Saint Peter’s bones

December 7, 2013 / Posted in  Bishop of Rome, Church history, crucifixon, Papacy, Roman Catholicism

1. Abstract
2. Background
3. Thesis
4. Review of Literature
5. Creation of a myth
6. Antethesis
7. Synthesis
8. Bibliography
9. End Notes

 

Abstract

According to Bruno Bartoloni’s book The Ears of the Vatican, there is a curse that is 1000 years old on the bones alleged to be those of Simon Peter bar Jonas, popularly known as St. Peter.  Bartolini wrote: ¹

“No pope had ever permitted an exhaustive study, partly because a 1,000-year-old curse attested by secret and apocalyptic documents, threatened anyone who disturbed the peace of Peter’s tomb with the worst possible misfortune.”

What the possible misfortune consists of is not detailed, nor is the “secret and apocalyptic documents.” That such a claim of a curse exists (or is assumed to exist) is in keeping with the Dark Ages of the Roman Catholic Church when mad monks called on second and third sons to go to war to rescue the Holy Land (Israel) that was already in Christian hands who were agreeable to the Jews, Muslims and others who lived there.²  The crusades, however, were never for spiritual or religious purposes.  Their sole purpose was to rid Europe of fratricidal warfare sending surplus men cavorting in and out of tournaments in quest of a throne or princess to a distant land where the heir by primogeniture was kept safe to succeed the reigning sovereign.

 

Background

Necropolis Vaticanus has long been favored for the discovery of relics of presumed or assumed saints and confessors.  The relics that are hailed as the bones of St. Peter were discovered during excavations begun under St. Peter’s Basilica in the years following the 1939 death of Pope Pius XI, who had asked to be buried in the grottoes where dozens of popes are buried. For there to be a 1000 year curse would mean that the bones were originally discovered sometime in the tenth century (the 900s), that leaves doubts since it was during this period that Arabs and Muslims were raiding the Roman hills in quest of wealth. The authenticity of the fine is even more dubious since a worker for the basilica in 1939 claimed to have found them among other old bones and stored them in a shoebox in his cupboard. Now that the alleged curse is invoked, people rush to enshrine mortal and natural disasters to the curse: from the train wreck in New York City that cost sixty-three lives, to the plagues in Egypt.  Jewish numerologists point out that there are 63 books in the Mishna (writings of the rabbinical Judaism and of the Pharisees) gathered in six great sections, called in Hebrew sedarim. Among Jewish followers of gematria (numerology): there was a definitive statement that in the cabbalistic system of interpretation of the Scriptures truth would be learned by correctly substituting for a particular word another word whose letters give the same numerical sum and this would generate a divine blessing or curse depending on the correctness of the word choice.  This action had a far older antecedent as seen in the Greek word γεωμετρία (geometry). This is incorporated into Sufism, and continues to guide culture and thinking of Sufi communities. The word «taçâouf» that means “to practice the Sufism” and that is written tâ-çad-wâw-fa and adds up to 63 that refers to organized cosmic harmony and one of the one hundred names of god (القيوم).

The word Sufism, written çad-wâw-fa-yâ-hâ, adds up to 56. Subtracting the latter from the former generates the solution 7. The difference between the exercise of the Sufism and the Sufism gives 7, number representing a value highly symbolic for Sufism. To separate anything of nature was considered to go against nature, and to move or dismember or break apart automatically created the curse, especially if parts were missing.  In Islam, 63 refers to a reference in the Qur’an/Koran³ (Qur’an/Koran translates as “the recitation”; it was revealed to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel (Jibril), gradually over a period of approximately 23 years, beginning on 22 December 609 CE) that details how young men sought wisdom in Allah.⁴

Conspiracy theorists use the number 63 to account for the number of years that lasted the walking of Ram – or Rama – around of who the Hindu people have elaborated their religion, and from this legend comes the source for the myth of the End Times, as Rama he undertakes the walk with his army for the purpose to break the yoke of tyrants of his time (approximately 35000 years BC). Sixty-three also has significance among ancient Cretans who saw it symbolizing the 63 boxes of the labyrinth where bull topped man and became the source for the game of the Goose, each one having a masonic meaning. This game that is played with a cubic stone carries a Freemason symbol.

The Walking of Ram is the antecedent for what is a custom of carrying a statue of Jesus or any saint in Roman Catholic countries.  The most common processional is that of the Lord of Miracles, where most avid devotees are found in Lima, Perú, and it is hailed as Señor de los Milagros de Nazarenas, but instead of carrying a statue, the devotees carry a painted icon (a flat surface representation of god). The strong tie between the faiths of Roman Catholics and Hinduism is not strange, since both worship a Christ or Krshna.

The 63 boxes also represent the different stages of the human life. The goose represents the human soul intended to become, on the last box, a swan: the Hindu symbol of karmic liberation (सतत उत्थान से आत्मा की स्वतंत्रता). The Bible continues this absurdity that many early chrestianos used to explain particular occurrences that had no original meaning: The word Writing (proper noun) is used 63 times in the Bible. The sum of the occurrences of all numbers of the New Testament multiple of 8 and written under their cardinal form is 63.

Vatican Hill (Latin: Mons Vaticanus) was originally a Necropolis, or place for burying the dead. It was an open air cemetery with tombs and mausolea, and only the wealthiest of Roman citizens could afford to be entombed, and fewer could afford to be buried in the royal raiment of “purple dye stuff” that was initiated during the time of the Emperor Caligula.⁵ Caligula (31 August 12 CE – 22 January 41 CE), also known as Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, was Roman Emperor from 37 CE to 41 CE, and was a very successful general and one of Rome’s most beloved public figures. “Little Boots” (his nickname) has been badly maligned by the rise of the Christianity and its establishment as the official church, but the authenticity and reliability of the source material has been called into question by numerous scholars.  What is known about Caligula is he initiated the construction of two new aqueducts in Rome: the Aqua Claudia and the Anio Novus. During his reign, the Empire annexed the Kingdom of Mauretania and made it into a province. The emperor had built a circus next to what would be called the Vatican Necropolis as Roman law forbade the burial of people within the city.  It is here where the bone and graffiti were found.

There was no mention of it as either a holy ground or that a Peter (a word meaning rock”) was buried there before the reign of the Emperor Constantine I who created his “catholic (universal) church” in 325 CE.  What we do know is that the original graffiti was PETR… EN I, not as the designation of a mortal Peter’s relics, but, rather, of relics that were laid out on stones or buried beneath stones.⁶ Other archaeological sites in Rome also have similar graffiti, suggesting that therein is a commemoration (by Christians) to Peter and Paul as martyrs; but those who were executed, as is the claim for Peter and Paul by their apologists, were not afford the comfort of a tomb, but were stripped naked and exposed to the elements and hungry wild beasts.

The earliest record of this Necropolis containing the bones of Peter (and possibly of Paul) does not occur until the beginning of the third century when a shrine, known as τρόπαιο (a trophy: a monument) was dedicated as the “Trophy of Gaius”.  It was named for the theologian Gaius of Rome who lived in Rome during the time of Pope Zephyrinus (198-217 CE). No further elevation of this τρόπαιο that was surrounded by generic graffiti is found before the writings of Eusebius of Caesarea (c. CE 260/265 – 339/340). It was during this time that many “pious legends” were fancifully created and taken from marginalia in old manuscripts as revealed truths.  Eusebius was an Arian Christian, following the teachings of Arius that held that Jesus was subordinate to God the Father, not co-equal (the equality or dual nature became the foundation for the Nicene Creed that Eusebius rejected in favor of Arius, and still remained on friendly terms with the Emperor Constantine I, who, legend states, was baptized on his death bed by an Arian bishop)—Constantine never called himself a Christian, but created the church in an effort to bring harmony to the empire and the Christians were the most rowdy group to bring under control. It was Eusebius’ Arian creed that the Emperor had read to the 318 sacerdotal and favored, but was rejected by the anti-Arian party from Palestine that preached the oneness of god and the celebratory death of Peter.⁷

The writings of Eusebius must be used with caution as there are select passages that could only be glosses while other entries take on the characteristics of later time periods and faults context and culture of the day in which Eusebius lived and wrote, similar to many undergraduates who believe a computer or electronic translator is equal to a human translator.⁸  Even Eusebius admitted to falsifying some documents as found in Eusebius’ Praeparatio evangelica (Book XII, Chapter 31)⁹ in which Eusebius discussed “That it will be necessary sometimes to use falsehood as a remedy for the benefit of those who require such a mode of treatment.”.¹⁰

 

Thesis

Nine pieces of bone are at the center of the Vatican’s attention as they ended the “Year of Faith” with a special ceremony. The Catholic Church claims that Jesus’ apostle Peter was the first Pope, although, outside of Constantine’s Bible, there is not one historical record by an eyewitness to the man, his fishing ability, his entitlement to power that is only found once in the Bible¹¹, or his alleged martyrdom in Rome. Peter is not even mentioned before the end of the first century, and then only by apologists and those who wrote and rewrote the books and letters that were acceptable to the Presbyters and later to the Emperor in 325 CE.

What is more disturbing is that the Argentinean pope who, when archbishop of Buenos Aires, said nothing to stop the Dirty War nor save the women and children that were lifted over the Pacific, and after being injected with sleeping drugs, dumped unceremoniously into the deep waters to “be forgotten forever”—much as Alberto Fujimori and his gang of cutthroats known as Las Colinas killed in cold blood the students of La Cantuta University.

There is great controversy over the authenticity of the bones found in the Vatican Necropolis, as in 1950, excavators found bones declared to be those of Peter under the Basilica of Saint Peter in Jerusalem.  They too were accompanied by graffiti.

The graffiti at the Jerusalem site is more legible even though it was written in charcoal.  That was more common in the first century.  There is no indication in any record that the Simon bar Jonas who was a fisherman in the New Testament had any education nor that he knew the language of Hebrew or its wealthy priestly class.

These bones number 13 unlike the nine found at the Vatican site. What makes the Jerusalem site unique is that it not only exposed the graffiti but it is in the language of Aramaic that Jesus is said to have spoken, and there is no record that the Jesus of the New Testament spoke Hebrew or Greek–and assuredly not Latin.

The bones are part of an archaeological dig which began in 1939 CE. In 1942 CE, “archeologists found a niche they believed housed Peter’s remains. Unfortunately, the fragments turned out to belong to several people” and included animal bones. After several decades nine bone fragments were separated and were said to belong to a circa “5ft 7in tall man who had been, of heavy build, and who was aged between 60 and 70 at the time of his death” and was “buried in a purple, gold-threaded cloth”:

“No pope has ever definitively declared the bones to be Peter’s, though Pope Paul VI in 1968 said fragments found in the necropolis under St. Peter’s Basilica were ‘identified in a way that we can consider convincing.”

The fragments have an elaborate, enriched, and jewel-encrusted history of which we have the photographs. DNA experts are forbidden to test any of the bones for dating or other data.

In 1968, Pope Paul VI announced that other bones unearthed beneath the basilica — discovered in a marble-lined repository, covered with a gold and purple cloth and belonging to a man around 5′ 6″ tall who had likely died between the ages of 65 and 70. There are no marks of crucifixion on the bones.

No names were offered as to whom identified the bones or what evidence was scientifically used to give a judgment; it was as if the tortured court of the Inquisition under the nefarious Bellarmine was making a judgment on Galileo, complete with inflated words and daggered threats. There is even a greater problem—the statement that the short and old male was “buried in a purple, gold-threaded cloth”.  Only a prince or man of noble birth could wear purple, and in most cases it was reserved for members of the Imperial family. The Peter of the New Testament was, allegedly, a fisherman. Fishermen in the first century wore very little (if anything) and seldom bathed except by accident when jumping into the sea to catch prey.  According to Constantine’s Bible, Peter was a simple married man—who deserted his wife to champion the “sayings of the teacher.”  Students, in that era, especially in Jerusalem and in the communities founded by apostles were told to wear conservative clothing so as not to attract attention—the same as with women who were to be modest at all times.  There is no record of any apostle dressing like a potentate or representative of god, much less the son of a god who, it is written “did not have a place for his head.”

Despite the fact that these are nine bone fragments found amongst others:

“the bones…spent centuries resting in the site linked to Peter’s martyrdom and burial. That history makes them, at a minimum, what Catholic tradition regards as ‘relics by contact,’ meaning objects physically connected to the legacy of the saint.”

 

Review of Literature

What is known through archaeological digs is that the Vatican sits on the site of far older theologies that housed a multitude of gods, much like the existence of Elohim¹² being a plural noun for gods and goddesses, as the ancient Hebrews were a polytheistic society. While the ancient Hebrews (the Apiru) were initially matriarchal, this was changed with increased warfare and their serving in the Akkadian armies as mercenaries, adopting both the Babylonian and Sumerian deity systems. The original Elohim referred to dual gender deities, and was centered around the goddess Astarte (Venus). More important is the alleged “secret and apocalyptic” literature that was the source for the curse.  Apocalyptic literature and accompany lunacy can be found in early Jewish records from 586 BCE (the destruction of  Solomon’s Temple by the Babylonians) through the third century CE with the incorporation of may Zoroastrian texts.

Zoroastrian theologians were men who elucidated on the “end” (τέλος) or “last times” (τελευταία στιγμή) of the planet,¹³ that contemporary twenty-first century evangelical use to justify wrongful invasions of Syria to bring Jesus from the clouds on a horse to slaughter mankind, basing their hallucination and mental illness by citing Revelation 16 that is based on Isaiah 17 that is a reflection of the great war of the pharaoh Thutmosis III at Megiddo.  Jewish hatred for all things non-Hebrew was inflamed with the angry announcements in Third Isaiah (today found in Isaiah, chapters 56-66, that have little in common with earlier chapters), and chapters 37-48 of Ezekiel.

Apocalyptic literature (commonly known as Αποκάλυψης) evolved as the Jews were pushed back from their genocidal wars against their neighbors and continued through the persecution of various chrestianos and christianos communities in the early movement of the New Jewish Community of those whom elected to follow various versions of a man called by the common nickname of Jesus who became the focus of the state sponsored Catholic (universal) Church under the Emperor Constantine I. It was from this time that early Jewish Apocalyptic literature sprang, possibly with the first being 1 Enoch (c.  225 BCE), with early christianos reworking it before 100 CE.

The most audacious plagiarism is found in the Old Babylonian story of Daniel that entered into the Hebrew canon around 165 BCE.  It was followed by the Book of Jubilees c. 150-100 BCE, the third book of the Sibylline Oracles (c. 150 BCE), and the Testament of the Twelve Patriarch (late second century BCE). The latter is the foundation for the myth of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus of the New Testament.

The Testament of Moses (also known as the Assumption of Moses) appears in the early half of the first century CE and was based on texts written by Armageddon artisans in the early second century BCE.  It was during this same time that the Dead Sea Scrolls were written (second century BCE to 69 CE), with the most important scroll being the War Scroll. The terror tales told by John of Patmos (he was not John the Divine nor did he ever know or meet Jesus of Constantine’s Bible) is poorly plagiarized from former fantasies flushed by other seers and soothsayers coupled with drawings from II Enoch (also known as the Book of Secrets of Enoch), and the Sibylline Oracles (Book IV, written c. 80 CE) that was crafted around the time of II Edras (also known as IV Ezra, chapters 3-14; chapters 1-2, 15 were later as determined with textual criticism) and the Apocalypse of Moses that were commonly known when crafted his charade.

 

Creation of a myth

The tragedy of these twisted tales is that the popular image of an End Time led to no less than two revolts, 70 and 135 CE, against Rome.  Both ended as disastrous failures. Their strange and fanatical fatalism can be seen in their accounts of a cosmic conflict between god and Satan (את השטן (in Hebrew), ο σατανάς (in Greek) and translates as The Advocate: the noun is עורך דין, and the verb is לְהַגֵן עַל that also means “shield” and “stand up for” and follows Babylonian theology of Satan being the favored son of god as recorded in Job 2.1 וַיְהִ֣י הַיֹּ֔ום וַיָּבֹ֙אוּ֙ בְּנֵ֣י הָֽאֱלֹהִ֔ים לְהִתְיַצֵּ֖ב עַל־יְהוָ֑ה וַיָּבֹ֤וא גַֽם־הַשָּׂטָן֙ בְּתֹכָ֔ם לְהִתְיַצֵּ֖ב עַל־יְהוָֽה׃).  While the old kingship title, Messiah, dating from the Davidic era does appear in several texts, many have no mention of such a leader, and in various Dead Sea Scrolls texts of the Essenes, they community expected more than one messiah.

Most Jewish and New/Reformed Judaism took for its apocalyptic literature frightening tales of horror found in Sibylline Oracles (written in hexameters, being composed from the second to the sixth centuries CE)¹⁴ and ancient Egyptian records detailing the Last Judgment that were the creation of the far older theology of the Nile dwellers.

The most probable source for this stroke of surrealism would be second century CE Apocalypse of Peter. It is a part of Nag Hammadi literature that is mentioned in the Muratorian fragment a copy of perhaps the oldest known list of the books of the New Testament. The fragment, consisting of 85 lines, is a 7th-century Latin manuscript bound in a 7th or 8th century codex from the library of Columban’s monastery at Bobbio; it contains internal cues suggesting it is a translation from a Greek original written about 170 or as late as the 4th century. The existing writing is in two incomplete versions of a lost Greek original, one Koine Greek, and an Ethiopic version, that diverge considerably. Clement of Alexandria considered the Apocalypse of Peter (not to be confused with the Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter that is also a part of Nag Hammadi library) to be genuine ¹⁵ as of the first half of the second century, but not before.  The Arabic Christians Ru’ya Butrus contains over 100 versions of the Apocalypse of Peter. Clement also acknowledges a Revelation of Peter and defended the Epistle of Barnabas.

The concept of a Christ figure does not appear at the earliest until the beginning of the second century CE, and then through a monogram. The abbreviation for Christos is usually a superlinear stroke over XC, XP, or XPC that heralded slain leaders but without the implication of divinity. This does not occur in the evolving reformed Jewish community of chrestianos and christianos until later.

The Apocalypse of Peter details the invention of a heaven and hell that was not standard scripture of ancient Jews or of the Jesus of the New Testament. In this Apocalypse the worthy are pictured as having milky white skin, curly hair, and are beautiful who wear shiny clothes made of light (like the angels) and spend their eternity singing in choirs. Hell is worse: blasphemers are hanged by the tongue; women who “adorn” themselves for adultery are hanged by the hair over bubbling mire, while their male counterparts are hung by their feet with their heads in the mire, next to the adulteresses. Murderers and those who pay them to murder others are set in a pit of “creeping things,” while men who are passive in sex, and women who love other women ¹⁶ are forced to climb a cliff and “cast off to the bottom” repeating the punishment ceaselessly. Those who lend money and demand “usury upon usury” are forced to stand up to their knees in a lake of foul matter and blood. All of this is plagiarized from the Sibylline Oracles¹⁷ and bare parts of the Second Epistle of Peter, and several Gnostic texts.¹⁸

 

Antethesis

The disputed bones of St. Peter have been known to exist since the ninth century but not brought to public attention until much later, and then only to a select group. Although, just unveiled for public consumption, the bones have a long history of being venerated:

“In 1971, Paul VI was given an urn containing the relics, which were kept inside the private papal chapel inside the Apostolic Palace and exhibited for the pope’s private veneration each June 29…L’Osservatore Romano, the semi-official Vatican newspaper…reports that 8.5 million pilgrims have venerated the relics over the course of the year.”

This highlights the cult of death and ancestor worship aspect of Catholicism:

“a service in Rome’s Basilica of St. Peter featuring a rare public exhibit of what Catholic tradition regards as the bones of Peter, the Church’s first pope.”

It garnered the same enthusiasm as so splendidly written by Umberto Eco in his sage work, The Name of the Rose,¹⁹ that reeked of a savagery of stupidity that simple folk and fattened cardinals promulgated to get the masses to accept ignorance on a universal scale. “Pope Francis prayed before the fragments” and kissed the container:²⁰

“throngs of believers…line(d) up to see the bones, will venerate them not on the basis of empirical evidence, but a spiritual conviction that they evoke the very origins of the papacy…Thousands of worshippers packed St Peter’s Square to catch a glimpse of the bronze chest containing the bones.”

Kissing a relic is an ancient custom of showing respect for souvenirs of someone who died. This has occurred in all cultures, including those of Islam where the belongings of Muhammad were kept, publicly displayed and kissed (صلى الله عليه و آله وسلم). It is a form of philematology. The earliest recorded biblical kiss was between men.²¹

There is nothing special or spiritual in a kiss.  It is a common practice among all evolutionary beings from the lowest forms of life such as insects to higher animals such as Black-tailed prairie dogs.  Kissing is an evolutionary practiced by all species, especially result of mothers premasticating food for their children,²², especially with deep (French) kissing being used to push food from the mother to the child with the child receiving both the tongue and the food in sucking movements.²³. The close similarities, I argue the identical actions, between animals and the actions of mortal, has been denounced and denied by religion as it takes mortals off their pedestals as being “fashioned in the image of god”²⁴ and “one step less than angels”²⁵ but all scientific evidence points to this evolutionary aspect. Given the scientific reality, the conclusion is that man made god in man’s image.

While the Bible does not record how Peter died, this oversight (or lack of marginalia for inclusion that comes later) was amended by Constantine and his faithful follower Eusebius of Caesarea:

“St. Peter’s Basilica was originally constructed in 330 A.D. by the Emperor Constantine, over an old pagan cemetery believed to be the burial site of Peter, whom tradition holds was martyred by being crucified upside down…It is traditionally held that he was crucified upside down at his own request, as he thought he was not worth of being crucified in the same way as Jesus Christ.”

This tradition may be accurate or it could be a nice story to hide mockery of Jesus and the corruption of Christianity that is not even established until 325 CE.  There is no contemporary record of any bishop of Rome before the second century and no historical record of a Peter in Rome, and definitely no resource recording Constantine building any basilica as he died a pagan, being baptized by an Arian only as he breathed his last breath. This fantasy did not occur until it was created by apologists more than one hundred years after the event of Constantine’s death.  Vatican Square’s very center piece is an obelisk which is indicative of, both, a petrified Sun ray and a phallic symbol representing Osiris’ sexual organ²⁶. The obelisk stands at the very center of an “X” within a circle which, according to occultist Kenneth Grant ²⁷ that Constantine doted on. Read:

“THERE is a legend known to Initiates concerning the secret abode of the Goddess:

The Spirit of Nodens―God of the Great Deep-flashed forth as lightning from the depths and formed a throne in celestial realms―a seat of stone―whereon the Goddess was established…The Heart of the Sigil of Nodens is identical with the Mark of the Beast: (X), the fusion of O and X which produces the lightning flash…In other words, the Goddess who grants all desires is invoked by the union of the X and the O (the Phallus and the Kteis).”

To this end the Washington monument stands sentry to the new nation entering into the realm of gods who were in the heavens above.  It is identical to symbolic Welsh and Druid theology thousands of years before the Christ of Saul of Tarsus and in keeping with the Masonic Code based, in part, around the Nodens.

Nodens (Nudens, Nuada, Nodons) is a Celtic deity associated with healing, the sea, hunting and dogs equated with the Roman gods Mars, Mercury, Neptune and Silvanus. His Welsh cult traveled to Vatican Hill and associated the god with stones (πέτρα: petra) and his faithful pagan followers used graffiti to emblazon walled chambers with references that their god was with them: Here lies Peter, actually reading Here are the stones (usually πετρα that matches the inclusion of that word in Matthew 16:18) of our god. ²⁸  What makes Nodens more critical is that the word means “go fishing” and the god was known universally as The Fisherman. That was the ancient term of godlike being who would be a “fisher of men”. ²⁹.

Another aspect of this issue of the bones alleged to be of Peter is being reported thus:

“The secular mind can’t help asking, ‘Are these really Peter’s bones?’ and ‘How do we know?’…

A senior Vatican official, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, acknowledged the debate Monday but suggested it almost doesn’t matter if scientists determine the bones aren’t Peter’s since Christians have venerated them for two millennia and will continue to…

What was not reported but commented in semiprivate was the profits to be made off of the gullible by allowing the simpletons to enter with expectations of tithes and offerings. Much of it was patterned after the regal ritual robbery of the poor that the parish priests and prelates pondered over more than 1400 years ago.

CNN’s Vatican analyst John Allen says that like so much concerning religion, the belief that the bones are those of the disciple comes down to faith.”

 

Synthesis

It is not only the secular mind which question the bone’s identification but any bible believing Christian is surely asking why Pope Francis is leading people to pray before the remains of a corpse. If it does not matter whether the bones are Peter’s or not then why not just pick up some random bones from any old hole and make whatever claim the Vatican wants?

The teaching of the Catholic Church with regard to the veneration of relics is summed up in a decree of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXV), which enjoins on bishops and other pastors to instruct their flocks that “the holy bodies of holy martyrs and of others now living with Christ—which bodies were the living members of Christ and ‘the temple of the Holy Ghost’ (1 Corinthians 6:19) and which are by Him to be raised to eternal life and to be glorified are to be venerated by the faithful, for through these [bodies] many benefits are bestowed by God on men, so that they who affirm that veneration and honour are not due to the relics of the saints, or that these and other sacred monuments are uselessly honoured by the faithful, and that the places dedicated to the memories of the saints are in vain visited with the view of obtaining their aid, are wholly to be condemned, as the Church has already long since condemned, and also now condemns them.”³⁰

Considering the state of Catholicism’s clergy the Pope³¹ needed to draw popular attention off of sacerdotal scandals and refocus it on religious adventures in the mind.  It is always easier to believe in that which no one can see, than to be confronted with cold reality. Constantine I knew this psychological trick well and used it to signify a Roman Emperor in charge of the Imperial faith was known as a Pontifex: Bridge-builder.³² The Greeks referred to the ruler as γεφυροποιοί,³³ Originally the pontifex maximus was known as one person but with many strengths and characteristics by hailing back to a distant past no one could prove or disprove. Later the role of pontifex maximus became an office 0f five men who ruled as a college of popes, or a curia.³⁴ Only with the invention of Christianity did it change under pressure of warrior-bishops who wanted to soften their public issue by iterating a new meaning for the title.  What resulted was the transmogrification of the word into the idealized father.³⁵

There is no historical evidence for any religious figure being styled a pope before the fourth century CE.³⁶ Early popes and bishops struggled to gain leadership, some breaking into schism, others turning to assassinations of rivals, with few who would correct deteriorating conditions of the poor.  Because of the preoccupation for prestige and power few popes, patriarchs or bishops had time to worry about the bones of St. Peter and they are not discussed by anyone currently known before the ninth century.

It is a struggle to find the word pope in the Bible, there is no such word (nor is their any reference to the death of Peter or his bones.  If one considers Saul of Tarsus to be a leader in the early Christian community, they will find no support for a papacy, pope, or similar pretenses.  Those who wrote the various letters and exhortations of Saul of Tarsus noted that Saul is said to have written:  “I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles”³⁷

While the position of primacy was argued savagely among the Apostles,³⁸ there is no biblical evidence that the alleged Peter craved for or called for primacy and supremacy (the Petrine doctrine).³⁹. Rome’s claims that the bishop enthroned on Vatican Hill was superior to all others was not accepted by the Imperial Court that controlled its “Catholic (universal) Church” until 380 CE: Edictum Gratiani, Valentiani et Theodosii de fide catholica, 27 February 380.⁴⁰ Cunctos populos, quos clementiae nostre regit temperamentum, in tali volumus religione versari, quam divinum Petrum apostolum tradidisse Romanis, religio usque nunc ab ipso insinuata declarat, quamque pontificem Damasum sequi claret et Petrum Alexandriae episcopum, virum apostolicae sanctitatis, hoc est, ut secundum apostolicam disciplinam evangelicamque doctrinam Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti unam deitatem sub parili maiestate et sub pia trinitate credamus. Hanc legem sequentes Christianorum catholicorum nomen iubemus amplecti, reliquos vero dementes vesanosque iudicantes haeretici dogmatis infamiam sustinere, nec conciliabula eorum ecclesiarum nomen accipere, divina primum vindicta, post etiam motus nostri, quem ex caelesti arbitrio sumpserimus, ultione plectendos.⁴¹ This is the result of a war of words and swords between Constantinian Christians and the believers who followed the priest Arius who interpreted scripture literally. Until the eight century at the earliest, the word catholic must be read as universal and not as Rome or Roman.

 

Summary

The mythology of there being a Saint Peter (known in pre-Constantinian/Christian texts) was neither popular nor universal. Our first “historical”, meaning written down on material, does not appear before 120 CE. It is written by Ignatius of Antioch—more than 90 years after Jesus is alleged to have died, and nearly 60 years after Peter is alleged to have been crucified as a symbol of peace on an inverted cross.⁴² Ignatius of Antioch and his martyrdom tells more than just a gruesome death. The record states that he died being eaten by two lions who were in the form of Pisces (Ἰχθύες): the Twins, who represent the twelfth sign of the Zodiac, and have been associated with Vishnu, Aphrodite, Eros (also known as Cupid, who was the son and lover of Aphrodite/Venus), Typhon, Poseidon and Christ: water gods of love and sex, with the Pisces symbol dating back to 2300 BCE on an Egyptian coffin lid. In all recorded instances, this symbols represents a new age, a dawning of different love, and a surrender to emotion.

Irenaeus, who is frequently cited for his Against Heresies (190 CE), argued in his polemic that Matthew wrote⁴³ his Gospel “while Peter and Paul were evangelizing in Rome and laying the foundation of the Church.” There is no historical record that substantiates this claim. Irenaeus goes even further with his weak argument, a few lines later, noting that Linus was named as Peter’s successor, that is, the second bishop of Rome, and that next in line were Anacletus (also known as Cletus), and then Clement of Rome—with none of these pontiffs being recognized in the first edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia as even existing.

Pseudo-scholars cite the late fourth century writings by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Cesaraea as proof for a Peter⁴⁴ but by then any real evidence was fabricated and not worthy of consideration, any more so than the spurious histories by the infamous David Barton of Texas. It was built upon by migrating Celts and other northern people who carried their ideas of gods to Rome when entering the empire and settling in Rome.

As the cult of Peter grew with the investiture of power by Imperial potentates, the episcopacy grew and exercised authority over all by transmogrifying graffiti contents to substantiate its claims to historical antecedents.  The rocks of yore became the Peter of Constantine’s Catholic (universal) church and with it the legend of the Petrine doctrine was born.⁴⁵  Bishops assumed monarchical power by 107 CE. Damasus I (366–84) was the first to assume the title of Pope (παππαs, or pappas), and was supported by his secretary, Jerome, who translated the Vulgate.  This claim was enhanced with an eighth century forgery known as the “Donation of Constantine” that was embellished by increasingly corrupt families who controlled the papacy from 904-1048.⁴⁶ who laid the groundwork for the most sinister group of covert Christians known as Opus Dei.  The legend continues to live today, as the Vatican Curia has noted for the record that people will believe in anything that gives them succor and peace.

 

Recommendations

It is imperative that academic centers teach critical thinking, detailed scientific investigation, and responsible research.  This is achievable if the institution requires students and faculty to learn not just words and languages, but the meaning of the words from their philological antecedents, and trace all claims back to their sources regardless of the outcome.

Education must be objective—not subjective or threatened by the wealth of a founder, an established patrimony or ecclesiastical design and need.  As Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) defied the Roman Catholic Church in the seventeenth century and suffered the tortures and ultimate house arrest by the unholy Inquisition led by the nefarious Cardinal Bellarmine, scholars must risk the slings and arrows of contemporary sycophants and those who deny science and the reality of the conduct of inquiry.⁴⁷ Not until all research is exhausted, all knowledge of the time assembled, will any mortal be free of superstition, groveling at the feet of financial backers, and the terror of teachers with modest backgrounds and slavish devotion to hierarchical predators past and present and their  pretensions of scholarship.

 

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End Notes