paarsurrey

Hi

The PromisedMessiah 1835-1908 wrote in his book Braheen-e-Ahmadia Volume-V (Roohani Khazain Volume-21) in Urdu language published in 1905 (I convey its meaning in English for my friends in the forum). Quoting from the daily Corriere della Sera, the most famous newspaper of the Southern Italy, he wrote that it had published the following novel News item in it:

On 13th July 1879, an old ascetic named Kore, died in Jerusalem who was a reputed saint in his life. He had left behind some belongings; and the governor looked for his relatives and gave them twp hundred thousand francs ( equivalent to one lac and nineteen thousands rupees ) in coins of different countries which were found in the cave in which the ascetic used to live in for a long time. Alongwith the coins some manuscripts were found which were also handed over to his relatives, who were unable to read and understand the contents of the manuscripts. Some scholars who knew Hebrew happened to see them; they were surprised that the same were in very ancient Hebrew.

When these were studied/deciphered, it contained following writing: Peter fisherman, a servant to Jesus s/o Mary, addresses the people in the name of God and his will” and this letter had following ending. “I, Peter, in the name of Jesus and in the ninetieth year of my life say these words in love of my master and lord Jesus s/o Mary after his three Passovers (i.e. three years of his death) in the vicinity of the house of Lord at the place of Bolier I have decided to write this”.
The scholars had surmised that his manuscript was from the times of Peter. London Bible Society had also come to the same conclusion, and after due examination of the same they wanted to purchase it with by one hundred thousands Lira from the owners.

The prayer of Jesus s/o Mary: Peace be upon both of them. He said “ O’ my God, I am unable to refrain doing something I consider evil, nor I could acquire the goodness that I desired to attain. Other people have their reward with them while I cannot. My greatest virtue is in my work. Nobody is in worse condition than of mine.

O’ God, the Greatest of all, forgive me my sins. O’ God do not put me under the blame of my adversaries. Do not belittle me in the eyes of my friends. Don’t do that so I, because of my fear-ness of thee, may be put in trial. Don’t make this world my most desired ambition. Don’t put me under the hands of a person who is unkind to me. O’ God the most Merciful, do this with your Mercy and thou art most Merciful; you are kind to those who need your kindness”.

Could somebody help me locate the letter with English Translation, as the above is a free translation by me from the Urdu?

Also any comments from the friends in this forum on the contents of the letter are requested.

Thanks

I am an Ahmadi - a peaceful faith in Islam

paarsurrey

Hi

Peter wrote this letter as stated by him when he was 90 years of age and that was as he says after three years of ( death of) Jesus.
Any guess what was Peter's age when he died? What was Peter's age when the event of Crucifixion of Jesus took place? When was Peter born?

Your opinion, comments please.

Thanks

Roger Pearse

I vaguely recall some story like this, but can't recall precisely from where. If I do recall, I will let you know. It is a fake, of course.

However this is an example of what have been called "Modern apocrypha". E.J.Goodspeed published a collection of reviews of such texts as Strange New Gospels. He later produced a revised version as Modern Apocrypha. Per Beskow then produced a new version, Strange Tales about Jesus.

Fabricating "letters of Jesus" has been a cottage industry for centuries. In the 6th century Licinian wrote a letter to a too-credulous priest about one such.

Roger Pearse

I was actually thinking of this, from Goodspeed, so not the same thing:

IX. THE LETTER OF JESUS CHRIST

THE particular interest that called forth each of these curious works has already been indicated in connection with each. Publicity, rationalism, traditionalism, piety, avarice--are all represented. The old forces that produced apocrypha are still at work. Not long ago, the newspapers reported the discovery at Cerignola in Italy of an ancient gospel written in Greek on thirty-one sheets of parchment. The manuscript was in a hand of the third or fourth century, but the work was composed by Joseph or Josephus of Jerusalem, who was supposed to be no other than our old friend Josephus. It was said that a certain Signer Moccia had bought from a Roman antiquary an antique wrought-iron casket which proved to have a false bottom. Under this was found the manuscript. There was much talk of a rich American's intention to purchase the thing, when Signor Moccia's |97 associate in the matter, Signer Gino Gardella, came forward with a statement that it was all a fiction, which he and Moccia had produced with the best of intentions, in the hope of stimulating faith. The whole affair was really no more than a publicity scheme designed to advertise a forthcoming novel by Moccia, but was abandoned by its projectors when they saw how seriously it was being taken.

In 1894 Catulle Mendès, a French literary man, published a new infancy gospel under the title L'Evangile de la jeunesse de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ d'après S. Pierre, "The Gospel of the Childhood of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Peter." The French text was accompanied by a supposed Latin original, which was said to have been found some years before in the Abbey of St. Wolfgang in the Salzkammergut. Ten years later it appeared in English, under the title "The Childhood of Christ, Translated from the Latin by Henry Copley Greene." It has been described by Provost Montague James as a sentimentalized compilation from the Protevangelium of James, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (of the eighth or ninth century), the Latin Gospel of Thomas, and the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy. Its |98 relation to the last of these, as Dr. James points out, is especially instructive. The Arabic Gospel was first published by Sike in 1697 from an Arabic manuscript which has since disappeared. But many phrases from Sike's Latin translation of it appear in the supposedly original Latin of this new infancy gospel from Paris. It is evidently a modern work, and was probably composed by Catulle Mendès himself, who to give it an air of authenticity translated it into Latin.

Of still another sort is a little volume of "Letters of Pontius Pilate," recently published (1928) by W. P. Crozier. These thirty-three short letters are represented as written by Pilate to Seneca between the years 26 and 30. While the editor represents them as genuine, it is soon clear that this is simply a thin disguise for a purely imaginative sketch of Pilate's experiences and moods during the opening years of his government of Judea. This is so manifest that no serious attention has been paid to them.

Very similar to these are the "Letters from Pontius Pilate's Wife," recently published by Catherine van Dyke (October, 1929). They are described as "rewritten from an old |99 traditional manuscript first found in a monastery at Bruges, where it had lain for centuries." All that we really know about Pilate's wife is what is said of her in Matt. 27:19, but this has intensely interested both ancient and modern readers in her. There is something very human and moving in the glimpse of this highly placed woman trying to mitigate the brutality of Roman government, and one cannot help wondering whether she did not make similar efforts on other such occasions. Her supposed letters, like those of Pilate just mentioned, are unmistakable pieces of historical fiction.

This is also the case with what purported to be another ancient letter, newly discovered-- the "Epistle of Kallikrates," published in the Atlantic Monthly for March, 1928. This was the answer of one of Paul's Corinthian converts to Paul's letter known to us as I Corinthians, and sought to show the practical difficulties in the way of acting upon Paul's instructions in that letter. But a few minutes' examination of the letter was enough to show that the reaction was a modern, not an ancient one, and so obvious was this that the antiquity and authenticity of the "Epistle" were hardly anywhere even broached. Everyone saw at |100 once that its pseudonymity was simply a device for getting a hearing for a modern thinker's sense of the difficulty of applying Paul's teaching in I Corinthians to modern situations.

The most ambitious and yet the most commonplace of modern apocrypha is probably the "Letter of Jesus Christ," said to have been found under a stone near Iconium, where it was deposited by the angel Gabriel. It is sometimes sent through the mail with a request that the recipient send copies of it to three others, as some great misfortune is likely to befall him if he does not. "Do not break the chain." It was published almost in full some years ago in the Chicago Evening Post, and is sometimes found framed on the walls of people of more piety than intelligence.

It consists principally of some artless precepts about attending church and observing the Sabbath, but its text has been so often debased by inaccurate reprinting that it is sometimes difficult to make out just what the original meant to say. I have not been able to learn anything about its age or author, but it seems to have originated in England, forty or more years ago, for the framed form of it is |101 pressmarked at the end, "Pitts---- Great St. Andrew St. Seven Dials.--One Penny."1

Montague James says the "Letter" is "extant in almost every European language and in many Oriental versions. It was fabled to have fallen on the altar at Jerusalem, Rome, Constantinople--where not?"

...

DCHindley

There are precedents to this type of apocryphal (made-up) letter of Peter. There was also a letter of Peter to James that accompanied the pseudo-Clementine _Homilies_ as part of the set up the editor used to sell his re-mix of the pseudo-Clementine _Recognitions_.

http://www.earlychristianwritings.co...1-3.html#judeo
The Homilies are twenty in number; they are prefaced by a letter of Peter to James, an attestation (diamarturia) of James and his priests, and a letter of Clement to James, in which he informs him that he is sending a summary of Peter's discourses. The twenty Homilies follow.

As for Peter's age relative to Jesus, the NT says nothing. I am not even aware of any early-Christian views on this matter (although there may be some).

DCH

paarsurrey

Hi

Any further information, please.

Thanks