Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that
Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John. (Acts
8:14)
In this passage, we see that
Peter (and John) are subordinate to the body of apostles in that the apostles “send
out” (Greek: αποστελλω) Peter and John. This is incongruous with Vatican 1
and other dogmatic teachings concerning Petrine supremacy in Roman Catholic
theology.
Note the following from Catholic commentary Joseph A. Fitzmyer:
they
sent Peter and John to the people there. Peter and John are sent by
“the apostles,” i.e., the Twelve; they are thus the emissaries of the apostles.
The verb apostellein is used,
implying an official mission, as Jesus “sent” the Twelve and other disciples
out on missions (Luke 9:2; 10:1). As earlier (Acts 3:1–11; 4:13, 19), John is
Peter’s silent partner. (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Acts of the
Apostles: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary [AYB 31; New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2008], 405)
This is a text that has not
been discussed much by Catholic apologists. Note the following from A
Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture:
‘The word “delegation” must not deceive us, any more than
the demeanour, democratic in the old sense of the word, of the primitive
community. Authority does not abdicate because it is willing to listen to the
Church, and Peter, the delegate of the Church of Jerusalem and of the Apostolic
Body—they are one and the same thing—remains the head. (C. S. Dessain, “The
Acts of the Apostles,” in A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, ed.
Bernard Orchard and Edmund F. Sutcliffe [New York: Thomas Nelson, 1953], 1022)
There is nothing in this
passage or the entirety of the Acts of the Apostles that allows one to assume
Vatican 1. Instead, the fact that, without furor, James would issue a
declaration (“Therefore I judge” [διο
εγω κρινω])
in Acts 15:19 during the Council of Jerusalem after Peter’s speech.
Acts 8:14 is not definitive “proof” against the Roman Catholic dogmatic
understanding of Petrine supremacy; it just is just one piece of evidence
in a large body of biblical and especially patristic evidence against it.
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