The Two Coryphaei

In the memory and worship of the Orthodox Church, Peter and Paul are inseparable: the two coryphaei — the “chiefs” or “leaders” of the apostolic choir — joined in their labor for the gospel, their martyrdom at Rome, their common feast on June 29, and an iconography that shows them embracing. This file traces the New Testament bond between them, the earliest witnesses to their joint witness at Rome, the liturgical union of the two pillars, and the meaning the Orthodox tradition gives to their conjunction.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)

“Coryphaei” — The Two Chiefs

Orthodox hymnography titles Peter and Paul together the koryphaioi (κορυφαῖοι) of the apostles — the “chief” or “leading” ones, literally those “at the head.” The word is plural and dual: it is not Peter alone but Peter and Paul who are the coryphaei, and the tradition almost never names one without summoning the other. The troparion of their feast addresses them as “leaders of the Apostles and teachers of the world,” asking them to “intercede with the Master of all to grant peace to the world and great mercy to our souls” (Apolytikion of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29; Menaion). The pairing is so fixed that the two are, liturgically, a single subject — “the holy, glorious, all-praised chief apostles Peter and Paul.” This conjunction is itself a quiet Orthodox statement: the apostolic foundation of the Church is not a single Petrine pillar but the two apostles together, the one of the circumcision and the one of the Gentiles, each chief, neither alone.

The Bond in the New Testament

The New Testament shows the two apostles in real relation. After his conversion Paul “went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days” (Gal 1:18) — a meeting in which, the tradition holds, Paul received from Peter the eyewitness traditions of the Lord. At the conference in Jerusalem the “pillars” — “James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars” — extended to Paul and Barnabas “the right hand of fellowship,” agreeing that Paul should go to the Gentiles and Peter (Cephas) to the circumcised (Gal 2:7–9). Even the Antioch confrontation (Gal 2:11–14; see Antioch and Concord) is an episode within this fellowship, not a rupture of it. Peter’s epistles speak warmly of “our beloved brother Paul” (2 Pet 3:15). The two are, throughout, partners in one apostolate, distinguished in mission but united in the gospel.

The Joint Witness at Rome

The earliest external testimony to the apostles already binds Peter and Paul together — and binds them to Rome. Clement of Rome, writing about A.D. 96, names them in a single breath as the “greatest and most righteous pillars” of the Church who were persecuted and “contended unto death”: Peter, who “endured not one or two but many labors, and having borne his witness went to the place of glory due to him”; and Paul, who “taught righteousness to the whole world… and having reached the limits of the West, and having borne his witness before the rulers, so was released from the world and went to the holy place” (1 Clement 5.2–7; trans. Holmes 2007; ANF Vol. 1). A generation later St. Ignatius of Antioch, writing to the Roman church, invokes the two apostles together as those who had a special relation to Rome: “I do not command you as Peter and Paul did; they were apostles” (To the Romans 4.3; trans. Holmes 2007; see St. Ignatius of Antioch). And St. Irenaeus names the Roman church as “founded and organized by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul” (Against Heresies 3.3.2; trans. ANF Vol. 1; see St. Irenaeus of Lyons). From the earliest witnesses, then, the two apostles are joined as the founders and martyrs of the Roman church — together, never Peter alone (the bearing of this on the primacy question is treated in Peter at Rome).

The Feast of June 29

The Church keeps the two apostles on one feast. June 29 is the commemoration of “the Holy, Glorious and All-Praised Leaders of the Apostles, Peter and Paul,” kept in both East and West; in the Orthodox calendar it is preceded by the Apostles’ Fast (the Fast of Saints Peter and Paul, of variable length, following the Pentecost season). The Roman tradition of the date goes back at least to the mid-fourth century (the Depositio Martyrum of A.D. 354 records the joint commemoration on the 29th, with its association to the Roman cult-sites), and the East received and kept the same day. The very next day, June 30, the Church celebrates the Synaxis of the Holy, Glorious and All-Praised Twelve Apostles — Peter again among them, now within the full apostolic college. The two days together make a deliberate liturgical statement: the two chief apostles honored side by side on the 29th, and then the whole Twelve, Peter among equals, on the 30th. The Orthodox calendar thus holds Peter’s eminence and his collegiality in a single breath (see Veneration and the Feast).

The Iconography of the Embrace

The union of the two apostles found its most eloquent expression in iconography. From an early date Peter and Paul are depicted together — Peter typically with a fuller, rounder face and curly grey hair and beard, holding keys or a scroll; Paul with a high forehead, receding hair, and a long dark pointed beard, holding a book or sword. The most beloved Orthodox image of the pair is the Embrace of Peter and Paul (the “Concord of the Apostles,” Concordia Apostolorum): the two apostles greeting one another with a kiss of peace, their heads inclined together. The image proclaims precisely the concord-in-truth that the Antioch incident, rightly read, illustrates: the two chiefs of the apostles, distinct in calling and once divided in conduct, are one in the love and faith of Christ. The Orthodox tradition treasures this embrace as an icon of the Church’s own unity — diverse in its members, one in its head, who is Christ.

The Meaning of the Conjunction

That the Orthodox tradition will not separate Peter from Paul carries a theological weight that bears directly on the primacy question. The apostolic foundation of the Church is, in this tradition’s self-understanding, not monarchical but conciliar even at its root: two chief apostles, not one; a college of Twelve, not a single throne; James presiding at Jerusalem while Peter witnesses and Paul labors among the nations. The pairing of the coryphaei is the Orthodox answer in liturgical form to any reading that would make Peter the solitary prince of the apostles and the apostolic foundation a single Petrine line. Peter is chief — but chief with Paul, first among the Twelve, the rock who confesses the faith on which all are built. The feast of June 29 and the icon of the embrace say in worship what Section 07 says in argument (see Primacy and the Orthodox Reading).

See Also

References

  • The Holy Bible — Galatians 1:18; 2:7–9; 2 Peter 3:15. Cited by book chapter:verse.
  • 1 Clement 5.2–7. Trans. Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers (2007); ANF Vol. 1. (Peter and Paul as the pillars who bore witness.)
  • Ignatius of Antioch. To the Romans 4.3. Trans. Holmes (2007); ANF Vol. 1. (“As Peter and Paul.”)
  • Irenaeus of Lyons. Against Heresies 3.3.2. Trans. ANF Vol. 1. (Rome “founded by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul.”)
  • Menaion, June 29 (Apolytikion and Kontakion of Sts. Peter and Paul) and June 30 (Synaxis of the Twelve Apostles).
  • Depositio Martyrum (Chronograph of A.D. 354). (The joint commemoration on June 29.)