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Saturday, October 8, 2011

Did Jesus Give Man Authority Over Yahweh?



Recently, I asked the question, "Did Jesus give man authority over Yahweh?" on Yahoo Answers.  It was asked in order to provoke thought into the meaning of the passages below, which are taken from Matthew:
"And I say to thee, thou art Peter (petrus) and upon this rock (petra) I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth it shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth it shall be loosed in Heaven."  Matthew 16:18-19
In these passages, Jesus gave Peter the power to bind and unbind whatever he wants. In other words, whatever Peter says becomes law on earth AND in heaven. If this is the case however, then Jesus made a man higher and more powerful than Yahweh!  So, Jesus made Peter--god!

Roman Catholic teaching says this power,
now known as the Petrine Guarantee, is passed on to succeeding bishops. While St. Peter was not officially a pope, the Roman Catholic Church recognizes Peter as the first pope, and they claim that the pope is considered to be carrying on the power that Jesus granted Peter; and medieval popes claimed to be in this direct line of inheritance from Jesus himself. Clearly, Peter had the authority to pass this power onto a successor, as the passage says, "whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth it shall be bound in Heaven," and this power was given to him by Jesus!

I received only a few answers, and those that I did receive tried to use Humpty Dumpty semantics for the meaning of what Jesus supposedly said in the above passage. One of the claims made was that Jesus is the rock, and not Peter, but this is NOT what Jesus supposedly said.  According to the above passage, Jesus said that:

"....thou art Peter (petrus)* and upon this rock (petra)...."

 Jesus is making reference to Peter (petrus) and not himself.

  The part being:

"....whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth it shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth it shall be loosed in Heaven.
"

Which would mean anything Peter said became law on earth AND in Heaven. This would make Peter the law maker and giver-- and NOT Jesus  nor Yahweh!  It does not say, 'whatsoever I shalt bind,' It says, 'whatsoever THOU shalt bind.' Therefore, according to this passage, Jesus is making reference to Peter, and not himself.  Whatsoever Peter binds on earth is bound in heaven, and whatsoever Peter
loose on earth it shall be loosed in Heaven.

I also received a response claiming that:

"... Jesus didn't just give the power to Peter - he also promised the guidance of the Holy Spirit for His church. That's what the phrase "and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it" means (among other places in the Bible). That's the basis for understanding papal infallibility - the understanding that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to protect His church so that Peter wouldn't "bind and loosen" what shouldn't be bound and loosen. So the power isn't Peter's - it's the Holy Spirit's."
This is mere Humpty Dumpty semantics, as there is no mention of any "holy spirit" in  the passages from Matthew 16.  Jesus specifically gave Peter the power to bind and unbind anything on earth AND in heaven.   Saying that the "gates of Hell" shall not prevail is a weak use of semantics in an attempt to rationalize the meaning of what Jesus supposedly said to the presupposed beliefs held by Christians.  Other Christians claim it means when the Son of God is heard, then the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and the grave shall not have power to retain its captives, as Christ holds the keys to death and hell.

But read it again, because clearly it is not making reference to Jesus or Yahweh--it is making reference to Peter, and WHATSOEVER Peter binds on earth is bound in heaven. 

...."and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it" -- means exactly what it says; the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. AND:

"I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and WHATSOEVER thou shalt bind on earth it shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth it shall be loosed in Heaven."

So the Church shall prevail AND Peter is the law maker and giver on earth and in heaven--Peter, a mere man, was Master!  Again--the bible illustrates just how impotent the Christian god is.


* Supposedly, Peter's original name was Simon; If Jesus was speaking in Aramaic when he  gave Peter another name, it would have been 'Cephas', an Aramaic word meaning "rock." There is some debate as to whether Jesus would have been speaking in Aramaic or Hebrew or Greek.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great stuff Cathy ! I love this site !SBJ1964

Anonymous said...

Is it just me or do atheists take the Bible more literally than believers?

A is for Atheist said...

@Anonymous who said...

"Is it just me or do atheists take the Bible more literally than believers?"


Right, it is not to be taken literally, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" was not meant to be taken literally, Jesus is not really the son of the living God. That is just more hyperbole!

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