Lives of Scripture

Life Story

Simon, a Galilean fisherman, was called by Jesus early in His ministry and given the name Peter ('rock'), along with his brother Andrew (Matthew 4:18-20; John 1:40-42). He became the most prominent of the twelve apostles — often speaking first, often getting it wrong first. He was the one who confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, and heard Jesus call him a rock on which He would build His church (Matthew 16:16-18). Minutes later, when Peter rebuked Jesus for predicting His own suffering and death, Jesus called him Satan and told him he was setting his mind on man's concerns, not God's (Matthew 16:21-23) — the same chapter holding both his highest and lowest moment. Peter also walked briefly on water toward Jesus before fear overtook him and he began to sink (Matthew 14:28-31), and at the Last Supper he swore he would die before disowning Jesus, only to deny even knowing Him three times within hours, the last time with cursing, before the rooster crowed as Jesus had predicted (Matthew 26:33-35, 69-75). Scripture does not omit this collapse to protect Peter's reputation; it is one of the most detailed failure narratives in the Gospels. After the resurrection, the risen Christ restored Peter personally, asking him three times whether he loved Him — matching the three denials — and recommissioned him to feed and shepherd His sheep (John 21:15-19). At Pentecost, this same Peter preached the sermon that brought about three thousand conversions and became a leading figure in the earliest church, including the pivotal moment when God used a vision to send him to the Gentile centurion Cornelius, opening the church's mission beyond Jewish believers (Acts 2; Acts 10). Even after this, Peter did not become flawless: Paul records publicly opposing Peter at Antioch for withdrawing from table fellowship with Gentile believers under pressure from certain Jewish Christians, calling it hypocrisy (Galatians 2:11-14). Tradition, not Scripture itself, holds that Peter was later martyred in Rome, reportedly crucified upside down at his own request as unworthy to die in the same manner as his Lord — worth noting as tradition, since the New Testament itself only records Jesus predicting the manner of Peter's death without further detail (John 21:18-19).

Family

Peter was married — Scripture never names his wife but records that Jesus healed his mother-in-law of a fever in Peter's own house in Capernaum, and Paul later mentions that Peter, like other apostles, traveled accompanied by a believing wife (Mark 1:29-31; 1 Corinthians 9:5). He and his brother Andrew were partners in a fishing business with James and John, the sons of Zebedee, before all of them left their nets to follow Jesus (Luke 5:1-11).