There is no mention in Peter of any one bearing the cross, and in this there is a departure from the narrative both of the Synoptics and of the fourth Gospel. The Synoptics have in common, as usual, the story regarding its being laid on the shoulders of Simon of Cyrene (Matt. xxvii. 32 f., Mark xv. 21 f., Luke xxiii. 26 f.), whom they compelled to carry it to Calvary. The fourth Gospel not only omits this episode, but contradicts it in good set terms (xix. 17): “They took Jesus, therefore; and he went out, bearing the cross for himself, unto the place called ‘The place of a skull.’ ”
Peter does not enter into any intermediate detail, but at once says: 10. “And they brought two malefactors and crucified between them the Lord; but he kept silence, as feeling no pain.” The canonical Gospels all narrate the crucifixion of the two malefactors, but the various terms in which this is done must be given for comparison. Matthew says (xxvii. 38): “Then are there crucified with him two robbers, one on the right hand, and one on the left.” Mark uses almost the same words (xv. 27). Luke, with some exercise of his usual constructive style, says the same thing (xxiii. 32 f.): “And there were also two others, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. And when they came unto the place which is called ‘The skull,’ there they crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.” The fourth Gospel reads (xix. 17 f.): “They took Jesus therefore; and he went out, bearing the cross for himself, unto the place called ‘The place of a skull,’ which is called in Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.” The only remark necessary here is that in Peter the common tradition is given with independence and simplicity.
It is only in the last words of the verse that we have an important variation. “But he kept silence, as feeling no pain.” We have already referred to this as one of the recognised Docetic passages of the fragment, although there is no necessity to read it in this sense. Mr. Murray has pointed out a passage in Origen in which that writer “gives them an innocent” (that is, not a Docetic) “interpretation.”