Peter and Paul

Unerstand the scene

WHAT YOU CAN SEE IN THIS PICTURE 

Two men, standing, dressed after the antique, study a book together; they are Peter and Paul, the two apostles.

Paul is on the left, bald and bearded. He is younger than Peter since his beard is black. He has a long sword but he does not hold it and has put a shut book on it.

Peter wears a short beard and he has a wide tonsure on his skull; he is reading a big book and showing a text to Paul. He carries two keys attached to his left hand.

On the ground can be seen an apple and a skull, the signs of sin and death while the book is that of the Good News of salvation.

...AND IN OTHER PICTURES

Peter and Paul, being often associated and being celebrated together on June 29^th, had to be physically differentiated.

Paul carries a long naked sword since he was condemned to death but, as a Roman citizen, he had the privilege of being beheaded. As Paul chose the name of Paul, which means “the small one”, he could be so. In his representations, it is not the case but he is always completely bald and wears a long beard.

On the contrary, Peter wears a short beard, he has little hair, just a tuft on the front; he has a wide tonsure like future priests. But he is sometimes dressed as a pope and consequently wears on his head the three-tiered crown or tiara. Peter holds the keys, always two, that of the heaven and that of hell; a third one may appear; it is then that of the earth. They are big, made of gold and silver and so they sometimes look like sceptres. They are tied or bound together for the power to bind and to loose is one.

The biblical narrative

The Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 16

When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?

And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said to him,

And I say also to you, That you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it...

And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:13-19)

Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, chapter 1

Writing to the Christians of Galatia (a region of today’s Turkey), Paul evokes the time when he persecuted Christ’s disciples and then his conversion.

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles, save James the Lord's brother.

Now the things which I write to you, behold, before God, I do not lie. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;

And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judaea which were in Christ: But they had heard only, That he who persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith which he once destroyed. And they glorified God in me. (Galatians 1:18-24)

Comment 

Being the first to acknowledge Jesus as Christ, or Messiah, Peter becomes the first among the apostles, hence the mission entrusted to him by Jesus.

Hardly has he recognised Christ than Saul, now Paul, becomes a missionary and visits the Christian communities. Though he has never met Jesus during his life on earth, he considers himself an apostle.

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