180 



-ONAL KSTATi: PKTEll 



specie* which bear alible fruit, such as D. discolor of 

 the Philippine.-, which yields a tine fruit, and D. Kaki 

 of Japan, whose fruit i- of the size of an apricot and is 

 drii-d :L- a sweetmeat by the Chinese. (c. M.) 



\TK. See PROPERTY. 



I'KKl . u city .'i Indiana, the seat of Miami oo., on 

 the N. bank Of the Waba>h River, f,7 miles N. of 

 Indianapolis, mi tin- \Vaba.-h. St. Liuis. and Western. 

 iroit und Kd River, ami tin 1 Michigan City and 

 Indianapolis Railroads. bliBftbe (firkin head-quarters 

 of the two Liter. It has a court-house, high-school, 

 and 3 other schools. 4 hotel.-. L' national banks. 2 

 weekly and 2 daily newspapers, 7 churches. Its in- 

 du-trial works comprise woollen, bagging, and 1 plan- 

 ing mill, 3 large foundries, anil railroad shops, basket 

 and wood-won factories. It is lighted with gas and 

 has water-works. Settled in 1 -:;.".. it was incorporated 

 I. Its property is valued at $5,000,000 and the 

 public debt is $150,000, the annual expenses being 

 about $20,000. The population in 1880 was 5280. 

 The surrounding country is agricultural. Petroleum 

 has been found at a depth of 880 ft. 



PKTKH. The various names of this apostle are 



given in the ENCYCLOPEDIA BRI- 



^"M?'' ? V V<w TANNICA - as we " as the circumstances 



( P- 707 connected with his becoming a disciple 



of our Lord. But the important 



events in which he evinced his priority among " the 



twelve " are not so clearly set forth. 



There is little or no evidence that the confession at 

 Csesarea Philippi (Matt. xvi. 13-23; Mark viii. 27- 

 33; Luke is. 18-22) is identical with the incident 

 narrated in John yt. 66-69. The latter occurred im- 

 mediately after a discourse in the synagogue at Caper- 

 naum, in which Jesus, by rebuking the multitudes for 

 following him because he had fed them, virtually turns 

 the popular feeling against himself. This was shortly 

 after the feeding of the five thousand, the only miracle 

 narrated by all four evangelists. The confession at 

 Caesarea Philippi was made after the opposition in 

 Galilee had well-nigh closed that region to the ministry 

 of Jesus. The intervening journeys all show increas- 

 ing antagonism. But thus the disciples were trained 

 to see more clearly the real purpose of their Master's 

 mission. On the borders of the Holy I /and, in pri- 

 I'eter, as the spokesman of the twelve, made his 

 confession. It indicates a great advance from the 

 answer given in John vi. 68. The much disputed 

 sentence, "Upon this rock will I build mychureh," 

 must, therefore, be interpreted in a way that recognizes 

 the priority of Peter. For his name is first in all the 

 lists of the apostles. (The four fishermen are always 

 named first.) Furthermore, the verbal play upon his 

 name seems to compel a reference to the person bear- 

 ing that name. But priority and primacy are not 

 identical terms, and the personal infallibility of Peter 

 IB contradicted by the interview which follows (Matt, 

 xvi. 21-2:5 ; Mark viii. 31-33). as well as bv the inci- 

 dent at Anti'ieh. when Paul rebuked him (GaL ii. 11, 

 12) ; the very lust historical notice of Peter. 



The narrative of his attempted walking on the water 

 (Matt xiy. 28-31), though peculiar to Matthew, is 

 quite significant, sine* it illustrates alike the strength 

 and weakness of the apostle's character, and represents 

 in act what was expressed in word at Csesarea Philippi. 

 That his conceptions of the Messianic kingdom were 

 at first purely Jewish is evident, but the Gospels are 

 never read aright until they arc regarded as narratives 

 of the training of the disciples to higher conceptions 

 of their Master's 1'erson and work. The Tubingen 

 school ignores tin- in order to prove that the twelve 

 were Judaizing to the last, even after the gospel had 

 been widely preaelied to the (ieutiles. Hut all the 

 evangelists plainly show the preparations for a wider 

 I on the part of the twelve. Nor is 

 there any evidence that the Fourth (iospcl seek- t.. 

 present .)hn M more prominent than Piter. Kven 

 the threefold denial, narrated with varying details in 



all four Gospels, shows Peter in the sane 

 and prominence. The special appearance of the risen 

 Lord to IVter (1 Cor. xv. 5 ; Luke xxiv. 34) is a rec- 

 ognition of his leadership ; all the more significant, 

 because it is stated by the very writers whom the 

 Tubingen school assume to be anti-Jewish in their 

 coloring id' the history. 



We now pass to the narrative in the Acts of the 

 Apostles. The hist half of that book is regarded by 

 suimc critics as representing Paul in too compromising 

 aii attitude to Jewi.-h Christianity; and the same 

 critics object to the earlier half, because it present- 

 Peter as too favorable to the (i entiles. But the narra- 

 tive i> a eon.-i>tciit setting forth of the way in which 

 thi> man. in spite of hi- Jewish habits and prejudices, 

 was led to see the universal scope of the gospel. That 

 he proved weak in practising his own avowed prin 

 ciple- at Antioch (Gal. ii. II. 12) only shows that thi- 

 was the same Peter depicted in the Gospels ; advanced 

 in grace and knowledge, but not yet perfect. The per- 

 sistent attempt " to reconstruct not only church history 

 but also the Mew Testament," on the theory of a per- 

 manent alienation of these two apostles, seems to 1. 

 disapproved by Dr. Hatch; but he attaches entirely 

 too much weight to the opinions of the critics that up- 

 hold this theory. For example: in discus,-! i it: (he 

 question whether Peter ever was at Rome, the < 

 nifiiifx are introduced. The historical romance con- 

 tained in this literature has been used by the Tubingen 

 school as a proof of the sharp antagonism between the 

 Jewi.-h and Gentile elements in the early church. The 

 ( 'i, mriitiim do exhibit a process of evolution in litera- 

 ture, but they do not prove the main point of the 

 Tubingen theory, nor is it certain that Simon Magus 

 always represents Paul. Yet the ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 

 BIUTANNIOA gives as authorities on the ClnMMlHMi 

 only writers of the Tubingen school, and allows a place 

 to the suggestion that the passage in Acts viii. 14-24 

 is not authentic, but a "reflex of the later legends 

 in which the name of Simon Magus was substituli d 

 for that of St. Paul as a representative of false Chris- 

 tianity." Probably no more groundless theory than 

 this has been proposed by skeptical criticism. (An 

 English translation of the Clementines with notes by 

 the writer of this article will be found in the Ante- 

 Nicfin Father*. Anier. ed.. vol. viii., p. 75-346.) 



The later history of the Apostle Peter has been con- 

 fused by the extravagant claim of a twenty-live 

 residence at Rome. That he went to Rome toward 

 the close of his life, enduring martyrdom there under 

 Nero, is exceedingly probable ; but he could scarcely 

 have been there when Paul wrote his Epistle to tin- 

 Romans (A. D. 58). Nor is it likely that " Babylon " 

 in his own epistle (1 Pet v. 13) refers to Rome. It 

 should be noted that many Protestant scholars, includ- 

 ing those of very different theological tendencies, hold 

 (lie i. pinion that Peter died at Rome. Ecclesiastical 

 tradition is singularly unanimous in supporting the 

 main fact. That Peter and Paul were martyred at the 

 same time is also the traditional belief, but for this 

 there is not the same amount of patristic evidi nee. 

 us quite unlikely that the two apostles ever were 

 in Rome at the same time; certainly Paul ma!, 

 allusion to the presence of Peter in any of the cpi.-tlcs 

 written from that city. 



The character of Peter is readily understood. I le 

 was the strongest and the weakest of the Twelve. He 

 had all tho excellences and all the defects of a san- 

 guine temperament" (Schatf, /lixtnn/ofthe Christian 

 Churdi, vol. i.. p. L'.V; Compare the same, pp. 253- 

 263, on "the Peter of history and the Peter of fic- 

 tion"). He has been called the apostle of hope, and 

 his epistles, written when di\ine grace^ had matured 

 his piety, are full of consolation. In his speeches, as 

 recorded in the Acts of the Apostles as weft as in his 

 epistles, there is a tone of humility in sharp contrast 

 with the claims that have been .unneeted with tho 

 primacy assumed to have been transferred from him to 



