How did early Christians act toward Peter?

Answer 1

What little we know about Christian conduct towards the apostle Peter comes from the four New Testament gospels and from Acts of the Apostles. However, these were written long after the time associated with the life of Peter, and probably tell us more about the attitudes of their own times and communities than about the attitudes of early Christians during the life of Peter.

Paul's Epistle to the Galatians shows that Peter was one of the 'pillars' of the Jerusalem Church, but apparently not its leader - this seems to have been James. However, the gospels show that Peter seems to have been regarded as the leading disciple among later Christians.

Mark's Gospel, believed to have been written around 70 CE, portrays all the disciples as somewhat slow to understand, Peter at least as much as the rest. However, this may not necessarily reflect the attitudes of Christians in Mark's community at that time.

Matthew's Gospel, believed to have been written in the 80s of the first century, is particularly favourable towards Peter, saying (16:18) "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Not only was Peter the leader among the disciples, he was clearly the favourite of Jesus.

Luke's Gospel, written around the end of the first century, also portrays Peter as the leading apostle. In Acts of the Apostles, Peter is able to perform miracles that seem to exceed even those performed by Jesus. However, once again this need not have represented the general view of the community in which the author lived - there is some evidence that Acts of the apostles was intended to raise Peter above the Apostle Paul, and some of the miracles may have been literary devices.

John's Gospel, believed to have been written shortly after Luke's Gospel, seems to regard Peter as too strongly venerated among the communities known to its author. Whereas the synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) in one way or another give Peter the honour of being the first called by Jesus as an apostle, John says that he was really only the third and that it wasPeter’s brother Andrew who called him, not Jesus. In this gospel, Peter is frequently compared to "the disciple whom Jesus loved" and is always bested by the other disciple.

Thus, the gospels show that Peter was regarded highly by the early Christians of the post-apostolic period, and even venerated to the point that the author of John's Gospel seems to have felt it necessary to portray him as a lesser apostle.