Why Were Some Books Left Out of the Bible?

COMMENTARY:

My theory of the Gospel of Peter is that it reflects what Cornealius and Pilate reported to Rome immediately after the Resurrection that compelled Tiberius to propose Jesus as a legal deity that Tertullian relates. The Roman content of the Gospel was part of what became Quelle, the intelligence archive that formed the Synoptic Gospels around the testimony of Peter from his debriefing with Cornelius in Acts 10 and became the basis for elements in Matthew and Luke.

Cornelius conveyed the Roman content to Peter during the debriefing and Peter incorporated these bits, which he could not have had witness because he and the other Disciples were on the run at the time, into his basic stump speech in some way. His confession in Acts 10:34 - 43 reveals that his understanding of what actually happened to Jesus amounted to “They killed Him on a cross”: he didn’t have these details going into the meeting and, as the Nicean and Apostle’s Creed, “He suffered under Pontius Pilate” covered the issue, but he, Peter, would have shared the details he received from Cornelius in his extended and intimate discussions in the manner of a war story, which is what the Gospel of Peter amounts to.

The most authentic detail, for me, in the Roman content is the exchange between the thief, who mocked the “justice” of the Roman soldiers and the response of the Roman soldier promising not the break the knees in response. There is a certain rough humor in the Roman response typical of soldiers, the humor being similar to the good humor of the soldiers who tormented Jesus in the Praetorium dressing him in a soldier’s cloak and “worshipping” Him and all the rest. This thief was having a very bad day and the only thing he had to look forward to was having his knees broken to end his torment. Nevertheless, he had the presence of mind to make fun of Rome, to which the soldier accepted the challenge and raised the bidding by removing the promise of even that cruel mercy.

If you’ve never soldiered, it might not be evident, but it’s a moment of high hilarity for the soldiers.

The details of the guard mount is also consistent with Roman practicies. The detail of 7 seals may have been included from Revelation, but it is the sort of thing a centurion, with his warrant, would have accomplished routinely. Somewhere else, it is noted that it took 17 men to push the stone into place, which would reflect the guard mount of two Conturberium (8 man squad) and the centurion, who had a rank equivalent to a Sergeant First Class or Marine Gunnery Sergeant. They put up a tent and set a guard detail, two by two, at the tomb, pretty standard stuff and reflects the battle doctrine of the legions.

What happens next is what everybody finds squishy about the Gospel of Peter. Luke doesn’t even mention the soldiers nor Mark. There is a reason for this: the soldiers fall asleep (or are made unconscious) which is a capital crime in the Roman army, so the issue is avoided completely by the two gentiles.

The soldiers are rendered unconscious in some manner (Mt 28:4The guards … became like dead men). I think this happens immediately after the earthquake (more about this, below) and everything that is presented happens in a common vision, particularly the talking cross and the 3 men extending into Heaven. The actual events become muddled by Peter, but this vision is what gets included in Quelle and what Cornelius conveys to Peter.

In Matthews version, the soldiers take the events at the grave to the High Priests as a CYA, which probably happened, but they took it up the chain of command first, as the Gospel of Peter reflects, which is how it ends up in Quelle. It serves Pilate’s (and Rome’s) purposes to be officially ignorant of whatever this resurrection shit is and probably sends the soldiers to the High Priests as a purposeful and strategic deflection. Pilate apparently shares this intelligence with Harod, who likewise shares his intelligence file of Jesus with Pilate (Lk 23:12)(which probably contains Matthew’s transcripts of His sermons: Matthew was a mole for Harod, which is how the red verses in the Gosples were captured in Quelle. Jesus alludes to this treachery in Mark 9:31).

I think Matthew gets the timing of the earthquake correct, which is the moment the event horizon occurs that transports the corpse of Jesus out of the shroud to whatever happens next. Thunder is created by the vacuum lightening leaves in the atmosphe and the air smashes back together to fill it. The same thing happened in this translation of the corpse of Jesus: when it was transported, it left a vacuum that was filled explosively by the atmosphere collapsing into it. And this is the moment when the Roman soldiers became like dead men and the seeds of the vision that was planted in their brains, collectively, still remained when they regained their senses and frightened Mary Magdalene and the other women who were talking with the young man at the tomb and they ran away without telling anyone.

Here’s the thing about the earthquake and the Shroud of Turin: I think the impression left on the shroud, which occurred in 35 billionth of a second, is the physics for interstellar travel a la stargate, and the only thing left to do is the engineering to move from one point in the universe to any other coordinate like a Robert Heinlein novel. It’s the promise destiny of humankind that God revealed to Abraham in Genesis 15:5

The Gospel of Peter doesn’t belong in the Canon: in most ways, it’s doggeral. But there is far more going on than a latter day version of bits and pieces of Luke and Matthew: it originated in a conversation between Cornelius and Peter.