St Peter was not the first Pope and never went to Rome, claims Channel 4

[emad]

St Peter was not the first Pope and never went to Rome, claims Channel 4
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent
23/03/2008



St Peter's journey to Rome led to the spread of Christianity in the West and the foundation of Roman Catholicism, so the Church has always taught.


But a new documentary will challenge the link as nothing more than a "conspiracy of faith". In it, prominent academics accuse the Vatican of misleading the world over the fate of the man regarded as Jesus Christ's closest disciple. In allegations likely to spark controversy, they accuse the Church of fabricating a connection with the apostle to validate giving ultimate power to the papacy.


Catholicism has taught for centuries that Peter was martyred and buried in Rome and that all popes succeed him, but the documentary will challenge this by asserting that he never reached the Italian city. Instead, it will accuse the Church of ignoring the discovery of a tomb in Jerusalem that archaeologists believe contains the bones of Peter.

Leading theologians said that these views were an "attempt to smear Catholicism" and criticised Channel 4 for allowing such "outlandish" claims to be broadcast.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/23/wrome123.xml


HAPPY Easter everybody!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. The history of the early Christian church has always been fascinating

to me. I've read "The Lost Books of the Bible" and other texts of that era that didn't make it into the accepted Bible that was put together by the Council of Nicene (forgive spelling). That men took the teachings and changed them into something that supported a hierarchal structure that had nothing to do with personal spiritual work is something that happens in most faiths.

Perhaps the thing to do for many who are disillusioned with religion is to forget that part and look at the words of the prophets and teachers. "Love your neighbor as yourself" is a good prescription for living peacefully with one another, and a sentiment echoed in many faiths.

[moobu2]

3. You can learn most lessons such as that through any number of children’s fairy tale stories.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. So?

Does that make the lessons in and of themselves less valuable? Does the source matter? If someone decides to live a life following the Golden Rule by reading the Bible or reading Mother Goose, he is living a better life.

[Deep13]

2. What difference does it make? Constantine was the first real head of the Church...

...and his chief priest was the Patriarch of Constantinople. As far as I can tell, primacy of time goes to the Byzantine Orthodoxy and not to Catholicism.

[moobu2]

5. I guess the old saying is true.

History is written by the victors.

[Deep13]

6. Well, the RC church was the survivor in the west.

At least until the the Reformation.

The Orthodoxy has survived in the Eastern Empire until the present day. In fact the empire itself survived until nearly the modern era when it was sacked by the Turks.

[edhopper]

4. Not true

I have been to the Vatican and saw the bones of Peter right there. Why would they lie?
:sarcasm:

[struggle4progress]

8. (1) The Telegraph is a tabloid

(2) James "Jesus Dynasty" Tabor started promoting the Shimon bar Jona ossuary over a year ago; I myself suspect Tabor of being a publicity hound, willing to cherry-pick the facts to obtain greatest possible mileage; anyway, here is a link to an April 2007 post; it does not convince me that the 1953 find actually represents what it is claimed to represent; the post suggests to me, however, that Tabor may be partly responsible for new media attention to this ossuary

(3) Of course, I am completely non-expert in this matter. (a) One does not know how important it may have been to some early Christians to return bodies "home" for burial, but the early Christian passion narrative is closely linked to the Passover tradition, according to which Moses fleeing Egypt took the bones of Joseph with him (Ex 13) thus apparently honoring someone's earlier promise to Joseph, just as Joseph had honored Jacob's plea When I die, carry me away from Egypt and bury me with my fathers (Gen 47). It is perhaps possible that someone felt obliged to attempt to bury Peter in his original country. (b) Similarly, one might wonder whether widespread medieval trafficking in "relics" may have had an earlier origin, (say) in an early (perhaps soon discredited?) effort to gather from near or far putative remains of the founders of the Church. (c) In any case, it seems quite likely that certain Biblical names were already quite popular in Judaic circles before the spread of Christianity, and Christianity itself not only enlarged the circles in which some such names were used but ensured that names associated with the Gospels enjoyed a similar popularity among members of the new sect: thus such an otherwise unsupported ossuary name seems not very definitive

[emad]

10. No. It's a broadsheet. A lot of Tory money has gone into it.

That said the Channel 4 documentary they are reviewing will be interesting.

Channel 4 is one of the better and less partisan TV stations in the UK.

[struggle4progress]

11. I suppose I could have avoided this confusion by saying "The Telegraph does tabloid journalism"

since (of course) actual paper size and physical format are irrelevant to my intended sneer

My Tabloid! shorthand expands somewhat along these lines: The Telegraph quite routinely presents and omits facts in order to publish misleading and sensational articles, which maximize emotional reaction without burdening the reader with useful information

[emad]

12. It's a review of the TV program, pretty much a paraphrase of the

PR blurb issued by Ch 4...

[struggle4progress]

13. That fits my view of The Telegraph

[Bad Thoughts]

9. Truth be told, the Papacy was a Roman Institution, not Xian eom.