Posted on 07/10/2005 5:27:58 AM PDT by NYer
Among Catholic doctrines, those pertaining to the papacy tend to be the most misunderstood and contested by non-catholics. The following verses show the biblical basis for Catholic teaching on the primacy of Peter, the office of the papacy being established by Christ and allusions to the doctrine of infallibility. These doctrines reached their full development in the life of the Church only after centuries of contemplation and study, in councils and through the actions of the popes. And we should never forget that since the Church is likened by Christ to a “mustart seed” that grows and develops organically from a speck into a large treelike plant, therefore we should not expect to see the Church’s doctrines fully developed and visible in its present form in the pages of the New Testament. What we do find in the New Testament though, is the scriptural record of Peter’s primacy among the Apostles and the seminal outlines of the doctrines pertaining to the papacy.
The Primacy of Peter
One compelling biblical fact that points clearly to Simon Peter’s primacy among the 12 Apostles and his importance and centrality to the drama of Christ’s earthly ministry, is that he is mentioned by name (e.g. Simon, Peter, Cephas, Kephas, etc.) 195 times in the course of the New Testament. The next most often-mentioned Apostle is St. John, who is mentioned a mere 29 times. After John, in descending order, the frequency of the other Apostles being mentioned by name trails off rapidly.
When the names of all the Apostles are listed, Peter is always first. Judas Iscariot, the Lord’s traitor, is always listed last (cf. Matt. 10:2-5; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:14-17; and Acts 1:13). Sometimes Scripture speaks simply of “Simon Peter and the rest of the Apostles” or “Peter and his companions” (cf. Luke 9:32; Mark 16:7; Acts 2:37), showing that he had a special role that represented the entire apostolic college. Often, Scripture shows Simon Peter as spokesman for the entire apostolic college, as if he were the voice of the Church (cf. Mat. 18:21; Mark 8:29; Luke 8:45; Luke 12:41; John 6:68-69).
Other Citations
It is from Simon Peter’s fishing boat (cf. Luke 5:3) that Christ preaches to the crowds (this is significant in light of the fact that, since very early times, the Catholic Church has been widely referred to in patristic writings and religious art as the “barque” [archaic English for “boat”] of Peter. In these episodes, Peter plays a central role in the drama as usual).
In Mark 16:7 we see that the angels single Peter out among the Apostles when they tell the Holy Women to “go, tell his disciples and Peter” about the Lord’s Resurrection.
In Luke 24:33-35 we see that the risen Christ appears to Simon Peter first, before appearing to the other Apostles.
In Acts 1:15-26 it is Peter who leads the Apostles in selecting a replacement for Judas.
In Acts 3:1-9, we see St. Peter leading the infant Christian Church forward through difficult moments after the Resurrection. He is clearly the chief of the Apostles as he preaches in Acts 2 the first post-Pentecost sermon to the crowds, performs in Acts 3 the first post-Pentecost miracle and in Acts 4, with John,m turns the tables on the Jewish Sanhedrin by putting them on trial in the very setting where they intended to intimidate the Apostles.
In Acts 10, Simon Peter receives a special revelation from God that Gentiles are to be welcomed into the Church without having to follow Jewish Kosher food restrictiions or undergo circumcision. In Acts 11, he acts in the name of the Church in welcoming the first Gentile converts to be received according to this new revelation.
In Acts 15, at the Council of Jerusalem, Peter delivers the revelation pertaining to Gentile believers that causes the disputes to cease and the room to fall silent (cf. Acts 6-12). St. James, the bishop of Jerusalem, appears in a position of leadership alongside Peter. While James delivers the pastoral, disciplinary teaching (cf. Acts 13-21), it was Peter who delivered the binding doctrinal teaching. His primacy was recognized by St. Paul (who in Antioch “withstood Peter to his face” over the vexing issue of his refraining to eat with Gentiles) when he describes in Galatians 1:18 how he went to see Peter to make sure his teaching was in line with Peter’s.
Well look who just caught up!
Context! Yes, that's right, my friend. Context is the name of the game! And if you pay attention to historical context, you'd understand that the primacy of Peter has been established since the time of the Apostles and has been affirmed from the beginning by the same Church that gave you the very bible with which you have the unmitigated effrontery to use as a tool to discredit the authority of the Church.
Of course it is .
PS - Abouna charmed our novena 'visitors' so much that they took out a 6 month ad in our parish bulletin, plan to attend the annual Hafli (@$50 per person) and will return for the Christmas Novena, if not sooner :-) What a man!
LOL!
I love your tag line!!!
And, of course, we're supposed to accept it that your reading is the right one. Hmmm. I think I'll stick with the scholars.
That is why sentence diagramming is important, and that is why context is important and that is why previous useage of words and context matter.
You do know the original texts had no punctuation, don't you? Good luck with the sentence diagramming.
I knew it! I knew that Mel Gibson guy was full of it! See, nobody spoke Aramaic back then. He just made that language up for his movie! It's just like how those guys that made Star Trek invented Klingon so that they could make lots of money teaching seminars to trekkies everywhere.
2000 years of scholarship disagree with your johnny-come-lately sentence structure and context. What you've stated is strictly your opinion based on faulty interpretation, and your interpretation is not Scripture.
Just don't tell him about the Dead Sea Scrolls.
You mean they're not in the British Museum?
Guess we'll all have to toss our Bibles. When Jesus cried out on the cross 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani), He was speaking Aramaic. Many words in the New Testament are transliterations from the Aramaic. Peter's name Cephas is from 'kepha' (rock); Thomas is from 'toma' (twin). 'Bar' the Aramaic word for (son) occurs in such names as Bartholomew, Bar- Jonas, Barabbas and Bartimaeus. (The Hebrew word for son is 'ben' ). Golgotha is from 'golgolta' (skull); and Maranatha comes from 'maran' (our Lord) and 'eta' (come).
Some time after the exile of the Jews to Babylon, Aramaic translations and paraphrases of the Hebrew Scriptures, called TARGUMS, were made for those who understood Aramaic better than Hebrew. We have targums for all the Old Testament books except Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. The earliest extant targums are from Qumran on the Dead Sea. An extensive targum on portions of Job came from one cave and dates from 150-100 BC
/sarc
He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, "So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas" (which means Peter). John 1:42
Kephas = Cephas = petra/petros = Peter
Petra and petros are the Greek forms of the Aramaic Kephas (Cephas), meaning rock, and are genderized. Peter is the anglicized form of petros. Genderization in this manner is not a part of the Aramaic languages. Therefore, the gender distinction found in the Greek is not valid but is a necessity of translation and usage.
See how that fits into your sentence diagramming.
Aramaic Ping!
Cephas is not the word used in Matthew where the RCC claims Peter to be called the ROCK
thats where it fits.
Better than accepting the word of a religion that has invented doctrines for 2000 years almost.
When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha).
A governor of Texas once actually said, wrt bilingual education:
"If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it is good enough for the schoolchildren of Texas."
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