IV. PETER WAS A MARRIED MAN

Matth. 8:14.—“And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.”

The coincidence which I have here to mention does not strictly fall within my plan, for it results from a comparison of St. Matthew with St. Paul; if, however, it be thought of any value, the irregularity of its introduction will be easily overlooked.

In this passage of the Evangelist, then, we discover, in a manner the most oblique, that Peter was a married man. It is a circumstance that has nothing whatever to do with the narrative, but is a gratuitous piece of information, conveyed incidentally in the designation of an individual who was the subject of it.

But that Peter actually was a married man, we learn from the independent testimony of St. Paul: “Have we not power,” says he, “to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other Apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas?” 1 Cor. 9:5. Where it may be remarked that the difference in name, Cephas in the one passage, Peter in the other, is in itself an argument that the one passage was written without any reference to the other—that the coincidence was without design. Here again, be it observed, as in former instances, the indication of veracity in the Apostle’s narrative, is found where the subject of the narrative is a miracle; for Christ having “touched her hand, the fever left her, and she arose and ministered unto them,” v. 15.

I cannot but think that any candid sceptic would consider this coincidence to be at least decisive of the actual existence of such a woman as Peter’s wife’s mother; of its being no imaginary character, no mere person of straw, introduced with an air of precision, under the view of giving a colour of truth to the miracle. Yet, unless the Evangelist had felt quite sure of his ground, quite sure, I mean, that this remarkable cure would bear examination, it is scarcely to be believed that he would have fixed it upon an individual who certainly did live, or had lived, and who therefore might herself, or her friends might for her, contradict the alleged fact, if it never had occurred.