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Origins of Peter as Pope
The New Testament contains five different
metaphors for the foundation of the Church (Matt. 16:18, 1 Cor. 3:11, Eph.
2:20, 1 Pet. 2:5–6, Rev. 21:14). One metaphor that has been disputed is
Jesus Christ’s calling the apostle Peter "rock": "You are Peter, and on
this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it" (Matt. 16:18).
Some have tried to argue that Jesus did not mean
that his Church would be built on Peter but on something else.
Some argue that in this passage there is a minor
difference between the Greek term for Peter (Petros) and the term
for rock (petra), yet they ignore the obvious explanation: petra,
a feminine noun, has simply been modifed to have a masculine ending, since
one would not refer to a man (Peter) as feminine. The change in the gender
is purely for stylistic reasons.
These critics also neglect the fact that Jesus
spoke Aramaic, and, as John 1:42 tells us, in everyday life he actually
referred to Peter as Kepha or Cephas (depending on how it
is transliterated). It is that term which is then translated into
Greek as petros. Thus, what Jesus actually said to Peter in Aramaic
was: "You are Kepha and on this very kepha I will build my
Church."
The Church Fathers, those Christians closest to
the apostles in time, culture, and theological background, clearly understood
that Jesus promised to build the Church on Peter, as the following passages
show.
Tatian the Syrian
"Simon Cephas answered and said, ‘You are the Messiah,
the Son of the living God.’ Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Blessed
are you, Simon, son of Jonah: flesh and blood has not revealed it unto
thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee also, that
you are Cephas, and on this rock will I build my Church; and the gates
of hades shall not prevail against it" (The Diatesseron 23 [A.D.
170]).
Tertullian
"Was anything withheld from the knowledge of Peter,
who is called ‘the rock on which the Church would be built’ [Matt. 16:18]
with the power of ‘loosing and binding in heaven and on earth’ [Matt. 16:19]?"
(Demurrer Against the Heretics 22 [A.D. 200]).
"[T]he Lord said to Peter, ‘On this rock I will
build my Church, I have given you the keys of the kingdom of heaven [and]
whatever you shall have bound or loosed on earth will be bound or loosed
in heaven’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. . . . What kind of man are you, subverting
and changing what was the manifest intent of the Lord when he conferred
this personally upon Peter? Upon you, he says, I will build my Church;
and I will give to you the keys" (Modesty 21:9–10 [A.D. 220]).
The Letter of Clement to James
"Be it known to you, my lord, that Simon [Peter],
who, for the sake of the true faith, and the most sure foundation of his
doctrine, was set apart to be the foundation of the Church, and for this
end was by Jesus himself, with his truthful mouth, named Peter" (Letter
of Clement to James 2 [A.D. 221]).
The Clementine Homilies
"[Simon Peter said to Simon Magus in Rome:] ‘For
you now stand in direct opposition to me, who am a firm rock, the foundation
of the Church’ [Matt. 16:18]" (Clementine Homilies 17:19 [A.D. 221]).
Origen
"Look at [Peter], the great foundation of the Church,
that most solid of rocks, upon whom Christ built the Church [Matt. 16:18].
And what does our Lord say to him? ‘Oh you of little faith,’ he says, ‘why
do you doubt?’ [Matt. 14:31]" (Homilies on Exodus 5:4 [A.D. 248]).
Cyprian of Carthage
"The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ he says,
‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the
gates of hell will not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys of
the kingdom of heaven . . . ’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. On him [Peter] he builds
the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17],
and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded
a single chair [cathedra], and he established by his own authority
a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were
that also which Peter was [i.e., apostles], but a primacy is given to Peter,
whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. .
. . If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine
that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter
upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in
the Church?" (The Unity of the Catholic Church 4; 1st edition [A.D.
251]).
"There is one God and one Christ, and one Church,
and one chair founded on Peter by the word of the Lord. It is not possible
to set up another altar or for there to be another priesthood besides that
one altar and that one priesthood. Whoever has gathered elsewhere is scattering"
(Letters 43[40]:5 [A.D. 253]).
"There [John 6:68–69] speaks Peter, upon whom the
Church would be built, teaching in the name of the Church and showing that
even if a stubborn and proud multitude withdraws because it does not wish
to obey, yet the Church does not withdraw from Christ. The people joined
to the priest and the flock clinging to their shepherd are the Church.
You ought to know, then, that the bishop is in the Church and the Church
in the bishop, and if someone is not with the bishop, he is not in the
Church. They vainly flatter themselves who creep up, not having peace with
the priests of God, believing that they are
secretly [i.e., invisibly] in communion with certain
individuals. For the Church, which is one and Catholic, is not split nor
divided, but it is indeed united and joined by the cement of priests who
adhere one to another" (ibid., 66[69]:8).
Firmilian
"But what is his error . . . who does not remain
on the foundation of the one Church which was founded upon the rock by
Christ [Matt. 16:18], can be learned from this, which Christ said to Peter
alone: ‘Whatever things you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in
heaven; and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed in heaven’
[Matt. 16:19]" (collected in Cyprian’s Letters 74[75]:16 [A.D. 253]).
"[Pope] Stephen [I] . . . boasts of the place of
his episcopate, and contends that he holds the succession from Peter, on
whom the foundations of the Church were laid [Matt. 16:18]. . . . [Pope]
Stephen . . . announces that he holds by succession the throne of Peter"
(ibid., 74[75]:17).
Ephraim the Syrian
"[Jesus said:] ‘Simon, my follower, I have made
you the foundation of the holy Church. I betimes called you Peter, because
you will support all its buildings. You are the inspector of those who
will build on earth a Church for me. If they should wish to build what
is false, you, the foundation, will condemn them. You are the head of the
fountain from which my teaching flows; you are the chief of my disciples’"
(Homilies 4:1 [A.D. 351]).
Optatus
"You cannot deny that you are aware that in the
city of Rome the episcopal chair was given first to Peter; the chair in
which Peter sat, the same who was head—that is why he is also called Cephas
[‘Rock’]—of all the apostles; the one chair in which unity is maintained
by all" (The Schism of the Donatists 2:2 [A.D. 367]).
Ambrose of Milan
"[Christ] made answer: ‘You are Peter, and upon
this rock will I build my Church. . . . ’ Could he not, then, strengthen
the faith of the man to whom, acting on his own authority, he gave the
kingdom, whom he called the rock, thereby declaring him to be the foundation
of the Church [Matt. 16:18]?" (The Faith 4:5 [A.D. 379]).
"It is to Peter that he says: ‘You are Peter, and
upon this rock I will build my Church’ [Matt. 16:18]. Where Peter is, there
is the Church. And where the Church is, no death is there, but life eternal"
(Commentary on Twelve Psalms of David 40:30 [A.D. 389]).
Pope Damasus I
"Likewise it is decreed . . . that it ought to
be announced that . . . the holy Roman Church has not been placed at the
forefront [of the churches] by the conciliar decisions of other churches,
but has received the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior,
who says: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and
the gates of hell will not prevail against it; and I will give to you the
keys of the kingdom of heaven. . . . ’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. The first see,
therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the Roman Church, which
has neither stain nor blemish nor anything like it" (Decree of Damasus
3 [A.D. 382]).
Jerome
"‘But,’ you [Jovinian] will say, ‘it was on Peter
that the Church was founded’ [Matt. 16:18]. Well . . . one among the twelve
is chosen to be their head in order to remove any occasion for division"
(Against Jovinian 1:26 [A.D. 393]).
"I follow no leader but Christ and join in communion
with none but your blessedness [Pope Damasus I], that is, with the chair
of Peter. I know that this is the rock on which the Church has been built.
Whoever eats the Lamb outside this house is profane. Anyone who is not
in the ark of Noah will perish when the flood prevails" (Letters 15:2
[A.D. 396]).
Augustine
"If the very order of episcopal succession is to
be considered, how much more surely, truly, and safely do we number them
[the bishops of Rome] from Peter himself, to whom, as to one representing
the whole Church, the Lord said, ‘Upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of hell shall not conquer it.’ Peter was succeeded by Linus,
Linus by Clement. ... In this order of succession a Donatist bishop
is not to be found" (Letters 53:1:2 [A.D. 412]).
Council of Ephesus
"Philip, the presbyter and legate of the Apostolic
See [Rome], said: ‘There is no doubt, and in fact it has been known in
all ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the
apostles, pillar of the faith, and foundation of the Catholic Church, received
the keys of the kingdom from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer
of the human race, and that to him was given the power of loosing and binding
sins: who down even to today and forever both lives and judges in his successors’"
(Acts of the Council, session 3 [A.D. 431]).
Sechnall of Ireland
"Steadfast in the fear of God, and in faith immovable,
upon [Patrick] as upon Peter the [Irish] church is built; and he has been
allotted his apostleship by God; against him the gates of hell prevail
not" (Hymn in Praise of St. Patrick 3 [A.D. 444]).
Pope Leo I
"Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . has placed the principal
charge on the blessed Peter, chief of all the apostles. . . . He wished
him who had been received into partnership in his undivided unity to be
named what he himself was, when he said: ‘You are Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my Church’ [Matt. 16:18], that the building of the eternal
temple might rest on Peter’s solid rock, strengthening his Church so surely
that neither could human rashness assail it nor the gates of hell prevail
against it" (Letters 10:1 [A.D. 445]).
Council of Chalcedon
"Wherefore the most holy and blessed Leo, archbishop
of the great and elder Rome, through us, and through this present most
holy synod, together with the thrice blessed and all-glorious Peter the
apostle, who is the rock and foundation of the Catholic Church, and the
foundation of the orthodox faith, has stripped him [Dioscorus] of the episcopate"
(Acts of the Council, session 3 [A.D. 451]).
NIHIL OBSTAT:
I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR:
In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
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