Source Video: https://youtu.be/Y1q7jyACmZE?feature=shared
Source Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@jesuswordsonly
Website: https://jesuswordsonly.org/
Hermann Detering on the Clementines Study from JWO: https://jesuswordsonly.org/topicindex/800-hermann-detering-on-clementines.html
A Copy of The Clementine Homilies: https://archive.org/details/clementinehomili00clem/page/18/mode/2up
(I chose the PDF download, feel free to download your own preference)
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Many scholars concur that "Simon Magus" in the Ebionite influenced works such as the Clementine Homilies, represents a name-replacement for paul. The purpose was to protect paul from embarassment of what the Clementines in the early church recorded as part of the history of paul.
The Berlin pastor, Hermann Detering (born 1953), believes these works are actuallly historical accounts of the life of paul. And thus, it demonstrates Peter went to Rome not to work with paul so much as to confront him.
Since the days of Ferdinand Christian Baur in the 19th Century, scholars have concluded that the attacks on "Simon Magus" from the 4th Century "Pseudo" Clementines may be attacks on paul. Detering takes the attacks of Pseudo-Clementines as literal and historical, and suggests that the attacks of the Pseudo-Clementines are correct in making "Simon Magus" a proxy for Paul of Tarsus, with Paul originally having been detested by the church, and the name changed when paul was rehabilitated by virtue of forged Epistles correcting the genuine ones.
Detering's argument expands beyond the Clementines to include other apocrypha (letter of Peter to James), arguing that Simon Magus is sometimes described in apocryphal literature in terms that would fit paul, athough most significantly does so in the "Clementine Recognitions and Homilies".
Detering contends that the common source of these documents are as early as the 1st century, and must have consisted in a polemic against paul, emanating from the Jewish side of Christianity. paul being thus identified with Simon, Detering argues that Simon's visit to Rome (in the Clementines) had no other basis than paul's presence there, and, further, that the tradition of Peter's residence in Rome rests on the assumed necessity of his resisting the arch-enemy of Judaism there as elsewhere. Thus, according to Detering, the idea of Peter at Rome really originated with the Ebionites, but it was afterwards taken up by the Catholic Church, and then paul was associated with Peter in opposition to Simon, who had originally been paul himself. Rufinis created a revised Clementine to allow for such myth and hero worship to turn toward paul.
Hence, Peter and paul were not allies at Rome because the Clementines depict a confrontation between Simon Magus (Rufunis' cipher for paul) and Peter. And Detering defends that the Clementines are historical and not fictional accounts. He means when paul was rehabilitated later -- in Constantine's era, the Clementines were edited to change "paul" to "Simon Magus." This makes sense once you read the clementines and recognize the individual "simon magus" can be no other than paul in various discreet places.
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More on Simon Magus, a name given by Rufinus of Aquileia, proving alterations were made to Clementine Homilies to hide the fact that Peter was talking about paul:
Rufinus of Aquileia was a Latin church historian and theologian who lived in the 4th and early 5th centuries. He was known for his translations and editions of Greek theological works into Latin. Rufinus is indeed associated with alterations to the Clementine Homilies, particularly in relation to the character of Simon Magus.
The exact timing of Rufinus's alterations to the Clementine Homilies is not precisely documented. However, his activities are generally placed in the late 4th and early 5th centuries. As for historical documentation of these alterations, Rufinus's own writings and the writings of his contemporaries or later commentators may provide insights into his motivations and actions.
