Peter.(from
Easton's
Bible Dictionary), was often
called Simon Peter.
Originally called Simon.(=
Simeon, means 'hearing'), a very common
name in the New Testament for those having descended fro the tribe of Judah.
Peter was the son of Jonas:.Matthew
16:17. His mother is nowhere named in Scripture.
He had a younger brother
called Andrew, who first brought him to meet Emmanuel:.John
1:40-42. His native town was Bethsaida, on the western coast of the
Sea of Galilee.(mao),
to which also Philip belonged. Here he was brought up by the shores of
the Sea of Galilee and was trained to the occupation
of a fisher:.Matthew
4:18. His father had probably died while he was still young and he
and his brother were brought up under the care of a man named Zebedee and
his wife Salome:.Matthew
27:56; Mark 15:40; 16:1.
There the four youths, Simon,
Andrew, James and John, spent their boyhood and early manhood in constant
fellowship. Simon and his brother doubtless enjoyed all the advantages
of a religious training and were early instructed in an acquaintance with
many of the Scriptures and with the great prophecies regarding the coming
of the
Messiah.
They did not probably enjoy, however, any special training in the study
of the law under any of the rabbis,
as
Paul did. When Peter appeared before the Sanhedrin,
he looked like an "unlearned man":.Acts
4:13.
Simon was a Galilean
and he was that out
and out. The Galileans.(mao).had
a marked character of their own. They had a reputation for an independence
and energy which often ran into turbulence.
Peter was gung
ho for Christ, he thought, but being impulsive,
he needed to find out what he thought of himself, needed correcting:.John
13:36-38.
The Galileans were of a franker
and more transparent.disposition
than their brethren in the south. In all these respects, in bluntness,
impetuosity,
headiness and simplicity, Simon was a
genuine
Galilean.
They spoke a peculiar.dialect.
They had a difficulty with the guttural
sounds and some others and their pronunciation
was reckoned.harsh
in Judea.(map).
The Galilean accent stuck
to Simon all through his career. It betrayed him as a follower of Christ
when he stood within the judgment hall:.Mark
14:70. It betrayed his own nationality and that of those conjoined
with him on the day of Pentecost:.Acts
2:7.
It would seem that Simon
was married before he became an apostle.
His wife's mother is referred to:.Matthew
8:14; Mark 1:30; Luke
4:38. He was in all probability accompanied by his wife on his missionary
journeys:.1Corinthians
9:5; compare 1Peter 5:13.
He appears to have been settled
at Capernaum when Emmanuel entered
on his public ministry and may have reached beyond the age of thirty. His
house was large enough to give a home
to his brother Andrew, his
wife's mother and also to Emmanuel, who seems to have lived with him.(Mark
1:29,36; 2:1),
as well as to his own family. It was apparently two stories high:.Mark
2:4.
At Bethabara.(Bethany),
beyond Jordan, John the Baptist had borne testimony concerning Emmanuel
as the "Lamb of God":.John
1:29-36. Andrew and John hearing it, followed Emmanuel and abode with
him where he was. They were convinced, by his gracious words and by the
authority with which he spoke, that he was the Messiah.(Luke
4:22; Matthew 7:29).and
Andrew went forth and found Simon and brought him to Emmanuel:.John
1:41.
Emmanuel at once recognized
Simon and declared that hereafter he would be called Cephas, an Aramaic
name corresponding to the Greek Petros, which means "a mass of rock detached
from the living rock". The
Aramaic name does not occur again, but the name Peter gradually displaces
the old name Simon, though our Lord himself always uses the name Simon
when
addressing him:.Matthew
17:25; Mark 14:37; Luke
22:31, compare 21:15-17. We
are not told what impression the first interview with Emmanuel produced
on the mind of Simon. When we next meet him it is by the Sea of Galilee:.Matthew
4:18-22.
There the four.(Simon
and Andrew, James and John).had
had an unsuccessful night's fishing. Emmanuel appeared suddenly and entering
into Simon's boat, bade him launch forth and let down the nets. He did
so and enclosed a great multitude of fishes. This was plainly a miracle
wrought before Simon's eyes. The awe stricken disciple cast himself at
the feet of Emmanuel, crying.Luke
5:8 "...Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord".
Emmanuel addressed him with
the assuring words."Fear
not".and announced
to him his life's work. Simon responded at once to the call to become a
disciple and after this we find him in constant attendance on our Lord.
He is next called into the
rank of the apostleship and becomes a "fisher of men".(Matthew
4:19).in
the stormy seas of the world of human life.(Matthew
10:2-4; Mark 3:13-19; Luke
6:13-16).and
takes a more and more prominent
part in all the leading events of our Lord's life. It is he who utters
that notable profession of faith at Capernaum.(John
6:66-69).and
again at Caesarea Philippi:.Matthew
16:13-20; Mark 8:27-30; Luke
9:18-20. This profession at Caesarea was one of supreme importance
and our Lord in response used these memorable words:.Matthew
16:18 "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church..."
"From that time forth" Emmanuel
began to speak of his sufferings. For this Peter rebuked him. But our Lord
in return rebuked Peter, speaking to him in sterner
words than he ever used to any other of his disciples:.Matthew
16:21-23; Mark 8:31-33. At
the close of his brief sojourn at Caesarea our Lord took Peter and James
and John with him into "an high mountain apart" and was transfigured before
them. Peter on that occasion, under the impression the scene produced on
his mind, exclaimed:.Matthew
17:1-9 "...Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles...".(verse
4).
On his return to Capernaum
the collectors of the temple tax.(a
didrachma, half a sacred shekel), which
every Israelite of twenty years old and upwards had to pay.(Exodus
30:15), came to Peter and reminded
him that Emmanuel had not paid it:.Matthew
17:24-27. Our Lord instructed Peter to go and catch a fish in the lake
and take from its mouth the exact amount needed for the tax, viz.,
a stater, or two half-shekels.."That
take and give unto them for me and you.".said
our Lord.
As the end was drawing nigh,
our Lord sent Peter and John.(Luke
22:7-13).into
the city to prepare a place where he should keep the feast with his disciples.
There he was forewarned of the fearful sin into which he afterwards fell:.Luke
22:31-34. He accompanied our Lord from the guest-chamber to the garden
of Gethsemane.(Luke
22:39-46), which he and the other
two
who had been witnesses of
the transfiguration were permitted to enter with our Lord, while the rest
were left without. Here he passed through a strange experience. Under a
sudden impulse
he cut off the ear of Malchus.(Luke
22:47-51), one of the band that
had come forth to take Emmanuel. Then follow the scenes of the judgment
hall.(Luke
22:54-61).and
his bitter grief:.Luke
23:1-21.
He is found in John's company
early on the morning of the resurrection. He boldly entered into the empty
grave.(John
20:1-10).and
saw the linen clothes laid by themselves: Luke
24:9-12.
To him, the first of the apostles, our risen Lord revealed himself, thus
conferring on him a signal honour and showing how fully he was restored
to his favour:.Luke
24:34; 1Corinthians 15:5.
We next read of our Lord's singular interview with Peter on the shores
of the Sea of Galilee, where he thrice asked him."Simon
son of Jonas, lovest thou me?": John
21:1-19.
After this scene at
the lake we hear nothing of Peter till he again appears with the others
at the ascension:.Acts
1:15-26. It was he who proposed that the
vacancy caused by the apostasy of Judas should be filled up. He is prominent
on the day of Pentecost:.Acts
2:14-40.
The events of that day "completed
the change in Peter himself which the painful discipline of his fall and
all the lengthened process of previous training had been slowly making.
He is now no more the unreliable, changeful, self-confident man, ever swaying
between rash courage and weak timidity, but the stead-fast, trusted guide
and director of the fellowship of believers, the intrepid preacher of Christ
in Jerusalem and abroad. And now that he is become Cephas indeed, we hear
almost nothing of the name Simon, only in Acts
10:5,32; 15:14 and he is known
to us finally as Peter."
After the miracle at the
temple gate.(Acts
3).persecution
arose against the Christians, and Peter was cast into prison. He boldly
defended himself and his companions at the bar of the
council:.Acts
4:19,20. A fresh outburst of violence against the Christians.(Acts
5:17-21).led
to the whole body of the apostles being cast into prison; but during the
night they were wonderfully delivered, and were found in the morning teaching
in the temple. A second time Peter defended them before the counci.(Acts
5:29-32), who."when
they had called the apostles
and beaten them, let them
go".
The time had come for Peter
to leave Jerusalem. After labouring for some time in Samaria, he returned
to Jerusalem, and reported to the church there the results of his work:.Acts
8:14-25. Here he remained for a period, during which he met Paul for
the first time since his conversion:.Acts
9:26-30; Galatians 1:18. Leaving
Jerusalem again he went forth on a missionary journey to Lydda and Joppa:.Acts
9:32-43. He is next called on to open the door of the Christian church
to the Gentiles by the admission of Cornelius of Caesarea:.Acts
10th chapter.
After remaining for some
time at Caesarea, he returned to Jerusalem.(Acts
11:1-18), where he defended his
conduct with reference to the Gentiles. Next we hear of his being cast
into
prison by Herod Agrippa.(Acts
12:1-19); but in the night an angel
of the Lord opened the prison gates, and he went forth and found refuge
in the house of Mary.
He took part in the deliberations
of the council in Jerusalem.(Acts
15:1-31; Galatians 2:1-10).regarding
the relation of the Gentiles to the church. This subject had awakened new
interest at Antioch and for its settlement was referred to the council
of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. Here Paul and Peter met again.
We have no further mention
of Peter in the Acts of the Apostles. He seems to have gone down to Antioch
after the council at Jerusalem, and there to have been guilty of dissembling,
for which he was severely reprimanded by Paul.(Galatians
2:11-16), who "rebuked
him to his face".
After this he appears to
have carried the gospel to the east and to have laboured for a while at
Babylon on the Euphrates:.1Peter
5:13. There is no satisfactory evidence that he was ever at Rome. Where
or when he died is not certainly known. Probably he died between A.D. 64
and 67.