Do you think St. PETER held a prominence above the other Apostles? Why or Why not?

Question

A SUMMARY ON THE PROMINENCE OF ST. PETER THE APOSTLE:
Taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Synoptic Gospels agree that Peter served as spokesman, the outstanding member of the group, and enjoyed a certain precedence over the other disciples. For example:
•Whenever the disciples are listed, Peter is mentioned first (Mt 10:2-4; Mk 3:16-19; Lk 6:14-16; Acts 1:13; cf. Only Gal 2:9).
•Those not belonging to the immediate followers of Jesus also recognized the authority of Peter, (Mt 17:24)
•Sought clarification from Jesus on behalf of the disciples (Mt 15:15)
•Peter is mentioned by name while others are indicated as merely accompanying him (Mk 1:36; Lk 8:45)
•Even when the three disciples closest to Jesus (the “pillars” -- Peter, James, and John) figure in a particular incident, it is frequently Peter alone who is named. When the three are named, Peter’s name appears first (Mt 17:1, 26:37).

•Peter was charged by Jesus (Luke 22:31, 32), effected the strengthening of others.
•The fact that Peter is emphasized in John and charged by Jesus to “tend my sheep” and “feed my lambs” (Jn 21:15,16) at the same time the role of the disciples as a whole is being de-emphasized attests to the prestige of Peter in the apostolic church.
IT WAS PETER WHO:
•confessed the Sonship of Jesus (Mt 16:16)
•was commissioned to “lend strength” to his brothers (Luke 22:32)
•on the Morning of the resurrection “ran to the tomb” (Luke 24:12) -- that the Resurrected Christ first appeared.
•who’s priority as a witness to the Resurrection is found in the letters of Paul (I Cor 15:5)
•presided over the appointment of Matthias as an Apostle (Acts 1:23-26)
•first “raised his voice” and preached at Pentecost, the day when the church came into being (Acts 1:14-39)
•exercised the role of judge in the disciplining of those who erred within the church (Acts 5:1-10).

•walked on water towards Jesus. (Mt 14:28-33)
•witnessed and spoke at the transfiguration of Jesus. (Mt 17:1-8 & 2 P 1:16-18)
•at the Garden of Gethsemane. (Mt 26:37)




JESUS SAID TO PETER:
1.Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. (Mt 16:17-19)
2.For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
3.And so I say to you, you are Peter,
4.and upon this rock I will build my church,
5.and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
6.I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
7.Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
8. “tend my sheep” and “feed my lambs” (Jn 21:15 & 16)
What significance and in what context are these statements made?

Answer 1

Anyone can interpret and twist the verses in the Bible just to prove that Peter wasn't the leader of the Apostles. But the writings of the early christian communities and the early Church Fathers leave no doubt to Peter being the leader of the universal church and that everyone who followed him as bishop of Rome was regarded as his successor.

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]).

Clement of Alexandria
"[T]he 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. And what does he say? `Behold, we have left all and have followed you'" [Matt. 19:27; Mark 10:28] (Who Is the Rich Man That is Saved? 21:3-5 [A.D. 200]).

Tertullian
"[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])

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
"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]).

Cyril of Jerusalem
"The Lord is loving toward men, swift to pardon but slow to punish. Let no man despair of his own salvation. Peter, the first and foremost of the apostles, denied the Lord three times before a little servant girl, but he repented and wept bitterly" (Catechetical Lectures 2:19 [A.D. 350]).

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]).

Augustine
"Who is ignorant that the first of the apostles is the most blessed Peter?" (Commentary on John 56:1 [A.D. 416]).

Answer 2

When Jesus said you are Peter ( Petros, small stone ) He used a play on words.
Upon this Rock ( petra, foundation boulder ) I will build My church refers to Christ. Christ is the foundation stone or head of the church not Peter not the pope. Nor is the pope the vicar of Christ on earth, this is the office of the Holy Spirit alone.
Peter was not the first pope, nowhere do you find this except in the myth of the Roman church

Answer 3

Peter was like all the apostles but he loved Jesus a bit stronger...like a stone, like a diamond without polished faces...he was sincere and didn't know to pretend...he was simple and wanted to be pure in heart like Jesus!

Answer 4

Yes these passages describe the primacy of Peter the prince of Apostles and the first pope.

Answer 5

Let's look at the other side of the coin OK?

First of all, Jesus said that he who would be greatest among you must be the servant of the others right? Now let's look at Paul.

1 Corinthians 15:9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than them all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.


2 Corinthians 11:23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am even more: in labors far more, in beatings immeasurably, in imprisonments far more, in deaths often. 24 By the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have spent in the depth of the sea. 26 In journeys often, in dangers of rivers, in dangers of robbers, in dangers from my own race, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers in the sea, in dangers among false brothers; 27 in labor and hardship, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness-- 28 apart from what I leave unmentioned, what comes against me daily: the anxiety for all the churches.

2 Corinthians 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago--whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows--such a one was caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I know such a man--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows-- 4 that he was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not permitted for a man to utter.

And Paul's dealings with Peter.

Galatians 2:11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was to be blamed. 12 For before certain men came from James, he would eat together with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to draw back and began to separate himself, fearing those of the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.

So here's Peter engaging in hypocrisy because he was afraid of what the men who came from the Lord's brother James would say but Paul got in his face and put him to shame. Doesn't sound like Peter had the prominence to me. First off he was willing to compromise in order to avoid criticism from one group and then he was told off by Paul. In this next passage where Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem to get a ruling from the assembly on circumcision look who makes the final argument.

Acts 15:13 Now after they had finished speaking, James answered, saying, "Men and brothers, listen to me: 14 Simon has declared how God first visited them to take from the Gentiles a people for His name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: 16 "After this I will return, and I will build again the tabernacle of David, which has fallen; and its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, 17 in order that the rest of men may seek out the LORD, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the LORD who does all these things.' 18 "Known from everlasting to God are all His works. 19 Therefore I judge that we must not cause trouble for those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles; 20 but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. 21 "For Moses has had from ancient generations those who proclaim him in each city, being read in the synagogues from one Sabbath to another." 22 Then it seemed best to the apostles and the elders, together with the whole church, to send men being chosen from them to Antioch, together with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers.

Notice who makes the decision. The whole assembly after the judgment of James the Lord's brother.

Secondly, how does Peter come across and how does he refer to himself in his writings?

1 Peter 5:1 The elders who are among you I exhort (parakaléō), as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed;

parakaléō - To aid, help, comfort, encourage. Translated: to comfort, exhort, desire, call for, beseech with a stronger force than aitéō

Peter didn't "command" these fellow elders. He put himself on the same level and gave them a strong exhortation to do what was right. No where in the New Testament do we find a single man having authority over the others like the Pope does. Instead we see that there are two or more elders placed over a local church. All of the arguments about Peter having some special position by first mention or by Jesus talking about founding the church on Peter's confession of faith don't negate this truth.

You know that Peter had a wife don't you?

Matthew 8:14 Now when Jesus had come into Peter's house, He saw his wife's mother having been laid up, and burning with fever.

1 Corinthians 9:5 Do we have no right to take along a wife who is a sister, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas (Peter)?