Matthew 16:18; The Line that Lives On



The new Pope thing is related to Matt. 16:18.

I've heard and read Matthew 16:18 endless times and will hear it the rest of my life. Perhaps few Christians have heard it or paid any attention if they did hear it. The verse contains justification used for various purposes.

While different Bibles vary just a bit, the verse has Jesus saying to Peter, "Upon this rock I will build my church...." If I were hearing this sentence for the first time, I would conclude Jesus is talking about sin and his view that his ideas about the end coming soon and everyone needs to quit sinning or end up in hell. The "rock" is a set of ideas he believes are true and correct. 

Various branches of Christianity, however, smell opportunity in the sentence. The Catholics, for example, say this was Jesus naming Peter to be the first Pope. Not only that, Jesus meant Peter would name the all clergy to follow and this gave these clergy license to claim they were originally hired by Jesus. It happens Peter was a male so all clergy must also be males. 

The Missouri Synod Lutherans say that no, Jesus was not instructing Peter or naming Peter the first Pope. Jesus was saying he was starting the institution called the church. It was the church, not about Peter or Popes to follow. The Missouri Synod authorities, all men, however, made sure to stay with the Catholic deal of no women preachers. 

I suppose both the Catholics and the Missouri Synod Lutherans can find other passages that reinforce their argument about what was meant. Since we don't have Jesus explaining whether he was talking about Peter or the institution of the church or neither we will never know. 

There is yet another likely way to approach this. Maybe, I would say probably, Jesus never said the words in Mathew 16:18. Not one of the many authors who contributed to the Bible ever wrote, "I was present and heard Jesus say that about the rock." In fact, no author claimed to ever have heard personally Jesus say anything. All of it is stuff that was either made up or folk history.

To believe that Jesus said that line and believe it means what male authorities claim is means requires that the skill call critical thinking be put on a shelf and never again be used.

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