The
Gospel of Peter, being roughly contemporaneous with Justin, Hermas, and
Irenaeus, probably had a similar understanding of the preaching of the gospel
to the dead and of its effects. Not much detail about the Gospel of Peter’s particular
understanding can be gleaned from the bare question (εκηρυξας τοις κοιμωμενοις) and its affirmative answer (ναι), but three points can be made.
(1)
Unlike 1 Pet 3:18-20, which places proclamation by Jesus to imprisoned spirits after
his resurrection, the Gospel of Peter has it prior to the appearance
of the risen Jesus. The fact that it is the cross that acknowledges the
preaching may mean that Jesus accomplished it after his crucifixion (e.g., on
Holy Saturday), although it may have been the first act of the risen Jesus
before his appearance.
(2)
The scope of the audience of the kerygma is not defined. It may have comprised
patriarchs and prophets, and/or, given the outlook of the Gospel of Peter,
righteous gentiles. However, some of the ambiguity in 1 Pet 3 about whether the
proclamation is beneficial to the spirits is removed in the Gospel of Peter,
the reference to those “asleep” probably implies temporary death from which
they will wake up. They have “fallen asleep” (κοιμαομαι) rather than “perished” (απολλυμι). This is the conventional understanding of
Christ’s descent in the second century—that Jesus makes a positive, saving
proclamation.
(3)
Clearly the divine question is not voiced because God was unsure of the answer.
The dialogue is recounted so that the event can be publicly announced. It was a
step too far even for the Gospel of Peter to narrate the harrowing of
hell. The purpose of the resurrection appearance, then, is in large measure to
announce that Jesus has brought about the salvation of the sleepers.
The
reference in the Gospel of Peter, therefore, to the harrowing of hell is
the clearest statement in the Gospel of how Jesus is “the savior of mankind”
(4:13). As Robinson remarked, “No subject had a greater fascination of the
early Christian mind than the descent of Christ into Hades and the Harrowing of
Hell” Robinson and James, Gospel According to Peter, 25). This is
certainly true for the Gospel of Peter. While the death and resurrection
of Jesus do not appear to be themselves straightforwardly soteriological
events, the resurrection is in the Gospel of Peter the occasion for the
public announcement that this missionary journey has indeed taken place. (Simon
Gathercole, The Gospel and the Gospels: Christian Proclamation and Early
Jesus Books [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2022], 313-14)