Bible (New Testament): English Standard Version

Peter was one of Jesus’s 12 disciples and was designated as their leader (Matt 16:18-19; John 21:15-17). The New Testament refers to him either as Simon, his given name, or as Peter, the nickname Jesus gave him (“rock,” which sometimes appears in its Aramaic version, Cephas). Peter was a fisherman from Galilee, connected with his brother Andrew and with two other fishermen, James and John, all of whom also became disciples of Jesus. He is portrayed in the gospels as being loyal but headstrong; at times he gives the clearest articulation of the disciples’ faith and at other times he draws Jesus’s rebuke. He appears to have been one of Jesus’s closest friends, a member of the inner three (Peter, James, and John) whom Jesus brought along to witness his transfiguration and to pray with him before his arrest. Peter tries to leap to Jesus’s defense during the arrest, but later, during the trial, ends up denying three times that he even knows Jesus (Jesus had predicted Peter’s denial beforehand). After the resurrection, Peter is among the first people to see the empty tomb (after having heard the news from the women who were there) and is one of the witnesses to whom Jesus appears several times before his ascension.

The Book of Acts shows Peter taking a leading role in the early community of Christians, acting as the spokesperson for the disciples as they organize and administer the Jerusalem church. He preaches a sermon on the day of Pentecost, telling the story of Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension in such a way that it brings many Jewish converts into the church. In response to his public preaching, local authorities in Jerusalem jail Peter on several occasions, but he continues working and witnessing nonetheless. Peter takes a major role in welcoming people from other backgrounds, including Gentiles, into the church. The Book of Acts does not narrate much of Peter’s ministry beyond that point, but it appears that he left Jerusalem to go out on missionary journeys, conducting ministry in Antioch, Asia Minor, and beyond. According to early Christian sources, his missionary journeys brought him all the way to Rome, where he helped to organize and strengthen the Roman church before being martyred there in the early 60s CE.

Within the New Testament, two books are attributed to Peter’s authorship, the epistles of 1 and 2 Peter. Early Christian tradition also holds his testimony to be the major source used in compiling the Gospel of Mark, and many of his words and actions are recorded in the first half of the Book of Acts.

John, the son of Zebedee and brother of the disciple James, was one of the 12 disciples and was among Jesus’s closest friends. Like Peter and several other disciples, he was originally a fisherman, but the Gospel of John suggests that he may also have been a disciple of John the Baptist prior to meeting Jesus. John appears to refer to himself anonymously in the gospel he wrote, often as “another disciple” (John 18:15) or “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 21:20). John was a member of Jesus’s inner circle, along with Peter and his brother James. James and John have a reputation in the gospels for being passionate to the point of quick-temperedness, for which Jesus gives them the nickname “sons of thunder.” Overall, though, John comes across as a character who is steadfast and fully committed to his faith in Jesus, a kind and winsome person whose writings are full of spiritual depth, revolving around themes of love and friendship.

John features as a minor character in the Book of Acts, often accompanying Peter during his public ministry in Jerusalem. His brother James becomes one of the first Christian martyrs, but little is said of John’s life thereafter. Christian tradition holds that he served as the caretaker for Jesus’s mother, Mary (John 19:26-27), and at some point he relocated to the Christian communities in western Asia Minor (around the region of Ephesus). There he was arrested during one of the persecutions in the 90s CE and sent to a penal colony on the island of Patmos, where he received the visions that constitute the Book of Revelation. According to tradition, he was the longest-lived of the disciples and the only one to die a natural death from old age rather than from martyrdom.

John is second only to Paul in the number of New Testament books attributed to him, as he is traditionally regarded as the author of the Gospel of John, the epistles of 1, 2, and 3 John, and the Book of Revelation. If these attributions are accurate (See: Background and Chapter Summaries & Analyses), he’s the author who contributes the widest range of literature in the New Testament, contributing in the genres of biography, epistles, and apocalyptic literature.

Paul was one of the foremost leaders in the first generation of Christians, an apostle and missionary who founded churches throughout Asia Minor and Greece. He was also known as Saul, although Paul is the more common usage in the New Testament. He was a Jew who grew up in the city of Tarsus (southern Asia Minor), so he was a Roman citizen. In his young adulthood he studied in Jerusalem as a member of the sect of Pharisees. While there, he encountered the newly established community of Christians and spearheaded a persecution against them. As the Christians scattered to escape persecution, Paul received permission to go hunt them down in Damascus, but as he traveled there, he had an encounter with Jesus (apparently a vision of him in his risen and glorified state) in which Jesus confronted him about the persecution. This was a transformational moment that convinced Paul that Jesus was exactly who the Christians said he was. After meeting the Christians in Damascus and learning more about the faith, he began to preach the good news about Jesus, quickly overcoming Christians’ suspicions and earning affirmation from the leaders of the Jerusalem church.

Paul’s ministry entered a new phase when he was appointed as a missionary by the church in Antioch, sent out along with Barnabas to preach the gospel in Cyprus and Asia Minor. He considered himself to be specially called as an apostle to the Gentiles, and so he traveled through Gentile-majority areas, usually beginning his preaching in local synagogues of the Jewish diaspora. Those synagogues often included Gentiles who felt drawn to the God of Israel (traditionally called “God-fearers”). In most places, Paul’s preaching would spark a reaction in the synagogue that forced him to go elsewhere, taking Jewish and Gentile sympathizers with him as the nucleus of a new church community. Because of his position at the forefront of Gentile inclusion in the Christian movement, Paul became one of the major voices in navigating the question of the expectations by which Gentile believers should abide. Paul’s articulation of the gospel emerged from that context, highlighting faith in Jesus (as opposed to keeping the Old Testament law) as the necessary condition of salvation, which was offered as a gift of God’s grace. He continued his missionary journeys until his arrest in Jerusalem, after which he was transported as a prisoner to Rome, where (according to early Christian traditions) he was executed in the early 60s CE.

Thirteen books of the New Testament are attributed to Paul, encompassing all the epistles from Romans to Philemon. Most are written to church communities in which Paul had ministered and address concerns and questions that had come to him from those churches. A few, however, are written either to churches he had not yet visited (as with Romans and Colossians) or to individuals (as with 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon).