Origen, Ambrose, and James of Nisibis: Mr
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Misrepresentation Four: Origen, Ambrose, and James of Nisibis: Mr. Ray has gone on in the book to make several other assertions which need to be addressed. In dealing with several quotes from Origen, he puts forth the following challenge: ‘Can anyone claim that the Fathers attributed Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, ‘You are Peter (Rock) and upon this Church [Bill, I think you meant the word “rock” here, not “church” since “rock” is the word I use in my footnote] I will build my Church’ (Mt 16:18), to Peter’s confession alone and not to Peter himself?’ The answer quite simply is yes. Augustine does precisely that. He makes the following statement in one of his sermons: First, this wasn’t meant, in the context, to be a challenge. It was rather an “exclamation of satisfaction”, as in “My goodness, look at the evidence of the early Fathers!” It was a rhetorical question. Nevertheless, I can see why Bill took it as a challenge; so I will respond. Since we have repeatedly seen a variety of applications to the passage of Matthew 16 extensively in my book and less so here, I do not feel it is necessary to expound on it again. However, to state the case: the Fathers of the Church used Matthew 16 for many expository purposes; for example, to teach faith, to teach the necessity of confessing the faith, to teach the deity of Christ, to establish Peter as the foundation of the Church, etc. I am full aware, as readers of my book will realize, that many Fathers interpret the rock as Christ, the faith of Peter, Peter’s confession, or Peter himself. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, as we have seen earlier, does the same thing. But the question is really one of exclusivity. St. Augustine, whom Bill brings forward as a “witness” against me, used all of the above interpretations at one time or another in his writings. Did St. Augustine teach that Peter’s confession was the only and exclusive foundation for the church, referring to Matthew 16? I think not. St. Augustine, even in the passage below, implies that Christ is the rock, Peter simply being “a chip off the old block” so to speak, and then goes on to say that the Rock is Peter’s confession of faith. Here the Catechism of the Catholic Church echoes the words of St. Augustine. Remember, in this man Peter, the rock. He’s the one, you see, who on being questioned by the Lord about who the disciples said he was, replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ On hearing this, Jesus said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you’...’You are Peter, Rocky, and on this rock I shall build my Church, and the gates of the underworld will not conquer her. To you shall I give the keys of the kingdom. Whatever you bind on earth shall also be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall also be loosed in heaven’ (Mt 16:15 - 19). In Peter, Rocky, we see our attention drawn to the rock. Now the apostle Paul says about the former people, ‘They drank from the spiritual rock that was following them; but the rock was Christ’ (1 Cor 10:4). So this disciple is called Rocky from the rock, like Christian from Christ. “Why have I wanted to make this little introduction? In order to suggest to you that in Peter the Church is to be recognized. Christ, you see, built his Church not on a man but on Peter’s confession. What is Peter’s confession? ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ There’s the rock for you, there’s the foundation, there’s where the Church has been built, which the gates of the underworld cannot conquer (John Rotelle, O.S.A., Ed., The Works of Saint Augustine (New Rochelle: New City Press, 1993), Sermons, Volume III/6, Sermon 229P.1, p. 327). If this was the only quote we had in the whole Augustinian corpus, then touché. But my question has a broader context. I did not say “Can you find one quote where Peter is said not to be the Rock but actually the rock is his faith?” That would be silly because in the context of Origen, where this rhetorical question is posed, Origen himself claims in his commentary on Matthew that the Rock is something other than Peter the person (again my book goes into great detail on Origen and his commentary on Matthew). So the context of my question is not “Can you find one patristic quote”, but does any Father (and that is the way my “challenge” was worded) absolutely deny that Peter is the rock in an exclusive sense, considering the whole corpus of his writings. Remember, I use the word “alone” as in “Peter’s confession alone and not to Peter himself”. In his Retractations which I included in my book on page 231, St. Augustine himself taught that the passage of Matthew 16 could be applied to Peter the person and that he himself had done so. This was written long after the quotation given above by Bill. St. Augustine writes, “In a passage in this book, I said about the Apostle Peter: ‘On him as on a rock the Church was built.’ This idea is also expressed in song by the voice of many in the verses of the most blessed Ambrose where he says about the crowing of the cock: ‘At its crowing he, this rock of the Church, washed away his guilt.’ But I know that very frequently at a later time, I so explained what the Lord said: ‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,’ that it be understood as built upon Him whom Peter confessed saying: ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,’ and so Peter, called after this rock, represented the person of the Church which is built upon this rock, and has received ‘the keys of the kingdom of heaven. For, ‘Thou art Peter’ and not ‘Thou art the rock’ was said to him. But ‘the rock was Christ,’ in confessing whom, as also the whole Church confesses, Simon was called Peter. But let the reader decide which of these two opinions is the more probable.” So, toward the end of his life St. Augustine does not say that the rock upon which Christ built his Church was the confession of Peter, or the faith of Peter; but rather, the man Peter or the person of Christ. St. Augustine says that he and St. Ambrose referred to Peter the man as the rock upon which the Church was built and that even now at the end of his life finds this to be a feasible and acceptable interpretation. So, where does St. Augustine, as implied by Bill, outright deny in an exclusive sense that Peter is the Rock in the whole of his corpus? My comment and question in the section on Origen (page 177) stands and again, Bill’s argument comes up empty. Another example that can be cited is Ambrose. He states: He, then, who before was silent, to teach us that we ought not to repeat the words of the impious, this one, I say, when he heard, ‘But who do you say I am,’ immediately, not unmindful of his station, exercised his primacy, that is, the primacy of confession, not of honor; the primacy of belief, not of rank. This, then, is Peter, who has replied for the rest of the Apostles; rather, before the rest of men. And so he is called the foundation, because he knows how to preserve not only his own but the common foundation.… Faith, then, is the foundation of the Church, for it was not said of Peter’s flesh, but of his faith, that ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ But his confession of faith conquered hell. And this confession did not shut out one heresy, for, since the Church like a good ship is often buffeted by many waves, the foundation of the Church should prevail against all heresies (The Fathers of the Church (Washington D.C., Catholic University, 1963), Saint Ambrose, Theological and Dogmatic Works, The Sacrament of the Incarnation of Our Lord IV.32-V.34, pp. 230-231). In this passage, Peter is called the foundation as well as his faith. Ambrose is teaching on faith and confession and so emphasizes this aspect. We will see shortly that he seemingly “contradicts” himself, though it is not a contradiction, but the same thing as in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is not “either-or” but “both-and”. The Matthew 16 passage was utilized, as we have repeatedly said, for many purposes in the preaching of the Fathers. St. Ambrose understands the literal meaning of the passage but uses many applications. No exclusivity here. Peter therefore did not wait for the opinion of the people, but produced his own, saying, ‘Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God’: Who ever is, began not to be, nor ceases to be. Great is the grace of Christ, who has imparted almost all His own names to His disciples. ‘I am,’ said He, ‘the light of the world,’ and yet with that very name in which He glories, He favored His disciples, saying, ‘Ye are the light of the world.’ ‘I am the living bread’; and ‘we all are one bread’ (1 Cor.