Peter The First Pope?

Today, October 31, 2008 marks the 491st anniversary of Martin Luther’s bold approach to the authority of the Papacy. The challenge sited 95 theological errors of the Roman Catholic Church.

One teaching of the Roman Catholic Church is that Peter is the first pope. This claim is made on the basis of the Roman Catholic Churchs early understanding of Matthew 16:17-18. Rather than go into many opinions of how the Catholic church may be right or may be wrong, I will simply exegete Matthew 16:18.

18And I tell you that you are Peter,[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[b] will not overcome it. (Mt. 16:18 NIV)

What I am about to unpack for you is not a new discovery. In fact, when I first had the idea of attempting to make sense out of who Jesus was referring to in building the church on, I went to my interlinear and there it was. Jesus plainly stated that He, Jesus was discussing with Peter that Jesus would build His Church on Himself. Let’s look at it, now.

κἀγὼ δέ σοι λέγω ὅτι σὺ εἶ Πέτρος καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέτρᾳ
I also and to you I say you are Peter and on this rock
οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν
I will build my Church.

Notice that ὅτι (first line) is not translated. ὅτι means, ‘since or because’. Also, note the order of appearance the two words here for stone or rock. Πέτρος and then πέτρᾳ . In English, we sight the object of a subject. So, the subject would be given precedence over the object. The subject would have a masculine, nominative place in the English sentence. And, the object would be given a subordinate, feminine, accusative place in our English sentence.

When we read the above sentence in Greek, translating it without regard to the case endings, which give the Greek words their status and place in the sentence, and we would also be tempted to believe since Πέτρος is capitalized that we are looking at a proper noun or name of a person that we are seeing this sentence just as it should be read. And it would say,

“And, I also say to you, you are Peter (Πέτρος), and on this rock (πέτρᾳ) I will build my Church”.

However, let’s apply the rules of Koine Greek grammar, and not think in terms of English grammar. Now, what we will do is understand, that Greek capitalizes in the beginning of a paragraph. Sometimes Koine Greek capitalized in the beginning of a sentence, but always in the use of importance. Because, case endings identify the place of the object and subject, and to whom verbs and to what adjectives are applied, there is not necessary order for which a word will appear in a Koine Greek sentence. As long as the reader understands the importance of the character and the rules for identifying the object and subject, the reader can now properly assign a Greek word to a character (person) being spoken of.

Ask yourself, who is more important? Is Jesus more important than Peter?

Jesus would be referred to by Πέτρος (the nominative, masculine subject) and Peter referred to in Greek by πέτρᾳ (the accusative, feminine object).

What we would have here is a sentence where metaphors are used. Why? Well, Jesus was telling Peter, I say to you Simon Barjona (vs. 17) that you are Peter (πέτρᾳ - a stone, as in his character). He did not see Simon which means sand. Jesus saw the man who was named Simon to have the character of a stone. Being that the conversation in these verses alone is about whom people say Jesus is, tells us that the emphasis is on Jesus. The metaphorical part of this sentence that rightfully should be applied to Jesus is the word Rock (Πέτρος). We build our faith on what is solid; Jesus the rock (Πέτρος) not Peter the stone or pebble (πέτρᾳ). The capitalized, nominative subject would be Πέτρος, a metaphor used to reference Jesus, whom this passage in Matthew is discussing when Jesus asks, “who do people say I am?”. And, Jesus calls attention to Simon’s character when he calls him πέτρᾳ. He said to Peter, you have the character of a stone.

Now, here is where this is so much more meaningful. To have Jesus look at Simon and say to him, “In you Simon, I see the character of a stone” must have made Peter’s chest inflate a little. Out of all of the disciples, Jesus saw Peter as the tough as nails type of guy we hope we never run into and find him angry at us.

You may say, ‘But did not Peter deny Christ three times?’ Yep. And that is the beauty of Jesus having called attention to Simon’s character. Jesus demonstrated that when things got really tough, even the tough will need a savior’s forgiveness.