Johannine Peter, Authoritarian or Democrat? Exegesis of The Latecomer Peter in John's Gospel: A Challenge for African Church Leaders

Abstract

In the collective study on Peter in the New Testament, R.E. Brown points out that "much of the material that John reports about Peter is not the same as what is reported in the synoptic Gospels.' In fact, while reading the fourth Gospel, I realize that the Johannine writer downplays the figure of Peter. In opposition to the synoptic Gospels, he presents a Peter who arrives late in many important areas pertaining to the discipleship of Jesus. A host of questions may come to one's mind: why does the Johannine author present a great figure of the Early Church as a latecomer? Was it true that Peter was so slow during Jesus' lifetime? If the Gospels are the living testimonies of the evangelist communities, what was happening in the Johannine Community in order to produce this image of Peter? On the other hand, we have been reflecting on the reasons about the generalized crisis and civil wars in many African countries (D.R. Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Angola, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria).