That rock of rages (Main Forum)

by herbie , Tuesday, July 03, 2012, 21:31 (322 days ago) @ judith

Forgive me, Judith/Bill, if I have misunderstood. Do you want the source of the one text (Matthew 16:18) or is what you are looking for a way to interpret this text?

If the former, look inside the brackets (or take Emirates to Rome to view the Latin text inscribed around the drumbase of the dome in St Peter's Basilica).

If the latter, I am having nothing more to do with it right now.

Judith may wonder why I take this stance. Bill knows. There is just no end to trying to find a convincing answer.

In the midst of this forbidding project, however, it helps if we keep in mind the singular attention given to Peter in all references to him in the New Testament (even in those referring to Paul's savage encounter with him, starting Galatians 2:11; but compare 1:18).

In the diverse gospel traditions, Peter is the first called (Mark 1:16) and the last spoken to (John 22:21) - and the prima donna in a number of scenes in between. (In mentioning the late narrative of John 22 I am not suggesting this tradition is all of one piece with the Markan source; just that even as late as John - whenever that was, say 100 CE - this thing about the singularity of Peter, the idiot, the passionate adherent, the gutless wonder, the stories continue to present him as a kind of template of failed discipleship and yet somehow as someone who knows what way to go next, even if he is shit scared to take his own advice.