Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
, “hearing”), a very common Jewish name in the New Testament. He was the son of Jona (Matt. 16:17). His mother is nowhere named in Scripture. He had a younger brother called Andrew, who first brought him to Jesus (John 1:40-42). His native town was Bethsaida, on the western coast of the Sea of Galilee, 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.
His father had probably died while he was still young, and he and his brother were brought up under the care of Zebedee and his wife Salome (Matt. 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 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. When Peter appeared before the Sanhedrin, he looked like an “unlearned man” (Acts 4:13). The Galileans had a marked character of their own. They had a reputation for an independence and energy which often ran out into turbulence. They were at the same time 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. 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 would seem that Simon was married before he became an apostle. His wife’s mother is referred to (Matt. 8:14; Mark 1:30; Luke 4:38). He was in all probability accompanied by his wife on his missionary journeys (1 Cor. 9:5; comp. 1 Pet. 5:13).
He appears to have been settled at Capernaum when Christ 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 Christ, 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 (2:4). , John 1:28, “Bethany”), beyond Jordan, John the Baptist had borne testimony concerning Jesus as the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29-36). Andrew and John hearing it, followed Jesus, 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; Matt. 7:29); and Andrew went forth and found Simon and brought him to Jesus (John 1:41). ” 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 (Matt. 17:25; Mark 14:37; Luke 22:31, comp. 21:15-17). We are not told what impression the first interview with Jesus produced on the mind of Simon. When we next meet him it is by the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 4:18-22).
There the four (Simon and Andrew, James and John) had had an unsuccessful night’s fishing. Jesus 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 Jesus, crying, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). Jesus 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” (Matt. 4:19) in the stormy seas of the world of human life (Matt. 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 (Matt. 16:13-20; Mark 8:27-30; Luke 9:18-20).
” “From that time forth” Jesus began to speak of his sufferings. For this Peter rebuked him.
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
(a rock or stone). e. ” He was the son of a man named Jonas, (Matthew 16:17; John 1:42; 21:16) and was brought up in his father’s occupation, that of a fisherman. He and his brother Andrew were partners of John end James, the sons of Zebedee, who had hired servants.
Peter did not live, as a mere laboring man, in a hut by the seaside, but first at Bethsaida, and afterward in a house at Capernaum belonging to himself or his mother-in-law, which must have been rather a large one, since he received in it not only our Lord and his fellow disciples, but multitudes who were attracted by the miracles and preaching of Jesus. Peter was probably between thirty and forty pears of age at the date of his call. That call was preceded by a special preparation.
Peter and his brother Andrew, together with their partners James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were disciples of John the Baptist when he was first called by our Lord. The particulars of this are related with graphic minuteness by St. John. It was upon this occasion that Jesus gave Peter the name Cephas, a Syriac word answering to the Greek Peter, and signifying a stone or rock. (John 1:35-42) This first call led to no immediate change in Peter’s external position.
He and his fellow disciples looked henceforth upon our Lord as their teacher, but were not commanded to follow him as regular disciples. They returned to Capernaum, where they pursued their usual business, waiting for a further intimation of his will. The second call is recorded by the other three evangelists; the narrative of Luke being apparently supplementary to the brief and, so to speak official accounts given by Matthew and Mark. It took place on the Sea of Galilee near Capernaum, where the four disciples Peter and Andrew, James and John were fishing.
Some time was passed afterward in attendance upon our Lord’s public ministrations in Galilee, Decapolis, Peraea and Judea. The special designation of Peter and his eleven fellow disciples took place some time afterward, when they were set apart as our Lord’s immediate attendants.
See (Matthew 10:2-4; Mark 3:13-19) (the most detailed account); Luke 6:13 They appear to have then first received formally the name of apostles, and from that time Simon bore publicly, and as it would seem all but exclusively, the name Peter, which had hitherto been used rather as a characteristic appellation than as a proper name. From this time there can be no doubt that Peter held the first place among the apostles, to whatever cause his precedence is to be attributed.
He is named first in every list of the apostles; he is generally addressed by our Lord as their representative; and on the most solemn occasions he speaks in their name. The distinction which he received, and it may be his consciousness of ability, energy, zeal and absolute devotion to Christ’s person, seem to have developed a natural tendency to rashness and forwardness bordering upon resumption.
” It is remarkable that on other occasions when St. Peter signalized his faith and devotion, he displayed at the time, or immediately afterward, a more than usual deficiency in spiritual discernment and consistency. Toward the close of our Lord’s ministry Peter’s characteristics become especially prominent. At the last supper Peter seems to have been particularly earnest in the request that the traitor might be pointed out. After the supper his words drew out the meaning of the significant act of our Lord in washing his disciples’ feet.
Then too it was that he made those repeated protestations of unalterable fidelity, so soon to be falsified by his miserable fall. On the morning of the resurrection we have proof that Peter, though humbled, was not crushed by his fall. He and John were the first to visit the sepulchre; he was the first who entered it. We are told by Luke and by Paul that Christ appeared to him first among the apostles.
It is observable; however, that on that occasion he is called by his original name, Simon not Peter; the higher designation was not restored until he had been publicly reinstituted, so to speak, by his Master. That reinstitution—an event of the very highest import-took place at the Sea of Galilee. John 21. The first part of the Acts of the Apostles is occupied by the record of transactions in nearly all forth as the recognized leader of the apostles.
He is the most prominent person in the greatest event after the resurrection, when on the day of Pentecost the Church was first invested with the plenitude of gifts and power.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary
PE'TER (stone, or rock; Syriac Cephas; Greek Petros), one of the twelve apostles, one of the three favorite disciples (with John and James), and the most active of all in word and deed (except Paul, who did not belong to the twelve). " He was a son of Jonas (John, according to the reading of the best manuscripts), a brother of Andrew, probably a native of Bethsaida in Galilee. He was a fisherman by trade, and resided at Capernaum with his wife and mother-in-law, who was healed by Christ of a fever. See John 1:42; Josh 21:15; Matt 16:18; Luke 5:3-10; Matt 8:14-15; Mark 1:29-31; Luke 4:38.
When he forsook all to follow Christ he must have made a considerable sacrifice. Matt 16:18. The name "Peter" or "Cephas" was a prophecy of the prominent position which he, as the confessor of Christ, would occupy in the primitive age of the Church. He laid the foundation of the Church among the Jews on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2, and, after a special revelation, among the Gentiles also, in the conversion of Cornelius. Acts 10. He appears throughout in the Gospels and the first part of the Acts as the head and mouthpiece of the twelve.
He had an ardent nature, a sanguine, impulsive, hopeful temperament, was frank, open, fresh, enthusiastic, and energetic, and born to take the lead, but apt to overrate his strength and liable to change and inconsistency. He was the first to confess and the first to deny his Lord and Saviour, yet he repented bitterly, and had no rest and peace till the Lord forgave him. He had a great deal of genuine human nature, but divine grace did its full work, and overruled even his faults for his advancement in humility and meekness, which shine out so beautifully from his Epistles.
The labors of Peter are recorded in the Acts. Chs. 1 to 12 and ch. 15. d. 50. After that time his whereabouts are involved in obscurity. d. 52, and censures him for inconsistency of conduct, which he showed at that time toward the Gentile converts, from fear of offending the Judaizing party. The alienation of the two apostles was merely temporary.
We must admire the meekness and humility with which Peter bore the sharp rebuke of his younger colleague, and with which he alluded afterward to the Epistles of his "beloved brother Paul," 2 Pet 3:15, as much as the boldness and fearlessness with which Paul stood up for principle and the rights and liberty of the Gentile Christians. d. 57, 1 Cor 9:5, as engaged, in company with his wife, in missionary journeys and labors, perhaps among the dispersed Jews in Asia Minor, to whom he addressed his Epistles. 1 Pet 1:1.
This allusion to Peter's wife is important as proving that he did not give up the family ties when he entered upon his spiritual calling. Clement of Alexandria expressly states that Peter and Philip had children, and that both took about with them their wives, who aided them in ministering to women at their own homes. It is a singular fact that he whom Roman Catholics hold to be the first pope should have been and remained a married man and thus protested against clerical celibacy. According to the unanimous testimony of Christian antiquity, Peter suffered Portraits of Peter and Paul.
) martyrdom in Rome under Nero, but the length of his residence in Rome and the year of his martyrdom are uncertain. d. d. 61-63, no mention is made of Peter. It is therefore improbable that he reached Rome before the close of 63. d. 42, immediately after his deliverance from prison (Acts 12:17, "he went into another place"), and is entirely irreconcilable with the silence of Scripture, and we may say even with the mere fact of Paul's Epistle to the Romans, written in 58; for Paul says not a word of previous labors of Peter in that city, and never built on other men's foundation. d.
64, during the terrible Neronian persecution after the great conflagration, or in 67. He is said to have been crucified, and thus he followed his Lord literally in the mode of his death. Comp. John 21:18-19. Origen adds, however, that Peter, deeming himself unworthy to be, in the mode of his death, conformed to his Master, was at his own request crucified with his head downward. The Epistles of Peter belong to the last years of his life, and are addressed to churches in Asia Minor, chiefly planted by Paul and his companions.
They contain precious consolations and exhortations, and confirm the harmony of his doctrine with that of the apostle of the Gentiles. 1 Pet 5:12; 2 Pet 3:15. They breathe a sweet, gentle, lovely, humble spirit, thoroughly mastered and softened by divine grace, and are full of joy and hope in view of the threatening persecutions. The First Epistle is dated from Babylon, 1 Pet 5:13; but commentators differ.
Some refer it to the famous Babylon in Asia, which after its destruction was still inhabited by a Jewish colony, and remained for several centuries a chief seat of rabbinical learning; others refer it to Babylon in Egypt, now called Old Cairo; still others understand it mystically of heathen Rome, in which sense "Babylon" is certainly used in the Apocalypse of John.
The last view is favored by the terms co-elect ("elected together with you") and Marcus my son, which occur in the same verse, and which scarcely bear a literal interpretation ("Peter's wife and son"), but probably mean the Christian Church and Mark the evangelist, who was his spiritual son. In this case the passage would be the first, and the only scriptural, proof for Peter's presence in Rome. If the letter was written during or after the terrible persecution of 64, he might have had good reason to call Rome by the name of Babylon, the ancient enemy of the people of God.
Mark was a companion and interpreter of Peter in his missionary labors. The Epistle was transmitted by Silvanus, 1 Pet 5:12, a disciple and fellow-laborer of Paul, and a connecting link between him and Peter, well qualified to assure the Jewish converts in the churches of Asia Minor of the harmony of the two great apostles in all the essential doctrines of salvation. The Second Epistle is a valedictory of Peter, written shortly before his martyrdom, with warnings against Antinomian heresies, which began to disturb the harmony and purity of the Church.
The external testimonies in favor of the Second Epistle are not so numerous as those in favor of the First, nor was it as much used. But the author expressly designates himself as an eye-witness of the transfiguration of Christ on the mount, 2 Pet 1:16-18, and bears ample evidence of apostolic depth and unction.
It attests some of the most important facts in our Lord's ministry; it confirms the unity of apostolic teaching; it adds the doctrine of the final destruction of the material universe to make room for a new heaven and a new earth "wherein dwelleth righteousness;" and it appropriately closes with the exhortation to "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Hitchcock's Bible Names (1869)
a rock or stone