The Peter Myth

Karl L. Oakes

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781725274228
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

After the close of the New Testament era AD 70, Christianity entered a literary dark age which lasted until the middle of the second century. This period is filled with Christian pseudepigrapha, pious fiction, misleading forgeries, and genuine writings which have been misdated.The Peter Myth shines a ray of light into the darkness. The most explosive issue confronting the young church was whether gentiles needed to be circumcised and keep the Law. The apostles struggled with the terms of admission for twenty years and, in Acts 15, finally reached a consensus. We are saved by faith in Christ. There was a handful of believing Pharisees who refused to accept their decision, and insisted that gentiles were also bound by Torah. These men won over the churches of Galatia, where a hybrid form of Christianity began to unfold. They wrote their own Scriptures--which are still extant--and in an unrecorded schism, separated from the apostles.The Peter Myth connects the Galatian heresy with those Scriptures--the earliest writings of historic Christianity--to reconstruct an authentic history of the first and second century church.

1

The Background of the Galatian Heresy

AD 30 to AD 60

For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything,nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

—Galatians 5:6

The full story of the first century Christian church has never been told. There is an abundance of clues scattered through the New Testament and the patristic literature, but they have been overshadowed by counterfeit documents designed to mislead and deceive. And mislead they have. The actual history of the period is dominated by a messy doctrinal dispute, false teachers who rejected the authority of the apostles, and a colossal deception, all culminating in an unrecorded schism. This is not what usually comes to mind when people think of the followers of Christ.

The Christian tradition that captured the western world grew out of a dispute over the Law of Moses. God had revealed the Torah, the glory of Israel, on Mount Sinai amidst thunder and lightning and billowing smoke. The Mosaic covenant promised a wonderful life to those who would live within its borders, but it was subject to limitations. The blessings of Torah were given to a specific people (the house of Jacob), who inhabited a certain land (Israel), and they were restricted to natural life. Eternal life was never part of the bargain and, in fact, one influential sect, the Sadducees, did not even believe in life after death.1

If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

—Leviticus 26:3–6

When Christ came, he delivered the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven to the house of Israel.2 Later, he expanded the mission to include every nation and tongue,3 but his first followers were the sons and daughters of Abraham. They continued to offer sacrifices, attend synagogue, and keep the holy days.4 After the resurrection—and probably during the 50-day countdown to Pentecost—they withdrew from the synagogues, and the apostles laid the foundation for a Christ-centered fellowship. They established separate gatherings for worship, instituted the breaking of bread to commemorate the risen Christ, and designated Sunday as the Christian day of fellowship.5 “And they continued stedfastly in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”6

The young church grew by leaps and bounds the first few years. Three thousand souls were added on the day of Pentecost; in a short time, the total number of believers reached five thousand men;7 and, after Ananias was struck dead, it increased again by “multitudes.”8 The first Christians broke bread in private homes, and if each gathering held twenty or thirty people, there would have been hundreds of them in Jerusalem alone. To put this into perspective, the city of approximately 90,0009 inhabitants had 480 synagogues.10 The light of the glorious gospel even penetrated into the Temple. “The number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.”11

All of this was happening within the walls of Jerusalem—in full sight of all Israel. The Sadducean establishment initially reacted to the mass apostasy with threats and intimidation, but after several public confrontations in the Temple, they stepped it up to beatings and imprisonment. A flashpoint was reached with trial and stoning of Stephen. Leaving the leadership behind in Jerusalem, many of the disciples fled north to Samaria and Syria.

That was when the door of salvation begins to open to the Gentiles. Although they had been given a mandate to “go and teach all nations,” the Christian leaders never mapped out a strategy to reach the countless millions outside the covenant. The apostles seemed almost reticent to tackle the complexities of the Gentile issue. This was, after all, uncharted territory, and they did not want to get it wrong. We get the distinct impression from the early ch...