“But if you suppose that upon that one Peter only the whole church is built by God, what…”
But if you suppose that upon that one Peter only the whole church is built by God, what would you say about John the son of thunder or each one of the Apostles?
Origen · Commentary on Matthew · ANF IX, Commentary on Matthew, Book XII §11
The question Origen puts to anyone who reads the promise at Caesarea Philippi as given to one man. If the gates of Hades cannot prevail against Peter alone, are they to prevail against John and the rest? He answers that the keys, the binding and the loosing, and the rock are common to all who confess as Peter confessed. Most of the Greek fathers after him read the passage this way, and the argument over it has not stopped.
How this is known
These words were matched, word for word, against this project’s own copy of the volume cited.
Book XII, section 11 of the Commentary on Matthew, headed The Promise Given to Peter Not Restricted to Him, But Applicable to All Disciples Like Him, in the region of ANF vol. 9 that carries the twelfth book. The sentence carries no quotation marks and stands outside the passages of Matthew and John that surround it.
Read in Patrick, ANF vol. 9 (1897) · John Patrick
Also by
- Origen every saying recorded of this person, and their page