THE LAST PART OF PETER'S LIFE

Peter is also often depicted in the Gospels as spokesman of all the apostles, and as one to whom Jesus gave special authority. In contrast, Jewish Christians are said to have argued that James the Just was the leader of the group.

In the final chapter of the Gospel of John, Peter, in one of the resurrection appearances of Jesus, three times affirmed his love for Jesus, balancing his threefold denial, and Jesus reconfirmed Peter's position (John 21:15-17).

The author of the Acts of the Apostles portrays Peter as an extremely important figure within the early Christian community, with Peter delivering a significant speech immediately after Pentecost. According to the same book, Peter took the lead in selecting a replacement for Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:15). He was twice arraigned, with John, before the Sanhendrin and directly died them (Acts 4:7-22, Acts 5:18-42). He undertook a missionary journey to Lydda, Joppa and Caesarea (Acts 9:32-10:2), becoming instrumental in the decision to evangelize the Gentiles (Acts 10). He was present at the Council of Jerusalem, where Paul further argued the
case for accepting Gentiles into the Christian community without circumcision. The Jews were circumcised.

About halfway through, Acts turns it attention away from Peter and to the activities of Paul, and the Bible is fairly silent on what occurred to Peter afterwards. A fleeting mention of Peter being in Antioch is made by the Epistle to the Galatians (Galatians 2:11) where Paul confronted him, and historians have furnished other evidence of Peter's sojourn in Antioch. Subsequent tradition held that Peter had been the first Patriarch of Antioch. Some scholars also interpret Paul's brief mention of Peter in 1 Corinthians as evidence that Peter had visited Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:12).

A phrase in the last chapter of the Gospel of John refers to Peter's martyrdom by crucifixion, though without reference to its location: "...when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and take you where you do not want to." Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. (John 21:18-19).

The early writings by Clement, Ignatius and Tertullian give witness to the tradition that Peter, probably at the time of the Great Fire of Rome in the year 64, for which the Emperor Nero blamed the Christians, was martyred there in Rome.

In addition, the first Epistle of Peter ends with "The church that is in Babylon, chosen together with you, salutes you, and so does my son, Mark" (1 Peter 5:13). Thought the word "Babylon" refers literally to a city in Mesopotamia, it was used cryptically to indicate Rome, as in Revelation 14:8, 16:19, 17:5-6 and in the works of various Jewish seers.

When, in the early fourth century, the Emperor Constantine I decided to Peter with a large basilica, the precise location of Peter's burial was so firmly fixed in the belief of the Christians of Rome that the building had to e erected on a site that involved considerable difficulties, both physical (excavating the slope of the Vatican Hill, while the great church could much more easily have been built on level ground only slightly to the south) and moral and legal (demolishing a cemetery). The focal point of St. Peter's Basilica, both in its original form and in its later complete reconstruction, is the altar placed over what is held to be the exact place where Peter was buried.

SOURCE: Wikipedia