Was Peter the first pope?

from the old testament

• See the New Testament section

from the new testament

• The key verse used by the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) to argue that Peter is the first Pope is Matthew 16:13–19. Jesus asked His disciples, ". . . who do you say that I am?" (v. 15) to which Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Jesus' response was, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! … And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:17a, 18–19).
• In addition to that assertion, they argue that Jesus’ statement about giving the keys of heaven means Peter would have unique authority to issue binding decrees.
• Based on their views of this passage, they then extrapolate from there that Peter was the first Pope and that the authority given to him was to be passed along to succeeding Popes.
• The problem with this interpretation, however, is multi-fold. There are problems with it contextually (in the passage), Scripturally (considering the rest of the New Testament), and historically. What follows are several of those problems.
• But Peter often appeared to speak on behalf of the disciples as a kind of leader (e.g., Matthew 18:21; John 6:68). When Jesus said, “Who do you say that I am?” He was using the plural form of “you” (“you all” would be the English equivalent). It seems likely that he was expressing what they were all thinking.
• The Greek word for “Peter” is Petros, a derivative of petra, meaning “rock.” Jesus using Petros and petra together is a play on words, which the RCC interprets as Jesus saying He will build His church on Peter. But interpreters since the second century have largely (though not exclusively) believed Jesus meant Peter’s confession about Jesus Himself or about Peter in the sense of being the first of many to confess Jesus as Lord. The rest of the New Testament focuses on confession and faith in Jesus as what builds the church (Romans 10:9–10; John 20:31; 1 John 5:1).
• Another problem is that the passage doesn’t say anything about either a pope-like role or succession of authority. The New Testament does not describe a church office that was above other leaders. The Pope, as we know it today, is effectively the head bishop over an organizational chart of bishops who oversee priests. But Scripture presents only one church leadership role, with three different Greek terms. “Overseer” or “bishop” is used interchangeably with elder (Acts 20:17, 28; Titus 1:5-7) and pastor (1 Peter 5:1–2). The concept of “bishop” as an elevated office was introduced in the second century, and the role of “pope” took its official form around the fourth century. Reading Matthew 16 as referring to Peter as the first Pope is anachronistic.
• Jesus did not grant humans authority to create binding ordinances beyond what Scripture teaches. In fact, Jesus had called out Jews for doing that very thing (Matthew 15:3–9; Mark 7:8–13). "Keys to heaven" likely refers to being in charge of proclaiming the gospel (the key to heaven) and offering repentance or even rebuke to others (cf. Matthew 18:18; John 20:23).
• Peter was also far from infallible. Jesus sternly corrected him for protesting Jesus' coming death: "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man’” (Matthew 16:23). It’s hard to reconcile this if Jesus had just made Him the “pope,” which implies the earlier passage wasn’t about Peter as the foundation of the church but about something else, like his confession.
• Scripture shows that Peter, though prominent in the early church, was not always the main elder in a region, and others did not recognize him as being over them. For example, at the first church council (Acts 15), Peter has a voice in the discussion (Acts 15:7–11), but it appears that James presided over the proceedings (Acts 15:13–21). Paul later rebukes Peter for hypocrisy (Galatians 2:11-14).
• Though history teaches that Peter was buried Rome, but Scripture doesn't indicate that he was a pastor there at all, let alone the main pastor. This challenges the notion that the city of Rome, specifically, has a succession line back to Peter. Indeed, at the time the Bible was written, there was no single centralized church structure in Rome. In other letters, Paul addressed the church, but when writing to the Romans, he simply said, “To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints” (Romans 1:7). His closing remarks seem to imply there were three to five house churches (Romans 16).
• The Bible presents no official head bishop (pope-like) office, with all of the apostles being equals. The handful of Scriptures that use "head of the church" (or similar phrasing) refers to Jesus (Ephesians 5:23, 1:22-23; Colossians 1:18). The cornerstone of the church is Jesus, and the foundation He laid is with Scripture and the apostles of that time (Ephesians 2:20; Revelation 21:14; 2 Timothy 3:16–17); no church office can declare new doctrine.

implications for today

Have you ever been given an "honor" that you really didn't want? Maybe it was a "promotion" that came with a new title but no raise. Maybe it was your bosses impromptu request to "come up and say a few words to the group."

If Peter were here today, he would likely feel similar—times ten! Scripture shows that Peter was humble (Luke 5:8; Acts 10:25-26), so we can infer that he would be upset at Roman Catholics today assigning him the "honor" of being the church's foundation. In his second letter, Peter emphasized that Scripture does not originate from human interpretation (2 Peter 1:20–21). How ironic that he has been elevated to a position of “pope” because of tradition and the reinterpretation of Scripture.

Scripture itself is our foundation. That is why the Reformers, argued against Rome’s claim to be the authoritative interpreter of Scripture. They rightly pointed out that truth can be found in God’s Word.

Our faithfulness to God's Word, not our pedigree defines truthfulness.