Did Christ give Peter a unique authority among the apostles, and does that office continue in his successors?
33 verses are cited on this page. Each one links to its chapter in the Greek text.
And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.Matthew 16:18
Christ renames Simon Rock and builds on that rock. In Scripture God renames a man when he gives him a new destiny, as Abram became Abraham and Jacob Israel. See the petra word study for the Aramaic Kepha behind both halves.
And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.Matthew 16:19
The keys are given to Peter alone, in the singular, echoing the royal steward of Isaiah 22:22 who bears the key of the house of David on his shoulder.
I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of death and of hell.Revelation 1:18
Christ holds keys of his own, which is the point. What Peter receives is not Christ's set but a delegated one, as a steward holds the keys of a house that is not his.
These things saith the Holy One and the true one, he that hath the key of David; he that openeth, and no man shutteth; shutteth, and no man openeth.Revelation 3:7
The words are Isaiah 22:22, spoken there of Eliakim installed as steward over the house of David. Christ takes the key to himself here, and that passage stands behind the keys given at Caesarea Philippi.
...I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren.Luke 22:31-32
Satan asks for all of them (plural), Christ prays for Peter (singular), and charges him to strengthen the rest.
Feed my lambs... Feed my sheep.John 21:15-17
The risen Lord commits his whole flock to Peter, in a threefold commission answering the threefold denial.
In those days Peter rising up in the midst of the brethren, said...Acts 1:15
Peter presides over the choosing of Matthias, interpreting Scripture and setting the terms.
But Peter standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spoke to them.Acts 2:14
Peter preaches the first sermon of the Church at Pentecost, speaking for the Twelve.
And when there had been much disputing, Peter, rising up, said to them...Acts 15:7
At the council of Jerusalem Peter's intervention settles the substance of the question, after which the assembly falls silent.
...he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.Acts 10:44-48
It is Peter who opens the Church to the Gentiles, a decision of the first magnitude.
...I went to Jerusalem, to see Peter: and I tarried with him fifteen days.Galatians 1:18
Paul, after his conversion, goes up specifically to see Peter.
But when Cephas was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.Galatians 2:11
The strongest objection, and it is a real one. Paul publicly rebukes Peter for withdrawing from the Gentiles. Note what it does not say: Paul corrects Peter's conduct, not his teaching, and the very fact that Peter's example could lead the whole church at Antioch astray shows the weight his behavior carried. Authority is not impeccability.
And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying...Acts 15:13
James speaks last and frames the decision, which is often read as presiding. But he speaks after Peter has settled the principle, and begins by appealing to what Simon has declared.
The ancients therefore that are among you, I beseech, who am myself also an ancient.1 Peter 5:1
Peter calls himself a fellow elder, which is offered against any claim of monarchical rule. It shows the manner of the office, service among brethren, not its absence.
...he that will be first among you, shall be your servant.Matthew 20:25-27
Christ forbids lording it over others. The office he gives Peter is defined by this, which is why the pope is called the servant of the servants of God.
Go behind me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto me: because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men.Matthew 16:23
Five verses after the rock saying, which is the objection. The same chapter gives the keys and the rebuke, so whatever Peter received was not impeccability. It was office, and office survives the failure of the man holding it.
But be not you called Rabbi. And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven.Matthew 23:8-9
The most quoted objection to the title, and it proves too much if pressed: Paul calls himself a father to the Corinthians and Stephen addresses the Sanhedrin as fathers. What Christ forbids is a man made the source of what he teaches, not the ordinary language of spiritual paternity.
For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid; which is Christ Jesus.1 Corinthians 3:11
True, and the same apostle writes that the household of God is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Scripture uses the image both ways without contradiction, because a foundation laid by Christ can be laid through men.
And they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ.1 Corinthians 10:4
The standard answer to Matthew 16:18, and it is true. Scripture gives the same image to more than one bearer, as it gives the foundation to Christ in one place and to the apostles in another, so a rock here does not empty a rock there.
And he hath subjected all things under his feet, and hath made him head over all the church.Ephesians 1:22
Christ is the head, and no Catholic teaching says otherwise. A visible head on earth is a steward under him, which is what the keys in Matthew 16 describe: authority held in another name and answerable to him.
...and his bishopric let another take.Acts 1:20
When Judas falls, the apostles do not treat his place as extinguished with the man; his office (episkope) passes to another, the principle of succession applied by the apostles themselves. Honesty grants that no verse states that Peter's particular office passes to a successor. The Catholic argument is that the office was given for the permanent good of the Church, that the apostles themselves treated an apostolic office as passing to another when its holder was gone, and that the earliest history shows the church of Rome acting and being received in that role.
The New Testament singles Peter out in a way it singles out no one else. He is renamed Rock, given the keys alone, prayed for by name and charged to strengthen the brethren, and given the care of Christ's whole flock; he is named first in every list of the Twelve, preaches the first sermon, opens the door to the Gentiles, and settles the question at the first council. The objections are real and must be granted: Paul rebuked him to his face, and Peter calls himself a fellow elder. But a rebuke about conduct assumes an office rather than denying one, and Christ himself defined this office as service, not lordship (Matthew 20:26). That the office outlives the man is not stated in a verse, and honesty says so; it rests on the apostles' own practice when they replaced Judas because "his bishopric let another take" (Acts 1:20), on the steward's key of Isaiah 22 which passes from one holder to the next, and on the witness of the earliest Church. The First Vatican Council (Pastor Aeternus) defined that Peter received a true primacy of jurisdiction from Christ and that it continues in the bishops of Rome. The rock was never Peter's own strength; he proved that in the courtyard. It is Christ's word that made him rock, and Christ's prayer that keeps him one.