Peter, Paul, and John

Meaning

Peter, Paul and John appear inside a passage explicitly attributed to Augustine. Peter has the keys of heaven, Paul is God’s chosen vessel or instrument, and John receives divine mysteries; nevertheless all must enter God’s kingdom through tribulation. Their different privileges intensify the universal requirement rather than exempting them from it. The English preserves both alternatives “vessel and instrument” for Paul’s designation. The author uses the quoted authority to interpret the believer’s trials as signs within a spiritual process. The passage is not a biography of the three apostles, nor an independent authentication of the Augustinian attribution.