Upon This Rock: St. Peter and the Primacy of Rome in Scripture and the Early Church by Stephen K. Ray

Author:Stephen K. Ray [Ray, Stephen K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Biblical Studies, New Testament, Christianity, Catholic, Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9780898707236
Google: RnQiVgUn728C
Amazon: 0898707234
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 1999-03-02T07:00:00+00:00

37 Eusebius, Church History 6, 14, NPNF2, 1:261. Clement, writing from Alexandria, Egypt, relays the undisputed truth—that Peter preached the gospel in Rome. The writings of Clement of Alexandria are preserved by Eusebius, who quotes from a work (written c. A.D. 198-202) that has since been lost but was still readily available at the end of the third century. Back to text.

38 Comments on the First Epistle of Peter, by Clement of Alexandria, ANF 2:573. Here again is the unquestioned teaching of the primitive Church that Peter preached in Rome. Clement of Alexandria is a very early witness, having traveled the Roman Empire searching for the apostolic truth from the heirs to the apostles. He gleaned the orthodox teachings, and nowhere is there the slightest hint that Peter had not founded the Church in Rome; rather, it is assumed as an incontrovertible historical fact. Back to text.

39 Stromata 7, 11, ANF 2:541. This is an interesting anecdote about the death of Peter’s wife, probably in Rome under the persecution of Nero. It might be assumed that Peter’s wife was a vocal and active part of the Church since she evidently gained sufficient attention to warrant martyrdom. Other stories, probably legends, mention a daughter named Petronilla and a son (see Michael Grant, Saint Peter [New York: Scribner’s, 1994], 56-57, and William Steuart McBirnie, The Search for the Twelve Apostles [Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, Living Books, 1973], 68-69). Back to text.

40 Origen was probably the brightest scholar and most powerful intellect of all the Fathers living at the end of the second century. With unlimited access to historical and ecclesiastical documents, both in the library of Alexandria, which was second to none, and also the libraries of the Empire and the documents and traditions of the local Churches, Origen was in an unparalleled position to speak on the events of the first century, especially since he himself was born within eighty-five years of the death of the Apostle John. Back to text.

41 Commentary on Genesis, as relayed in Eusebius, Church History 3, 1, NPNF2, 1: 132-33. Clement and Gaius from Rome, Dionysius from Corinth, Tertullian from Africa, Irenaeus from Lyons, Clement from Alexandria, and Ignatius and Origen from Syria: From every corner of the Empire, all echo the same truth—Peter was in Rome. Early confirmation of Peter’s ministry, which corroborates the New Testament allusions, repeatedly confirms Peter’s travels to and ministry in Rome. Back to text.

42 “The author of this [letter] was one Macarius Magnes . . . who was a member of the church party hostile to Chrysostom. He wrote in five books an imaginary dialogue between himself and a pagan philosopher, in the course of which the philosopher criticised or ridiculed various passages in the New Testament and he himself defended them. The speeches of the philosopher seem to have been culled mainly from the treatise of the Neoplatonist Porphyry, Against the Christians, composed about the year 280 and now lost. Macarius does not expressly say, as he does in

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