Were Peter & Paul Really Martyred? History vs. Legend (vIDEO)
Welcome to the home of Episode 173 of the Misquoting Jesus Podcast with Bart Ehrman. Below, you can watch the entire episode, read its description, and see links to related resources.
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episode description
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This episode explores one of the most familiar traditions in Christianity: that the apostles Peter and Paul were martyred for their faith. Bart Ehrman argues that while many Christians assume all of Jesus’ apostles died as martyrs, the historical evidence is surprisingly thin. In fact, for most of the apostles, we have no reliable records of how they died at all. The earliest evidence for Peter and Paul comes from 1 Clement (around 95 CE) and possible allusions in the Gospel of John and Acts, but these sources provide very few details.
The discussion then turns to the famous later legends found in the Acts of Peter and the Acts of Paul, written roughly a century or more after the events they describe. These texts contain colorful stories that shaped later Christian tradition, including Peter’s upside-down crucifixion and Paul’s beheading. Ehrman explains that Peter’s upside-down crucifixion was not originally portrayed as an act of humility; instead, it symbolized a reversal of the world’s distorted values. Likewise, the Acts of Paul presents dramatic scenes involving Nero, miraculous resurrections, and even milk flowing from Paul’s neck after his execution.
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The episode concludes by examining what historians can actually say about Roman persecution. Ehrman notes that sources such as Tacitus confirm that Christians were executed under Nero, making it plausible that Peter and Paul were martyred. However, the famous details attached to their deaths come from much later legendary traditions rather than contemporary historical records.
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