This volume presents one of the most intriguing texts of early Christianity to a contemporary audience seeking depth, narrative richness, and historical reflection. Known as the Gospel of Peter, this ancient Passion narrative offers a vivid and dramatic account of the death and resurrection of Jesus, one that circulated among early Christian communities before the boundaries of the New Testament canon were firmly established. The reader is given direct access to the complete surviving text of the Gospel of Peter in English, followed by detailed verse-by-verse commentary. Each passage is examined in dialogue with the canonical Gospels, early Christian history, and the broader theological imagination of late antiquity. Rather than treating the text as a curiosity or a doctrinal challenge, this edition approaches it as a serious witness to how the earliest Christians interpreted suffering, justice, resurrection, and divine action.
A substantial introduction situates the Gospel of Peter within its historical, textual, and cultural context, addressing its discovery, transmission, authorship, and relationship to the canonical Passion narratives. Clear explanatory notes accompany the text, guiding the reader through linguistic, historical, and interpretive questions without interrupting the flow of reading.
The volume concludes with an extended theological and philosophical interpretation, in which Alexandre H. Reis offers a reflective essay on the meaning and enduring value of the Gospel of Peter. Drawing on classical philosophy, patristic thought, and modern historical scholarship, Reis reads the text as an expression of early Christian thought in formation-where memory, grief, faith, and metaphysical inquiry converge.
Written for both thoughtful believers and intellectually curious readers, this book invites those who have encountered the story of Jesus through narrative, whether in Scripture, tradition, or contemporary retellings such as The Chosen, to explore an ancient voice that deepens and complicates our understanding of the Passion and the Resurrection.
