Acts of Peter and the Twelve
The Acts of Peter and the Twelve or the Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles is a Christian text from about the 4th century. It is the first treatise in Codex VI of the Nag Hammadi library texts, taking up pages 1–12 of the codex's 78 pages. The writing extends the Parable of the Pearl from Matthew 13:45–46. In the text, Peter the Apostle meets a pearl merchant named Lithargoel, who is later revealed to be Jesus. Jesus commands the apostles to care for the poor. History Before its discovery in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945, the text was completely unknown. The discovered text is written in Coptic and was likely created in c. 300–350 AD. The retention of two Greek vocatives in the text, however, is evidence that the tractate is a translation of a Greek original. Scholars give a general estimate for the date of the original as the 2nd or 3rd century AD, but its final redaction may have been written as late as 367 AD. The first four sheets of papyrus, containing pages 1–8, have some damage to the text at the top. Thus, the introductory lines are unclear. On the other two sheets of