BEN: Another question about 1 Peter. What do you think Peter was doing after he disappears from the accounts in Acts at Acts 12 and ‘went to another place’ only making a cameo appearance back in Jerusalem at Acts 15, at which point James, and not Peter is in charge and concludes matters (and Gal. 1-2 also suggests James is the head of that church)? For my money I think he was going to those various provinces listed in 1 Peter at least part of the time. I don’t see the reference to ‘those who evangelized’ you as indicating Peter was not one of them. It simply means there were several people, including Peter who went there.
GENE: Could be. Peter was itinerant and popped up in places as far flung as Antioch in Syria, Corinth, and Rome. But as Pervo comments on Acts 12.17, “The expression ‘going elsewhere,’ literally ‘go to a place’…, is ominous” in that it’s used elsewhere to refer to the fate of Judas and Peter’s own demise. Given the context of Acts 12 where Herod Agrippa I is putting great pressure on the early Christian community, including Peter,it may be best to understand Luke’s statement as an indication that Peter dove for cover after his arrest. Peter appears again at the council in Jerusalem (Acts 15) which suggests that he did not travel far after his release from Herod’s clutches. The man did get around, however, and his influence was deep and central – Jerusalem, Antioch aka the Pearl of the East, and the heart of the Empire, Rome. Peter was at the center of things from the beginning of the gospel in Galilee, to the center of the gentile mission in Antioch, and all the way to the place that would become the center of the faith – Rome. Peter fished in the largest and most strategic human oceans of the time.
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