Apocalypse of Peter, Arabic Also known as the Book of Rolls (Arabic Kitab al-Magall). A noncanonical Arabic text which presents itself as Clement of Rome’s account of what the Apostle Peter taught him secretly. This text was never widely authoritative in the early church period. It should be distinguished from the Apocalypse of Peter preserved in Ethiopic and partly in Greek, as well as from the gnostic Apocalypse of Peter found in the Nag Hammadi library.

Much of Peter’s teaching as presented in this text has significant parallels with several works of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha; in particular, the Cave of Treasures and the Testament of Adam probably served as sources for the Arabic Apocalypse of Peter. The Arabic Apocalypse of Peter in turn was probably a major source for the first part of the Ethiopian Book of Clement, which is included in the broader New Testament canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox church.

(For information on other works known as the Apocalypse of Peter, see these articles: Apocalypse of Peter; Apocalypse of Peter, Gnostic. For information on the process of canonization, see this article: Canon, New Testament.)