PETER, APOCALYPSE OF. The [[Apocalypse of Peter]] is one of the few apoc. that enjoyed a measure of temporary or local canonicity. It is mentioned in the [[Muratorian Canon]], with the comment that some did not want it read in church; there were thus reservations even at this early stage. Theophilus of Antioch alludes to it, [[Clement of Alexandria]] quotes it by name, and Sozomen in the 5th cent. records that it was still read annually in the churches of Pal. on [[Good Friday]]. Eusebius, on the other hand, rejects it with the other Petrine apocrypha (Hist. III. 3), including it with Hermas, Barnabas, and the [[Acts of Paul]] among the “spurious” (Hist. III. 25). The book, however, enjoyed a wide circulation in both E and W, and the ideas it presents survived through such works as the [[Sibylline Oracles]] (Bk. II) and the Apocalypses of Paul and Thomas right down to Dante’s Divina Commedia. The patristic attestation shows that it must be dated to the 2nd cent., and prob. to its first