Thursday, November 15, 2018

"when the devil was gone out" - The Gospels & the Acts written in Presence of Hidden Peter


Imperial Palace Plaza, Tokyo

The Gospels & the Acts written in Presence of Hidden Peter

The beginning of each Gospel is as follows:
Mark: Mar 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;

Matthew: Mat 1:1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Luk 1:1 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,
Luk 1:2 Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

So, it is apparent that Mark is based on the recognition that Christ Jesus was the Son of God; Matthew is intended to emphasize the linkage between Christ Jesus and Judaism; Luke aims at appealing to Romans and other people than Jewish ones; and John declares establishment of the new religion of Christianity apart from Judaism.

And, in reference to the history of early Christianity, it should be thought that Mark was written in Rome according to testimonies by Peter; Matthew was written in the middle of persecution on early Christians in Rome to convince Romans that early Christianity was part of Judaism while Paul was under arrest; Luke was written that early Christianity could be a universal teaching even to Romans even if it was part of Judaism as the Jewish-Roman war was approaching; and John was finally written to declare the independent religion of Christianity now that the Jerusalem Temple fell in the war.   And they must have been written in the sequence of Mark, Matthew, Luke and then John.

However, there is one question: Did Peter really go to Rome?   Even in the Acts, descriptions about Peter cannot be found after the release of Peter from a prison with help from angels (the Acts 12).  But there are some books and reports, written around the 2nd century or so, that testified that Peter died in Rome as with Paul.

The key to solving this questions must be that Peter fled the prison under control of Herod, a king of Jewish people.  So Peter was a person wanted by the Jewish authority.  As Herod belonged to the Roman Empire, Peter must have been wanted by the Roman authority, too.  So, the Gospels and the Acts did not reveal whereabouts of Peter.   The Acts ends by describing Paul as follows:
Acts 28:31 Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.

The Acts reads that Paul continued to live in Rome without seeing Peter.  However, it is strongly thought that Paul met Peter in Rome while Peter was wanted by the Roman authority.  So, the author of Luke must have hidden the fact that Peter was in Rome.  It suggests that Mark, Matthew, Luke and the Acts were all written while Paul and Peter were alive or before execution of them.

And from strong linkage among Mark, Matthew, and Luke, it is assumed that they were all written in Rome with presence of Peter still alive.   Therefore they must have been written before or around 64 when Paul and Peter were executed by Nero.


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Luk 11:14 And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered.
Luk 11:15 But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils.