Unity in Death?

Abstract

The dominant Christian tradition claims that the apostles Peter and Paul both died in Rome, but beyond that the circumstances of these deaths differ in the various sources. This chapter examines the question of whether the apostles died separately or together. The earliest sources (Acts of Peter and Acts of Paul) focus on the apostles as individuals and thus highlight the uniqueness of each death. However, because the Roman church came to stake many of its authority claims on the notion of a joint apostolic martyrdom tradition, later authors altered the stories to emphasize a single martyrdom event in Rome for both Peter and Paul. They died together just as they had preached together, and thus these stories emphasize the concordia apostolorum.