo-Abdias, reshape the story in order to correct this tension. Second, Pseudo-Linus’s accounts suggests that this first-century story can be understood properly only by looking back through the lens of fourth-century practices and imagery. The article ends by considering a final irony: although the story of Peter’s crucifixion was so critical to the Petrine tradition and Roman claims to ecclesiastical authority, alleged fragments of that cross never became part of the Petrine cult.