These days, St. Peter is mostly known as a guy who has a Basilica in Rome and a Burg
in Russia, but St. Peter was actually one of the most important people in the New Testament.
Here's a whole bunch of stuff you probably never knew about him.
The story of Peter first meeting Jesus varies a little from one Gospel to the other, but
basically Peter is fishing with his brother Andrew.
Jesus tells them to drop their nets and come with him because he's going to have them fish
for people instead.
And Peter does, just like that.
But the Bible and modern archaeology tell us a lot about just what he was leaving behind.
Many Christians have an idea that the disciples were poor before they started wandering around
with Jesus.
But Peter, at least, was probably doing pretty well for himself.
From the various Gospels we learn he had at least three employees, his own boat, and a
house big enough to accommodate some extended family.
We also know that he was from the city of Bethsaida, and archaeologists believe they
found it.
Ancient Bethsaida appears to have been a thriving urban settlement with elements of posh Roman
culture, extremely significant in a place that was then generally a backwater of the
empire.
So Peter?
He wasn't just following Jesus in the hopes of finding something better - he already had
it pretty good.
When it comes to the disciples, Peter is unquestionably the most important, as all four Gospel writers
give him the most coverage by far.
Across all of the New Testament, Peter is mentioned by name over 200 times, while the
next most talked about disciple is John, who gets a mere 29 name drops.
More than that, the Gospels agree that he served as a sort of spokesman for the group,
and enjoyed as much of a position of authority as any of the disciples had.
He's even chosen to be the first male follower who witnessed the resurrection, although Mary
Magdalene got the real honor.
And Jesus even selects him to be the one to build the church after he goes to heaven.
That's extra strange since the Gospels paint Peter as an argumentative screw-up.
Peter is always asking Jesus questions and arguing with him, and he doesn't always have
unwavering faith in his Messiah.
Still, Jesus gives him the benefit of the doubt, and that says a lot about forgiveness
and faith.
After the Last Supper, the group goes to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, and they're
met by Judas Iscariot and some armed guards.
But one of the disciples, identified as Peter in John 18:10, wasn't going down without a
fight, and whipped out a sword to cut off the ear of some random unarmed servant.
Unlike many Gospel stories, it's included in all four books, with just a few different
details.
Even the basics make no sense: Jesus was very specific that his disciples shouldn't carry
anything of value with them, not even an extra tunic or sandals.
But suddenly one of them has a sword?
Not to mention that Peter was a fisherman by trade, not the kind of person you'd expect
to know how to use a sword at all.
And swinging it at someone's head and causing some serious bodily harm was definitely illegal,
yet Peter doesn't get arrested or killed on the spot?
Add in the fact that when the books were written, early Christians were trying to promote themselves
as nonviolent revolutionaries.
So if the scene didn't happen, why make the story up?
And even if it did happen, why did every Gospel writer include it if Peter made them look
bad?
Here's a strange little tale: Acts introduces readers to a guy named Simon Magus, who sees
the disciples performing great feats and miracles, and offers to pay them to give him the same
powers.
Peter shuts him down, tells him to repent, and that's all we hear about Simon Magus in
the New Testament.
But the apocryphal books that didn't get included in the Bible have a lot more to say about
this magician.
Simon supposedly arrived in Rome by flying in on a cloud of smoke, performed miracles
throughout the city, and started calling himself the Great Power of God.
Simon and Peter decide the only way to settle their differences is with a good old-fashioned
miracle contest in public.
Peter goes all out, raising people from the dead and exposing Simon as a fraud.
To save face, Simon declares he's going to jump off the Roman Forum, in front of the
Emperor Nero no less, to prove he can fly.
But Peter prays for Simon to crash and he does, causing an injury that later kills him.
But Simon got his time when a sect that believed he was god arose in the second century.
The Bible doesn't actually tell us what happened to Peter after he went off to preach.
The only thing to go on is a very metaphorical statement Jesus makes in John that says, quote,
"when you grow older, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and
carry you where you don't want to go."
This is supposed to show that Peter, too, will be crucified, even if it is extremely
vague and symbolic.
But non-Biblical early church sources are unanimous in their reports that Peter was
crucified, most likely in Rome.
While the exact year is harder to pin down, it's generally accepted that Peter was caught
up in Nero's crackdown on the budding Christian religion, starting in 64 A.D.
But the often-repeated story that he was crucified upside-down at his own request because he
didn't think he was good enough to die in the same way as Jesus is harder to substantiate.
Very few sources mention this detail, and while there is evidence Roman executioners
sometimes mixed up the whole crucifixion process just for their own entertainment, why would
they do what a condemned prisoner asked them to?
Peter is considered a key guy in many religions from Protestantism to Islam.
But the Catholics took his importance a major step further.
They interpret a passage in Matthew to show that Peter wasn't just an important apostle,
he was the guy who was going to be in complete charge after Jesus was gone.
From just a few simple sentences grew a huge, complex organization with one guy at the head
- the Pope.
Peter was followed by other popes after his death, and the line is considered unbroken
to this day, minus some antipope drama here and there.
Tradition not only says Peter was crucified in Rome, it is extremely specific about where
he was supposedly buried.
According to the University of Alberta, the current St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City
is built on another church from the 300s, which was built on top of a necropolis, alleged
to contain the remains of St. Peter.
This was all completely theoretical for almost 2,000 years.
Then in 1939, archaeologists got permission to do some digging.
In a niche by the high altar they found some bones, and when they were analyzed, the tests
showed they were from a guy of the right age from the right time period.
They also showed evidence of the remains of purple vestments.
The BBC says the cherry on the cake was the ancient inscription next to the bones reading
"petros emi," or "Peter is within."
Pope Francis unveiled the bones for the first time in 2013.
That didn't stop another church from stepping forward in 2017 to claim they had the real
remains of St. Peter, so one thing seems sure: we'll never really know.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.