[imardmd1]

Going to Babylon . . .

As you say, let's do that, should it be maintained that Babylon meant nothing in reference to Simon Peter's peregrinations in the ministry to the Circumcised People. The readers here will be greatly edified by reading articles like this one, "History of the Jews in Iraq" (click here), of which the following are excerpts:

"Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities.
. . .
In the Bible, Babylon and the country of Babylonia are not always clearly distinguished, in most cases the same word being used for both. In some passages the land of Babylonia is called Shinar, while in the post-exilic literature it is called Chaldea. In the Book of Genesis, Babylonia is described as the land in which Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh are located – cities that are declared to have formed the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom (Gen. x 10). Here, the Tower of Babel was located (Gen. xi. 1–9); and it was also the seat of Amraphel's dominion (Gen. xiv. 1, 9)."

Peter stood not so far from the Babylonian exile that the land was not any longer known by the metonomy "Babylon." Surely he could not disregard the heavy concentration of Jews remaining and multiplying in it. During the Exile, many "little sanctuaries" (Ezekiel 11:6) were to appear throughout the Near East. In the AV (cf. DRB) God announced by Ezekiel's prophesy the coming dispersion of Judah:

"Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come."

That is, each of these, proceeding from a local minyan into a shul (synagogue); from which, needing the economical allocation of resources, rabbinical learning centers coalesced, known to be still active and growing in Peter's time (to whom did he preach on the day of the 33 AD Pentecost? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and inhabitants of Mesopotamia!), and culminating in a great school after his time on whose shoulders today's rabbis stand. From the above reference, another except describing it:

"The rabbi Abba Arika (175–247 AD), known as "Rab" due to his status as the highest authority in Judaism, is considered by the Jewish oral tradition the key leader, who along with the whole people in diaspora, maintained Judaism after the destruction of Jerusalem. After studying in Palestine at the academy of Judah I, Rab quietly returned to his Babylonian home; his arrival, in the year 530 of the Seleucidan, or 219 of the common era, is considered to mark the beginning of a new era for the Jewish people. Rab's career is seen as initiating the dominant rôle that the Babylonian academies played for several centuries, for the first time outmoding Judea and Galilee in the quality of Torah study. Most Jews to this day rely on the quality of the work of Babylon during this period over that of the Galilee from the same period. The Jewish community of Babylon was already learned – Rab just focused and organised their study."

Despite your contention to place the center of Peter's ministry in Rome, I offer not just my opinion, but the facts of Jewish religious history, of which Peter's unpolished plainly literal inspired record says that his First General Epistle was written in Babylon, the center of one Diaspora, to the candidates of the Roman dispersion of Jewish Christians from Jerusalem to the areas of Anatolia, Greece, and Rome. There is no need at all to make Peter's words figurative in nature. That definitely was not his style.

Peter did die just outside Rome . . .

With all due respect for your leanings, there is not one smidgen of information residing in the Scriptures to support that assumption. Though your statement about the Vaticanus is probably correct, it has no bearing on the issue in view. No doubt, the witnesses maintaining Peter's demise, being fallible and supporting a Western rule of the State Church, doubtless lay a heavy thumb on the scale, so to speak. For me, an absence of mention from the surviving apostles or apostolic fathers (of whom are Beloved John, Luke, Timothy, Mark, and Paul) does not negate your contention, that fact certainly does not validate it, either.

What makes you think that Simon Peter would leave the rich, spiritually fertile geographical area that was at the center of his allocated area of ministry to Jews and Jewish Christians, to go off and drag over the territory that Paul and his evangelistic team were predominantly in the process of plowing?

It would not surprise me at all that of the many thousands of new disciples that were in Jerusalem for the mandated festival, were from the Babylonian shuls, became committed to evangelize their communities, and went back there to implement the Great Commission in the Near East. Even those fellow Disciple/Apostles would, by the Jerusalem Concord (Gal. 2:7-10), have been overseen by Peter in ministering to the scattered or lost tribes. Why would he not rather go and visit them, and perhaps even die in the effort to overcome the persecution of non-converted Iraqian Hebrews (that also includes those descended from the Northern Kingdom tribes)?

I think my speculation is just as good as your conjectural assumption, and better fits the constraints of Scripture as well as history.

[Cronos]

Mine isn't conjecture - the facts are:

• Peter and Paul traveled within the Roman Empire. For the first Christians, they followed the route of the Roman empire - within the boundaries they had free travel, safety and infrastructure. -
  • Christianity spread along the roads and routes of the Roman Empire
  • You have the facts about Paul's letters
  • you have the history of the Ancient Church of the East based in Ctesiphon. If they could have proved that Peter visited them, they would have claimed it. They clearly claim that St. Thomas the Apostle founded it -- why would someone in the 21st century know better than them and what they have claimed since the 1st century?
  • It had a harder time spreading in the Sassanid Empire AFTER Theodosius declared Christianity as state religion in 378 AD
  • Christianity in the East really took off after the disassociation with Christianity in the West -- by the 8th century, fully 33% to 40% of Christians lived under the Catholicos of the Church of the East, spread from Persia to India and to Mongolia (the Naiman tribe for instance)
• Going to Babylon (btw Dangus, while Babylon had been deserted in the 1st century, it was just across the river from Ctesiphon, the capital of the Parthians and from Seleucia (set up by Seleucid, a diadochi (companion) of Alexander the great) of which it was originally a suburb. - you have the Seleucian histories which state that Seleucus I Nicator moved artisans, bureaucrats and many businessmen from Babylon to Seleucia (his city across the river) in 275 AD and the population decline was steep. By the time the Parthians came, they didn't even bother to beseige Babylon. They set up shop in Ctesiphon, a suburb of Seleucia. Ever since then the center was Ctesiphon-Seleucia and that is still the seat of the Patriarchate of the Chuch of the East
• Other apostles went to the east, significantly St. Thomas who preached to the Jews in southern India (Jews had and have been there since the 5th century BC) - again this is factual - you can visit the basilica of St. Thomas in Kodungallur (i've been there)
• Peter did die just outside Rome - every source mentions this
• > -- as dangus correctly points out, the Vatican hill is not one of the seven hills of Rome and was outside the boundaries of the city even outside the Aurelian walls - this is again a factual statement

So I'm not sure where you see conjecture in my above statements

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To your points

1. No one says that Babylon meant nothing to Peter -- the very wikipedia article you quote says "After the fall of Jerusalem, Babylon would become the focus of Judaism for more than a thousand years, and the place where Jews would acclimate themselves as a people without a land" -- Jews really started moving there AFTER 69 AD when the Temple was destroyed. Prior to that, you didn't have a large reason for Jews to go to the capital of the Parthian Empire except as traders. Yes there was a small community there, just as in India
   
   
2. Now as to Peter going there -- as I pointed out, you have the Ancient Church of the East - based in Ctesiphon-Seleucia (in the Bagdad/Babylon area) - and they claim to be founded by St. Thomas the Apostle.
   
   These guys were opposed to the Church of the West (the ancestor Church of the Orthodox, Catholic, Copts, Armenians, Protestants etc.) - so if they could have claimed descent from Peter, why would they not have done so? Mar Babai the great acknowledged the primary of the bishop of Rome but said that the Westerners were wrong -- if he could instead have claimed primacy, he would have, but he didn't - so no, Peter didn't visit there
   
   
3. Peter stood not so far from the Babylonian exile that the land was not any longer known by the metonomy "Babylon." Surely he could not disregard the heavy concentration of Jews remaining and multiplying in it. - as pointed out above, historically this is inaccurate - there was not a heavy concentration of Jews before the destruction of the temple and even after that, the numbers didn't explode until the Bar Kochkba revolt in 194 AD -- before this, the Temple was destroyed but the Jews could still live in Israel. After 194 they were kicked out. During Peter's time, Ctesiphon was still a weak trading post. AND St. Thomas went there - the apostles divided up the travels amongst themselves
   
   
4. you talk about The rabbi Abba Arika (175–247 AD), -- but this was AFTER the Bar Kochkba revolt -- sheesh, come on, post the destruction of the temple, Jews still preferred to stay in their holy land. The ones who didn't were those enslaved (and those were fighters and their families of the 69 AD revolt. The BAR KOCHKBA revolt was far more wide-spread - Jews in Cyprus and Cyrenica (north-east Libya) slaughtered all the gentiles in their lands and the Roman Empire came down HARD. They then followed the scorched earth policy and Jews escaped to the IRANIS - the Sassanid Empire. This Rabbi was during THAT period, not earlier
   
   
5. I offer not just my opinion, but the facts of Jewish religious history - you give the history 100 to 150 years later.
   
   
6. With all due respect for your leanings, there is not one smidgen of information residing in the Scriptures to support that assumption. - there's no information in the Scriptures that Peter even died, so would you dispute that? I'm talking about historical proof and to me the clincher is that the Ancient Church of the East NEVER claimed that Peter died there.
   
   Come on -- the Parthians freely allowed Christians to preach in their lands, why would they CRUCIFY Peter for preaching? And Crucifiction was a uniquely ROMAN form of execution.
   
   
7. What makes you think that Simon Peter would leave the rich, spiritually fertile geographical area that was at the center of his allocated area of ministry to Jews and Jewish Christians, to go off and drag over the territory that Paul and his evangelistic team were predominantly in the process of plowing? - because his allocated area of ministry was to the West. St. THOMAS went to the East. Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles remember, so technically across all the other apostles. Peter was the first to baptise a gentile but he, like Thomas, went to Jewish communities first (St. Thomas went to the Jewish community in Kodungallur in modern day Kerala
   
   
8. It would not surprise me at all that of the many thousands of new disciples that were in Jerusalem for the mandated festival, were from the Babylonian shuls - it would surprise everyone as those shuls were largely populated AFTER the Bar kochkba revolt and even their origins are after the 69 AD revolt

sorry, but historically and by the very statements of the competing Church of the East (based in Ctesiphon-Seleucia), Peter neither preached in Babylon, nor did he die there. So factually your post is wrong.