Good question SM,St. Paul the Jew actually accused St. Peter of "judaizing". 
Found some good posts that clearly he was a Jew.The gospels say that Peter’s birth name was Simon, which is generally assumed to be Semitic, but it can also be Greek. In the gospels, his brother is called Andrew, which is a Greek name and therefore an important guide to the ethnic background of Peter. At this point, the evidence would point to Peter being a gentile. Peter is portrayed as being a Galilean fisherman, but Galilee was a province populated by both Jews and gentiles. On the other hand, Peter seems to have been an observant Jew, familiar with Jєωιѕн teachings. In Mark 8:29, Peter calls Jesus the Christ (Messiah), which surely only a Jew would do.
In his epistles, Paul portrays Cephas (Peter) as the apostle to the Jews, a role for which a gentile would hardly be suited, and with Jerusalem as his base. This is very strong evidence that Peter was a Jew.
In summary, there is mixed evidence in the gospels as to whether Peter was a Jew or a gentile, but Paul’s testimony indicates convincingly that he was a Jew.
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Yes, Simon Peter was a Jew.
Church tradition says that Peter’s wife was named Perpetua. Her father, Aristobulus, was a son of Andronicus, who was the son of Miriam, the daughter of Jacob, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who was the father of Joseph of Nazareth.
So Peter already had an indirect relationship with Jesus through his wife.
In addition, he and his brother, Andrew, were business partners with Zebedee and his sons. Zebedee was the older brother of Mary the mother of Jesus
So, here again, Peter was already well acquainted with Jesus before he was ever asked to become a disciple.
The only differences I can readily see, according to John's Last Gospel, when "Christ came unto His own", Peter received him, unlike the others.
Related to that, I would think he would have been exempt from the Pharisee's racial curse, of, "Let His blood be upon us and our children!"Last point is that there is a Church custom, that converted jews cannot go in clerical rank beyond the priesthood. I don't have the Church source for this, but I've spoken to ex seminarians who are aware of it too. Why would this custom or provision be? Because of the jew's propensity to fall back to judaism. It appears to be a genetic weakness and I would attribute that to the blood curse mentioned above.There's Jєωιѕн lineage in the modern popes, from Pope Pius XII onwards. Not sure about John XXIII, but he was clearly masonic. Francis very likely is Jєωιѕн.
Topic: One photo of Francis says it all (Read 2048 times)