Reception and Legacy

How the Church read, venerated, and remembered Peter across the centuries — in the exegesis of the fathers, in the liturgical and iconographic tradition, and in the self-understanding of Orthodox Christianity. This file traces the reception of the chief apostle beside and beyond the primacy controversy, and gathers what Peter means in Orthodox memory: the type of apostolic confession and of repentance, first among the Twelve, chief with Paul, the fisherman who became a martyr.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)

The Patristic Exegesis of Peter

The fathers of both East and West made Peter a constant subject of exegesis, drawn above all to four scenes: the confession at Caesarea Philippi, the walking on the water (Matt 14:28–31), the denial, and the restoration. The Greek fathers — Origen, Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria — read the confession as the foundation-faith of the Church and Peter as “the mouth of the apostles” (Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew 54; trans. NPNF I/10), the first confessor whose faith every believer shares (Origen, Commentary on Matthew 12.10–11; ANF Vol. 9). They dwelt on the denial and the tears as the pattern of penitence (Chrysostom; and in the Latin West, Ambrose, Exposition of Luke 10.88–90; NPNF II/10) and on the threefold restoration as the healing of the threefold fall (Chrysostom, Homilies on John 88; NPNF I/14). The Latin fathers added the developed theology of the see of Rome — most fully Leo the Great, who read Peter as the rock on whom the Church was built and the bishops of Rome as his heirs (Leo, Sermons 3–5; NPNF II/12; see St. Leo the Great). The Orthodox reception holds the rich Greek exegesis of Peter the confessor and penitent as central, and engages the Latin Petrine theology critically, as Section 07 sets out (see Primacy and the Orthodox Reading).

Peter the Type of Repentance

If there is one note the Orthodox tradition sounds above all others in its reception of Peter, it is repentance. The hymnography of the Triodion and of Holy Week makes “the tears of Peter” the very model of the penitent — the sinner who falls grievously, weeps bitterly, and is restored by the mercy of Christ. The contrast with Judas is constant in the patristic and liturgical tradition: both betrayed the Lord, but Peter wept and turned again while Judas despaired (cf. Luke 22:32, 62; Matt 27:3–5; see The Denial). This makes Peter, in Orthodox piety, the patron of every fallen Christian — proof that the gravest sin is not the end if it is met with tears and a turning back. The chief of the apostles is thus also the chief of penitents, and the faithful love him for it (see Veneration and the Feast).

Peter in the Liturgical and Iconographic Tradition

In the Orthodox calendar Peter is honored with Paul on June 29, among the Twelve on June 30, and for his chains on January 16 (see Veneration and the Feast). His Gospel scenes are depicted throughout the iconographic program of the Church — the calling, the walking on the water, the Transfiguration, the washing of the feet, the denial, the restoration — and he appears in the Deesis and apostolic ranks, holding keys and scroll. The beloved icon of the Embrace of Peter and Paul (the Concordia Apostolorum) renders the union of the two chief apostles in a kiss of peace (see The Two Coryphaei). Through hymn and image the Church keeps the whole Peter before the faithful: not an abstraction of authority but a living man — fervent, fallible, forgiven, and crowned.

Peter and the Schism

It is impossible to write the reception-history of Peter without the great schism, for the divergent readings of Peter became, over centuries, one of its deepest causes and is still among the chief obstacles to reunion. The Roman development of the Petrine texts into a theology of universal papal jurisdiction (Leo; the medieval canonists; Vatican I, 1870) and the Orthodox insistence on a primacy of honor within a conciliar Church (the conciliar canons; Photios; Mark of Ephesus; the modern Orthodox theologians of primacy) are the two trajectories whose divergence the collection has traced (see Primacy and the Orthodox Reading; St. Photios the Great; St. Mark of Ephesus). The Orthodox tradition holds that the over-reading of Peter’s place — making the chief apostle the warrant for a supremacy of one see over all — distorted both the figure of Peter and the structure of the Church, and that the recovery of the true Peter (the confessor, the penitent, the first among the Twelve, the chief with Paul) is part of the path toward unity in truth (see Orthodox vs Catholic).

The Abiding Meaning of Peter

Beyond the controversy, Peter holds an irreplaceable place in Orthodox self-understanding. He is the type of the apostolic confession: the Church stands on the faith he first spoke, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16), and every Orthodox Christian who confesses that faith stands on the same rock. He is the type of repentance: the apostle whose fall and forgiveness give hope to every sinner. He is first among the Twelve, the spokesman and the foremost actor of the apostolic mission, yet always within the college and under the one Head, Christ. He is chief with Paul, the two coryphaei whose conjunction proclaims that the Church’s foundation is conciliar even at its root. And he is the fisherman who left his nets and at last followed his Lord to the cross, fulfilling the word “Follow me” in its deepest sense (John 21:19). In him the whole shape of Christian discipleship is set forth — called by grace, fervent and fallible, broken and remade, and crowned by martyrdom. This is the Peter the Orthodox Church venerates: not a throne but a man, and through that man, the confession and the mercy on which the Church is built.

See Also

References

  • The Holy Bible — Matthew 14:28–31; 16:16; 27:3–5; Luke 22:32, 62; John 21:19. Cited by book chapter:verse.
  • John Chrysostom. Homilies on Matthew 54; Homilies on John 88. Trans. NPNF I/10, I/14.
  • Origen. Commentary on Matthew 12.10–11. Trans. ANF Vol. 9.
  • Ambrose of Milan. Exposition of the Gospel of Luke 10.88–90. Trans. NPNF II/10.
  • Leo the Great. Sermons 3–5. Trans. NPNF II/12.
  • Afanasiev, Nicholas, Alexander Schmemann, John Meyendorff, et al. The Primacy of Peter in the Orthodox Church. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1992.
  • Bockmuehl, Markus. Simon Peter in Scripture and Memory. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012.