The Irish standard., 1902-12-13
Shows That Confession Was Practiced In
the Catholic Church in the
Early Centuries.
If a. Pope or Bishop Tried to Prevent 1t
There Would Arise Storm
Of Indignation.

structure and contents to the power of
that universal solvent which is so sue
cessfully acting on religious establish
ments."
Is it any wonder, then, that God in
His infinite wisdom, should ordain
that Scripture, together with the in
fallible authority of the church, should
constitute the rule Of faith?
Rev. Mr.. Groeneveld says that ''in
the twentieth century every man
should be his own thinker" He might
have gone further and said every man
should be his own lawyer, doctor, tail
or, baker and minister.
Justification by faith alone is an
other Of the principles upon which,
Mr.. Groeneveld tells us, Professionalism
is based. How such a view can be
maintained by students Of Scripture is
most amazing. Catholics hold that in
adults faith alone does not justify the
sinner, but other things are required.
If faith alone is sufficient, why does
st. James say +" faith without
works is dead" And does not st. Paul
declare, ''If shall have all faith, so
that could remove mountains, but
have not charity, I am nothing"
Now let us turn to the position of
st. Peter in the New Testament. When
Andrew took Peter to Jesus we read:
'And Jesus, looking at him, said:
Thou art Simon, the son of John;
thou shalt be called Cephas.' Matth-
ew, Mark and Luke place Peters name
first in the list of the apostles, and
each notes the change Of his name
from Simon to Peter: "And Simon he
surnamed Peter" Mark ill.,, 16; "Simon,
whom he also named Peter,' Luke vi,
ID. "The first Simon, who is called
Peter,' Matthew X, 2. In this last
quotation the word "first' does not ex-
press mere numerical order, since the
evangelist does not go on and say
/ "the second" ''the third" etc.; it sug-
geStS order or dignity.
The change of name is significant.
When Abram was getting a new
honor he was called Abraham. The
great name Israel was bestowed ON
jacob Moreover, the word crock"
(kepha) applied to Simon means much.
1t suggests that he to whom it was
given was to be, as it were, the found
alton of the church. Again, some as
sert that when Christ said to Peter,
''Thou art Peter, and upon this rock
will build my church. y" He
meant Himself when He said ION this
rock;" but such view is strained.
Christ spoke the Aramaic or Syro-C -Chal-
daic tongue, and the words in question
may be translated, 'Thou art stone
and upon this very stone -
In the Greek rendering the repetition
of the word stone or rock is not so evil
dent on account of the difference of
gender, for while "Petros" is mascu-
line, Petra" is feminine, but in the
Syro- -Chaldaic the same word "kepha"
is used for "Petros" and 'Petra." Also
the pronoun "taute" this) very natur-
ally from the context refers to Peter.
To my mind the question as to
whether Peter means "rock' or stone
is not Of much moment. Some say
that "petra," not 'petros'' is the word
for rock. Myer, an authority on these
matters, gives several examples from
classical literature in support of the
view that ''petros'' means rock. Plato
Soph0cles and Pindar use the word as
meaning rock-Plato, AK, p. 37I;
Sophocles, Phil. go; and Pindar,
Men,, ~, 46, X, 1876
In the Chaldee Targums "cephas'' is
frequently used for rock "In the shad-
ow of the rock'' CTarg. on Isa., xxxii,
p In the Syriac form it occurs often
in the Peshito, where it means
"rock," "stone," "Peter."
Facts in the New Testament 20 to
confirm the view that Jesus had some
pre-eminent purpose for Peter, that
he was to be something more than any
other apostle. Nor did this great dis
tinction spring from mere love of Pc