How to find info on the life and teachings of the Apostle Peter

Are you looking for something outside of his two epistles?

Mark said:

In Logos, I have used Factbook and a general search for information on:

1. the major events in the Apostle Peter's life

2. the major teachings he either wrote about or which can be derived from the book of the Acts and elsewhere in the NT.

I am looking for help in how to locate information specifically on these two things

When I opened Factbook and typed "Peter" in the search box I got 87 hits in the Events section.  I'm able to hover on those and see a synopsis of the event.  Likewise the reference in scripture to the right.  So besides the Epistles there seem to be quite a numbers of events listed in the Gospels and Acts.

Are you wanting something different than that?

Mark said:

Probably more than anything, I am looking for a timeline of the major events of his life.

I'm not seeing anything in my library on the order of a timeline.  It would be an interesting thing to have and perhaps you could construct one from the events in the Factbook.  Also, check your dictionaries.  The Lexham Bible Dictionary has an entry for Peter that includes a list of the events in the Gospels that appear to be in order of when they happened ... 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.  That resource is part of every base package, I believe.  Maybe that is a starting point.

When I did a Media Search for "life of Peter" it found two maps with superimposed lists of the major events in Peter's life, in chronological order, this one in the Word in Life Study Bible:

And another one in Nelson's Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts, Revised.

I also did a Basic Search for "chronology of peter" and it found a chart (with estimated dates AD).

However, note that any timeline of Peter's life is going to be somewhat speculative. Here are a couple of indications of difficulties nailing down the exact timeline:

From NIGTC 1 Cor:

From Pillar Acts:

The Best Book I know for this is Harold Willmington's Guide to New Testament People.  He also has a guide to the Bible as well as a guide to Old Testament People.  Here is his entry on Peter:

2476.Peter in Willmington's New Testament People.docx  

For Peter's Teaching I would recoment Ryrie's Biblical Theology Here is a small sample of what he has under Peter and Jude.

A. CHRIST’S NAMES AND DESCRIPTIONS

1. Jesus. In the early days of his ministry Peter frequently used the name Jesus or Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 1:16; 2:22, 32, 36; 3:13; 10:38) simply because he desired to identify Jesus with the Old Testament concept of Messiah. The theme of his early sermons was that Jesus, whom they knew, was the Messiah of Israel (Acts 2:36; 3:18). Peter also identified Jesus as the Lord early in his ministry (Acts 1:21; 2:36; 10:36; 11:17). So we may say that whatever else Peter had to learn later, he had from the very beginning an exalted view of the person of Jesus Christ.

2. Christ. The principal designation of the Lord in the first Epistle is the simple Christ (1:11, 19; 2:21; 3:15–16, 18; 4:1, 13–14; 5:1, 10, 14). Next most frequently used is the simplest of the solemn compound names, Jesus Christ (1:1–3, 7, 13; 2:5; 3:21; 4:11). The second Epistle is lacking in these simple designations; in that letter Peter preferred to use compound names of the Lord (1:8, 14, 16; 2:20; 3:18). Again this shows the high estimate that Peter, the companion of the Lord, put on His person. He was to Peter the divine Son of God. Warfield observed:

So far as appears it did not occur to anyone in the primitive Christian community to put a lower estimate upon His personality than that; and writer vies with writer only in his attempt to give his faith in his divine Redeemer clear and emphatic expression.

3. Spotless and pre-existent lamb (1 Peter 1:19–20). In 1:19 Peter designated the Lord as the lamb without spot (inherent blame) and blemish (external defilement). The apostle also predicated His existence before the foundation of the world (1:20). This must be real pre-existence because of the presence of the participle “appeared” in the same verse. The pre-existence and appearance are of the same subject, and if the latter is real and not ideal, so is the former.

4. Precious cornerstone (1 Peter 2:6–7). Peter seems to have learned well the lesson of the difference between Judaism and Christianity, for he used Psalm 118:22 not only here, but also in the message recorded in Acts 4:11. Jesus, whom the Jews had rejected, was now the precious cornerstone of the church.

5. Rock of stumbling (1 Peter 2:8). To those who did not receive Him, Jesus of Nazareth was “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” In God’s wise purposes He so ordained it that Jesus would be put in the way, though God assumes no responsibility for anyone falling over Him.

6. Shepherd and guardian of our souls (1 Peter 2:25). After speaking of the sufferings that a believer may have to endure, Peter concluded with this title of comfort. Being called unto Christ means being called unto One who cares for and sustains His sheep in every trial.

In Peter’s use of names and designations for Christ, one thing is outstanding: the thought with which his mind was saturated throughout all his ministry was that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. The use of the names Jesus, Christ, and their compounds shows that. In addition the descriptive phrases just cited—lamb, cornerstone, shepherd—are from an Old Testament mold. The Messianic teaching was deeply rooted in Peter’s thinking, and this Jesus was that Messiah.

Charles C. Ryrie, Biblical Theology of the New Testament (Dubuque, IA: ECS Ministries, 2005), 248–249.

Randall Cue said:

Hi Rosie. The Word in Life Study Bible: looks very interesting. The graphic you have shown looks very much like those in the Thompson Chain Reference Bible. I looked at the preview of some of the pages, and all of the dates are mislabeled as A.D.( for Old Testament dates) Did you notice that or is it just in the preview?

Hmm, that's odd. But you're right. And those errors are in the resource itself, not just the sample pages. Not everywhere that should be B.C. is written as A.D., but quite a lot of them. I will report that as a typo with a note that it's a pervasive problem. I suspect it's in the print edition and Logos hasn't got permission to change it, but maybe they can pressure the publisher into fixing it in an revision.