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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Wed, 2 Sep 1992 18:28:33 CDT
Reply-To:     bradk%isdgsm@rtsg.mot.com
From:         Brad Kaiser <bradk%isdgsm@RTSG.MOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Church and Rome
X-To:         CHRISTIA%ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU@motgate.mot.com

Robert Weiss said previously:

>>  	I don't know about Protestants, but it seems that the
>>  revelation that Peter gave was the rock on which the church was built.
>>  The rock of revelation...

To which Victor Raffaele adds:

>> I agree with Bob,

>> IMO, it would make nonsense if Jesus would build HIS church on a man
>> (imperfect like all men) !

Indeed it would.  And, I might add, that would be *perfectly* in keeping
with Christianity, for as St. Paul said:

   For the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are
   perishing, but to us being saved it is the power of God. ... Where
   is the wise man?  Where is the scholar? ... Has not God made
   foolish the wisdom of the world? ... For the foolishness of God is
   wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than
   man's strength.
          -- 1 Cor 1:18,20,25

The notion that Jesus is not identifying Peter with the "Rock" upon
which He founds His Church, but is identifying Peter's confession as
that Rock instead, is not a new one.

In the text, Jesus tells Peter "you are 'Petros'", and says "... on
this 'petra' I will build my Church".  The two words are the same;
they have different endings because the writer of the Gospel has to
change 'petra' to 'Petros' in order to make it the proper name of a
man; 'petra' is feminine.  (As Victor can attest, the same sort of
thing occurs in German, and in many other languages.  We lose it in
English, because English is not an inflected language.)  To decide
that the same word, used twice in a sentence, refers to two different
things is unnatural in the absence of any evidence.

Two noted Protestant Bible scholars, W. F. Albright and C. S. Mann,
had this to say about the passage:

   In view of the background of verse 19 ... one must dismiss as
   confessional interpretation [biased by denominational views] any
   attempt to see 'this rock' as meaning the faith, or the Messianic
   confession of Peter. ... The keys are a symbol of authority ... The
   general sense of the passage is indisputable ... Peter is the rock
   on which the new community will be built, and in that community,
   Peter's authority to 'bind' or 'release' will be a carrying out of
   decisions made in heaven.  His teaching and disciplinary activities
   will be similarly guided by the Spirit to carry out Heaven's will.

[Albright & Mann, Anchor Bible 26, pp. 195-198]

For more information on the keys as a symbol of authority, see Is.
22:22.  While you have your Bible open, look also at Lk 22:31-32 and
Jn 21:15-19, where Jesus confirms Peter's authority before (Luke) and
after (John) His resurrection.

Finally, what did early Christians say about these verses?  Here's a
sample:

St. Ambrose (a very famous passage):

    It is to Peter himself that He says: "You are Peter, and upon this
    rock I will build My Church."  Where Peter is, there is the
    Church.  And where the Church, no death is there, but life
    eternal.  (Commentaries on 12 of David's Psalms", 40:30)

Origen:

    Peter was called a Rock by the Lord, for to him is said: "Thou art
    Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church." (Commentary on
    Matthew 139)

St. Cyprian:

    There is one Baptism, and one Holy Spirit, and one Church founded
    by Christ our Lord upon Peter, as the source and principle of
    unity.  (Letter 60, to Januarius)

    For to Peter, upon whom He built the Church... (Letter 73, to Jubaian)

    Peter thus speaks, upon whom the Church was to be built, teaching
    in the name of the Church. (Letter 69)

    Peter, upon whom the Church was founded by the condescendence of
    God. (De Bono Patientiae)

    It is on one man that He builds the Church; and although He
    assigns a like power to all the Apostles after His resurrection,
    when He says, "As the Father has sent me, so also do I send you;
    receive the Holy Spirit: if you forgive any man his sins, they
    shall be forgiven; and if you retain any man's sins, they shall be
    retained [John 20:21], nevertheless, in order that unity might be
    clearly shown, He established by His own authority a source for
    that unity, which takes its beginning from one man alone.  Indeed,
    the other Apostles were that also which Peter was, being endowned
    with an equal portion of dignity and power; but the origin is
    grounded in unity, so that it may be made clear that there is but
    one Church of Christ.  (Unity of the Catholic Church, A.D.
    251-256, ch 4)

St. Hilary:

    He upbraided Peter, to whom He had just handed the keys of the
    kingdom of Heaven, upon whom He was to build the Church, against
    which the gates of hell should not in any way prevail...  Peter,
    the first to confess the Son of God, the foundation of the
    Church... (Tract on Psalm 131:4)

St. Clement of Alexandria:

    Nor does the kingdom of heaven belong to the sleeping and the
    lazy; rather, the violent take it by force . . . [4] On hearing
    these words, the blessed Peter, the chosen, the pre-eminent, the
    first among the disciples, for whom alone with Himself the Savior
    paid the tribute [Matt 17:27], quickly grasped and understood
    their meaning.  (Who is the Rich Man That is Saved?, A.D. 190-210,
    21, 3)

In Christ's Peace,

Brad Kaiser
(bradk%isdgsm@rtsg.mot.com)

  "Hatred destroys.  Only love creates."
            -- St. Maximilian Kolbe, shortly before his arrest and
               martyrdom at the hands of the Nazis.
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