[10] Sources suggest that at first, the terms episcopos and presbyteros were used interchangeably,[11] with the consensus among scholars being that by the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters, whose duties of office overlapped or were indistinguishable from one another.

[61] Simon Peter applied the message of the vision on clean animals to the gentiles and follows his meeting with Cornelius the Centurion by claiming that "God shows no partiality".

[note 5] All four canonical gospels recount that, during the Last Supper, Jesus foretold that Peter would deny him three times before the following cockcrow ("before the cock crows twice" in Mark's account).

[72][73] According to Lüdemann, this was due to the discussions about the strictness of adherence to the Jewish Law, when the more conservative faction of James the Just[94] took the overhand over the more liberal position of Peter, who soon lost influence.

The Liber Pontificalis (9th century) mentions Peter as having served as bishop of Antioch for seven years and having potentially left his family in the Greek city before his journey to Rome.

Historian Fred Lapham suggests the route recorded in the Clementine writings may have been taken from an earlier document mentioned by Epiphanius of Salamis in his Panarion called "The Itinerary of Peter".

"[117] Most scholars agree that the city alluded to in this verse is Rome, for which Babylon was a common nickname in Jewish and Christian literature at the time, albeit mostly after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD (after Peter's death).

[128] Lactantius, in his book called Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died, written around 318, noted that "and while Nero reigned, the Apostle Peter came to Rome, and, through the power of God committed unto him, wrought certain miracles, and, by turning many to the true religion, built up a faithful and stedfast temple unto the Lord.

[132][133] In the epilogue[134] of the Gospel of John, Jesus is presented as hinting at Peter's death: "But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.

[87] Unitarian theologian Donald Fay Robinson has suggested that the incident in Acts 12:1–17,[136] where Peter is "released by an angel" and goes to "another place", really represents an idealised account of his death, which may have occurred in a Jerusalem prison as early as AD 44.

Pope Clement I (d. 99), in his Letter to the Corinthians (Chapter 5), written c. 80–98, speaks of Peter's martyrdom in the following terms: "Let us take the noble examples of our own generation.

The Church of Quo Vadis, near the Catacombs of Saint Callistus, contains a stone in which Jesus' footprints from this event are supposedly preserved, though this was apparently an ex-voto from a pilgrim, and indeed a copy of the original housed in the Basilica of St Sebastian.

"[146] Jerome (327–420) wrote that "at Nero's hands Peter received the crown of martyrdom being nailed to the cross with his head towards the ground and his feet raised on high, asserting that he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord".

[156][157] Because the precise location of Peter's burial was so firmly fixed in the belief of the Christians of Rome, the church to house the basilica had to be erected on a site that was not convenient to construction.

[164] On 24 November 2013, Pope Francis presented part of the relics, consisting of bone fragments, for the first time in public during a Mass celebrated in St. Peter's Square.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.In the story of the calling of the disciples, Jesus addresses Simon Peter with the Greek term Κηφᾶς (Cephas), a Hellenised form of Aramaic ܟ݁ܺܐܦ݂ܳܐ (keepa), which means "rock",[214] a term that before was not used as a proper name: :ἐμβλέψας αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν Σὺ εἶ Σίμων ὁ υἱὸς Ἰωάννου, σὺ κληθήσῃ Κηφᾶς ὃ ἑρμηνεύεται Πέτρος.

[note 12] The Peshitta Syriac version renders Jesus' words into Aramaic[220] as follows: :ܐܳܦ݂ ܐܶܢܳܐ ܐܳܡܰܪ ܐ݈ܢܳܐ ܠܳܟ݂ ܕ݁ܰܐܢ݈ܬ݁ ܗ݈ܽܘ ܟ݁ܺܐܦ݂ܳܐ ܘܥܰܠ ܗܳܕ݂ܶܐ ܟ݁ܺܐܦ݂ܳܐ ܐܶܒ݂ܢܶܝܗ ܠܥܺܕ݈݁ܬ݁ܝ ܘܬ݂ܰܪܥܶܐ ܕ݁ܰܫܝܽܘܠ ܠܳܐ ܢܶܚܣܢܽܘܢܳܗ܂ Paul of Tarsus later uses the appellation Cephas in reference to Peter.

So far from meaning a pebble was the word petros that Apollonius Rhodius, a writer of Koiné Greek of the third century B.C., used it to refer to "a huge round boulder, a terrible quoit of Ares Enyalius; four stalwart youths could not have raised it from the ground even a little".

The Lutheran theologians state that the dictionaries of Koine/NT Greek, including the authoritative[241] Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich Lexicon, indeed list both words and the passages that give different meanings for each.

[242]Oscar Cullmann, a Lutheran theologian and distinguished Church historian, disagrees with Luther and the Protestant reformers who held that by "rock" Christ did not mean Peter, but meant either himself or the faith of His followers.

[244] Taking a somewhat different approach from Cullman, they point out that the Gospel of Matthew was not written in the classical Attic form of Greek, but in the Hellenistic Koine dialect in which there is no distinction in meaning between petros and petra.

[246][247][248] Lutheran historians even report that the Catholic church itself did not, at least unanimously, regard Peter as the rock until the 1870s: Rome's rule for explaining the Scriptures and determining doctrine is the Creed of Pius IV.

Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, recorded in multiple revelations that the resurrected Peter appeared to him and Oliver Cowdery in 1829, near Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, in order to bestow the apostleship and keys of the kingdom as part of a restoration of priesthood authority.

[254][255] In interpreting Matthew 16:13–19, Latter-day Saint leader Bruce R. McConkie stated, "The things of God are known only by the power of his Spirit",[256] and "that which the world calls Mormonism is based upon the rock of revelation".

(Epistle 120 – To Hedibia)[271]Some have seen a reference to the use of a secretary in the sentence: "By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand".

[270] On the other hand, many modern scholars argue that First Peter refers to the persecution of Christians in Asia Minor during the reign of the emperor Domitian (81–96), as the letter is explicitly addressed to Jewish Christians from that region: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

[274]Those scholars who believe that the epistle dates from the time of Domitian argue that Nero's persecution of Christians was confined to the city of Rome itself and did not extend to the Asian provinces mentioned in 1 Pet 1:1–2.

[270][275] Jerome says that Peter "wrote two epistles which are called Catholic, the second of which, on account of its difference from the first in style, is considered by many not to be by him" (De Viris Illustribus 1).

According to Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, Papias recorded this belief from John the Presbyter: Mark having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatsoever he remembered.

[285] In traditional iconography, Peter has been shown very consistently since early Christian art as an oldish, thick-set man with a "slightly combative" face and a short beard, and usually white hair, sometimes balding.