11. When asking His Disciples on a certain
occasion, what men said of Him, and they answering according to the opinion of
the many, He asked them the second time, "But what say ye?" and, when Simon had said unto Him, "Thou art the Christ of the living God" He answered him, and said : "Blessed art thou Simon son of Jonas, since flesh and blood
hath not revealed (this) to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also
say to thee, Thou art Cephas: and upon this rock do I build my Church, and the
gate-bars of Hell shall not prevail against it." The (term) "this" He took (as implying) the knowledge, that He was the Messiah, the Son of the living God ; and Cephas (the rock), because it should neither be rent nor moved. It is not unlikely, that He named (in) "
THIS" the whole sense comprised here. On this account
too, He designated that same Disciple, who had formerly been called Simon, Cephas (Peter), with reference to this knowledge; (and) of which He afterwards prophesied, and said:
"On this rock do I build my Church, and the gate-bars of Hell
shall not prevail against it." He foretold at once something to come to pass, and
promised, that Himself would build it (the Church), and bring the work to
completion, by the things of this knowledge which had now been given
concerning Himself; that it should be made firm as on a confirmed foundation ;
and that His Church should be built, solely by means of His own power which is
everlasting, and that the gates of Hell should never overcome it. He himself
afforded a proof (of this) in the fulfilment, better than any (that) words (can
give). For innumerable persecutions, and many forms of death, have sprung up
against His Church, but in nothing could they prevail against it. He has
therefore, openly confirmed the enouncement of His prediction, by deeds; its
truth He has shewn, by the fulfilment. The Church too, which He called the
congregation, about to be set up in His name, evinced no small foreknowledge:
for the congregations of the Jews had been termed Synagogues; and, during the time of His going about among men,
He frequented the Synagogue of the Jews. Nor was there hitherto, so much as one
Synagogue only, set apart to Him. And, Who is not astonished, that He so
foreknew those congregations which should afterwards be set up, at a great
distance of time, in His name, and, that He should not name them, after the
Jewish custom, Synagogues, but Churches ? He added too, that the gate-bars of Hell should
not prevail against them:-- things, which we perceive with our own eyes ! Nor
should we wonder at the prediction only, but also at His promise, namely, "I build my Church upon the rock, and the gate-bars of Hell
shall not prevail against it:" which is (all) so brought near in fact,
that we can see it ! For it was not by the power of men, nor yet by the
superiority of the Teachers (employed), that His Church was raised ; but, it
was He who promised, and in deed fulfilled His promise ! --He (I say) who up to
this time has, by the Divine Power, built up, and enlarged, His Church
throughout the whole creation of man !
This text
records the one occasion when Eusebius explicitly engages in an exegesis of the
Matthean text, rather than either alluding to it or drawing on it to help explain
either historical events or other scriptural texts. . . . The very awkwardness
of the argumentation reveals how Eusebius is here forcing an interpretation on
the text of Mt 16,17-18 which does not fit. He has rejected the earlier literal
interpretation of Origen which simply stated that the Church of Christ was bult
“on Peter”—which interpretation formed the backbone of his original History.
As his treatment of Mt 16,18 in the Praeparatio and the Commentary
on Ps 17 showed, there is but one Rock or foundation on which the Church is
built: Christ, or rather, the Power of God. . . . It is the power of God which
is the foundation on which the Church is built. But Eusebius had to find a way
of reconciling this truth with the statement of Mt 16,18. His difficulty is
shown in the way he affirms in the one line how Christ named the knowledge of
Peter: πετρος, while the next
line he says that He gave the name of Peter to Simon, adding that this was
because of his knowledge. What is clear is that the prophecy of our Lord,
according to Eusebius, does not refer to the person or mission of Peter as
such: this is the point of the whole passage. Eusebius’ original ecclesiology disappeared
in the night of the persecutions and in its place stands the Church of the ‘new
dispensation’ in which the prophecies of Christ have been fulfilled through the
manifestation of His power in overcoming His enemies (the persecutors) and
securing the establishment of Hus Church as the one recognized religion of the οικουμενη. (Vincent Twomey, Apostolikos Thronos: The
Primacy of Rome as Reflected in the Church History of Eusebius and the Historico-Apologetic
Writings of Saint Athanasius the Great [Münster: Aschendorff, 1982], 225,
226-27)
