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T h e F a t h e r s K n o w B e s t
ON THIS ROCK?
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 12
 December 1994 
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Some have tried to claim that none of
the early Fathers interpreted the word "rock" in Matthew
16:18 to mean Peter ("You are Peter, and on this rock I will
build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it"). Let's see.
Tertullian
"Was anything withheld from the knowledge of
Peter, who is called 'the rock on which the Church would be
built' [Matt. 16:18] with the power of 'loosing and binding
in heaven and on earth' [Matt. 16:19]?" (Demurrer Against
the Heretics 22 [A.D. 200]).
"I now inquire into your opinion, to see
whence you usurp this right for the Church. Do you presume,
because the Lord said to Peter, 'On this rock I will build
my Church, I have given you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven' [Matt. 16:18-19a] or 'whatever you shall have bound
or loosed on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven' [Matt.
16:19b] that the power of binding and loosing has thereby
been handed on to you, that is, to every church akin to
Peter? What kind of man are you, subverting and changing
what was the manifest intent of the Lord when he conferred
this personally upon Peter? Upon you, he says, I will build
my Church; and I will give to you the keys, not to the
Church; and whatever you shall have bound or you shall have
loosed, not what they shall have bound or they shall have
loosed" (On Modesty 21:9-10 [A.D. 220]).
Origin
"Look at [Peter], the great foundation of
the Church, that most solid of rocks, upon whom Christ bult
the Church [Matt. 16:18]. And what does out Lord say to him?
'Oh you of little faith,' he says, 'why do you doubt?'
[Matt. 14:31]" (Homilies on Exodus 5:4 [A.D. 249]).
Cyprian
"The Lord says to Peter: 'I say to you,' he
says, 'that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build
my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And
to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and
whatever things you bind on earth shall be bound also in
heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be
loosed also in heaven' [Matt. 16:18-19]). . . . On him he
builds his Church, and to him he gives the command to feed
the sheep [John 21:17]; and although he assigns a like power
to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair, and he
established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic
reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also
which Peter was; but a primacy was given to Peter, whereby
it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair.
So too, all are shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one,
fed by all the apostles in single-minded accord. If someone
does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine
that he still holds the faith? If he desert the chair of
Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be
confident that he is in the Church?" (The Unity of the
Catholic Church 4 [A.D. 251]).
Firmilian
"But what is his error, and how great his
blindness, who says that the remission of sins can be given
in the synagogues of the heretics and who does not remain on
the foundation of the one Church which was founded upon the
rock by Christ [Matt. 16:18], can be learned from this,
which Christ said to Peter alone: 'Whatever things you shall
bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever
you loose on earth, they shall be loosed in heaven' [Matt.
16:19]" (Letter to Cyprian 74[75]:16 [A.D. 255]).
"And in this respect I am justly indignant
at this so open and manifest folly of [Pope] Stephen [I],
that he who so boasts of the place of his episcopate, and
contends that he holds the succession from Peter, on whom
the foundations of the Church were laid [Matt. 16:18],
should introduce many other rocks and establish new
buildings of many churches; maintaining that there is
baptism in them by his authority . . . . [Pope] Stephen, who
announces that he holds by succession the throne of Peter,
is stirred with no zeal against [Donatist] heretics, when he
concedes to them, not a moderate, but the very greatest
power of grace: so far as to say and assert that, by the
sacrament of baptism, the filth of the old man is washed
away by them, that they pardon the former mortal sins, that
they make sons of God by heavenly regeneration, and renew
eternal life by the sanctification of the divine laver
[Titus 3:5]" (ibid., 74[75]):17).
Ephraim the Syrian
"[Jesus said:] Simon my follower, I have
made you the foundation of the holy Church [Matt. 16:18]. I
betimes called you Peter, because you will support all its
buildings. You are the inspector of those who will build on
earth a Church for me. If they should wish to build what is
false, you, the foundation, will condemn them. You are the
head of the fountain from which my teaching flows; you are
the chief of my disciples" (Homilies 4:1 [A.D. 350]).
Damasus I
"Likewise it is decreed: . . . [W]e have
considered that it ought to be announced that although all
the Catholic Churches spread abroad through the world
comprise one bridal chamber of Christ, nevertheless, the
holy Roman Church has been placed at the forefront not by
the conciliar decisions of other churches, but has received
the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior,
who says: 'You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it;
and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatever you shall have bound on earth will be bound in
heaven, and whatever you shall have loosed on earth shall be
loosed in heaven' [Matt. 16:18-19]. The first see,
therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the Roman
Church, which has neither stain nor blemish nor anything
like it" (The Decree of Damasus 3 [A.D. 382]).
Jerome
"'But,' you [Jovinian] will say, 'it was on
Peter that the Church was founded' [Matt. 16:18]. Well . . .
one among the twelve is chosen to be their head in order to
remove any occasion for division. But why was not John [the
beloved disciple] chosen?" (Against Jovinian 1:26 [A.D.
393]).
Ambrose
"[Christ] made answer: 'You are Peter, and
upon this rock will I build my Church . . .' Could he not,
then, strengthen the faith of the man to whom, acting on his
own authority, he gave the kingdom, whom he called the rock,
thereby declaring him to be the foundation of the Church
[Matt. 16:18]?" (Of the Christian Faith 4:5 [A.D. 380]).
"It is to Peter that he says: 'You are
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church' [Matt.
16:18]. Where Peter is, there is the Church. And where the
Church, no death is there, but life eternal" (On Twelve
Psalms 40:30 [A.D. 394]).
Leo I
"[T]he Lord says, 'Blessed are you, Simon
Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood have not revealed it to
you, but my Father, who is in heaven. And I say to you, that
you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it . . .'
[Matt. 16:18]. The dispensation of truth therefore abides,
and the blessed Peter persevering in the strength of the
rock, which he has received, has not abandoned the helm of
the Church, which he understood. For he was ordained before
the rest in such a way that from his being called the rock,
from his being pronounced the foundation, from his being
constituted the doorkeeper of the kingdom of heaven, from
his being set as the umpire to bind and loose, whose
judgments shall retain their validity in heaven, from all
these mystical titles we might know the nature of his
association with Christ" (Sermons 3:2-3 [A.D. 442]).
"Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . has placed the
principal charge on the blessed Peter, chief of all the
apostles, and from him as from the head wishes his gifts to
flow to all the body, so that anyone who dares to secede
from Peter's solid rock may understand that he has no part
or lot in the divine mystery. He wished him who had been
received into partnership in his undivided unity to be named
what he himself was, when he said: 'You are Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my Church' [Matt. 16:18], that the
building of the eternal temple might rest on Peter's solid
rock, strengthening his Church so surely that neither could
human rashness assail it nor the gates of hell prevail
against it" (Letters 10:1 [A.D. 450]).
"Since, therefore, the universal Church has
become a rock through the building up of that original rock
and the first of the apostles, the most blessed Peter, heard
the voice of the Lord saying, 'You are Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my Church' [Matt. 16:18], who is there who
dare assail such impregnable strength unless he be either
Antichrist or the devil, who, abiding unconverted in his
wickedness, is anxious to sow lies by the vessels of wrath
which are suited to his treachery, while under the false
name of diligence he pretends to be in search of the truth"?
(Letter 156:2 [A.D. 458]).
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