In the text, “Passion of Peter of Capitolias (d. 715),” we read the following, showing that the author did not believe that the apostle Peter received the keys of the kingdom singularly, but instead, as others would claim (funnily enough, the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 among them [see DS 802]):
O blessed tongue like
the tongue of the chief of the apostles! O blessed intellect, to whom not flesh
and blood but the Father in heaven has revealed this! O thrice blessed voice
that gladdens the angels and puts the devil to shame, whom God has inscribed in
the book of the living! Behold the theologian, clearly proclaiming the truth
before kings and princes! You are blessed, O priest Peter. I think that my Lord
spoke to you thus three times: “You, Peter, are the Steadfastness of faith,
like Peter the head of the apostles, and holder of the keys of the kingdom of
heaven. And like Peter the priest-martyr of Alexandria, you are the servant and
preacher of the Trinity and the radiant light of the whole world who purified
the dwelling place. Your grace is great and worthy of greater praise.” (“Passion
of Peter of Capitolias (d. 715),” trans. Stephen J. Shoemaker, in Three
Christian Martyrdoms from Early Islamic Palestine [Middle Eastern Texts Initiative;
Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2016], 41, 43, emphasis in bold
added)
In the footnote to the
portion I put in bold, Shoemaker noted that:
The text is difficult here, and the meaning is not clear.
I have largely followed Kekelidze’s interpretation, but the syntax is
irregular. Perhaps the intent is to compare Peter of Capitolias with two of St.
Peter’s qualities—his steadfastness of faith and his possession of the keys of
the kingdom (?), and then to Peter of Alexandria as a servant and proclaimer of
the Trinity. But again, the sense is unclear here. Kekelidze understands the
following passage as a quotation, presumably spoken to Peter of Capitolias by
the Lord on three occasions (?), and we have followed him in this, although it
would seem that other possibilities exist. (Ibid., 41, 43 n. 71)
