Sunday, October 12, 2008
Foundations of Papal Authority
I found it very interesting to read on what basis the Roman Catholic church formed their foundation for Papal authority in the church. Specifically the Biblical reference that were used to place Peter as the "first Bishop of Rome". Reading through the passages it seems to me that these passages may have been misinterpreted in the beginning as the basis for this claim. It seems at though in Matthew when Jesus refers to Peter as "the rock" He will build His church on I think it could be a referral to the overall foundation of the Apostles that Jesus will use to build His church on. I think Peter is specifically named because his name in the Greek is petra which is translated over as "rock" and in this particular passage he was the one who made the reference to Jesus as Christ, and that is what the church will be built on,the claim that Jesus is Christ, not Peter himself. Other Apostles and followers of Christ who make this claim is what Jesus will build His church on. This is merely my interpretation of the passage, I would find it interesting to read further on the subject and dive deeper into who specifically in the Roman church translated this passage to support Papal Authority.
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It's an area of huge controversy, with much having been written. I'll let you find your own way; I'll just mention here that your alternative interpretation is one to which the early Protestant reformers held. They had plenty of other critiques as well!
I also found it interesting that something so important could left to the tranlation of whoever wants to translate it. Biblical passages are always this way--open for any interpretation. It's too bad that the language of Christ is so ambiguous, you'd think that, given the importance of his words, he would have tried to make them more concrete.
Yes, some of what we find in the Scriptures said by Christ seems to be quite ambiguous! However, I would not necessarily say Christ's teachings are ambiguous but just difficult to understand at times. Because the culture and the context in which the Bible is written is so different from ours today! So in light of that, I feel it's important that when translating Scriptures we translate the unclear Scriptures in light of the clear. I think the essence of who Christ is and the vitally important things that He teaches, even if they seem to be ambiguous in once section of the Bible, are made clear throughout the rest of Scriptures. The passage in Matthew for instance, if that was all we read it'd seem that it is in fact wide open to many interpretations. However, if read in context with the rest of what Scriptures says and what Christ teaches than I think it becomes obvious what Christ is saying. As seems to be the case with many issues similar to this addressed in Scriptures.
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