SF
Is it true that Saint Peter and Saint Paul didn’t like each other?
Ed
Academics like theories. A favourite theory of historians of First Century Christianity is that the Bible’s account indicates a rivalry between the apostles Peter and Paul: Peter wanted to keep the new faith true to its Jewish roots, whereas Paul was a libertarian who wanted to make it more accessible to a wider Gentile audience. Those who hold theories like this tend to regard the Bible as just the work of men, rather than inspired by God.
When you accept the Bible as what it claims to be—the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16–17)—it’s not hard to see that this theory is baseless, and that both apostles were preaching the same message.
Peter and Paul were both Jews. Peter was a fisherman from the disreputable province of Galilee (Matthew 4:18, Acts 4:13); Paul was a privileged and highly educated member of the elite (Acts 22:3, 28, Philippians 3:5). Peter started as a disciple of John the Baptist, then followed Jesus; he was with him till the end of his ministry and became his close friend (Matthew 10:2, Mark 14:33). There are indications that Paul knew Jesus during his ministry (2 Corinthians 5:16), but he started off as a vehement enemy of Jesus and his followers and was only converted after Jesus’ death and ascension to heaven (1 Corinthians 15:9). In the Gospels Peter is presented as the leader and spokesman for the disciples—he was evidently a big, charismatic personality; Paul was not (2 Corinthians 10:10). It’s not difficult to imagine that there may have been personal tensions between these very different men—they were sinful humans, like you and me. But there’s no evidence of a lack of respect for each other.
Paul related an occasion when he gave Peter a public telling-off, because he was behaving badly (Galatians 2:11). But they were both spiritually mature men, and there’s no need to think that this strained their friendship (Proverbs 27:6). Peter was highly respectful of Paul’s writings, and called them ‘scriptures’ (2 Peter 3:15–16).
Both men were given particular responsibilities by the Lord. Peter was to spearhead the preaching to the Jews, and Paul the preaching to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:8). They both participated in each other’s mission—Paul always made a practice of preaching to Jews first when he arrived in a new town; Peter was the first Jew to baptise Gentile converts (Acts 10).
Their style of preaching, as recorded in the book of Acts and in their respective letters, is different, as you’d expect. But they both recognised themselves and each other as servants of Christ, whose vocation was to preach the consistent, unchanging message of salvation for all to the glory of God.