Was Peter Truly the First Pope?
What Scripture Reveals for Catholics, Protestants, and Evangelicals Seeking Communion
For many Catholics engaged in conversations with Protestants or evangelicals, one question inevitably arises: Was Peter really the first pope? Sometimes the challenge is even more direct: There was no pope in the early Church.
The question is understandable. Many Christians approach the early Church through the lens of the Reformation. In that narrative, the papacy is often associated with the abuses that provoked Martin Luther’s protest in the sixteenth century—particularly the controversy surrounding indulgences and the preaching campaigns of Johann Tetzel that helped finance the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. From that vantage point, the papacy can appear less like a biblical office and more like a later institutional development tied to politics, corruption, and ecclesiastical power (Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, Abingdon Press, 1950).
Yet the historical circumstances of the Reformation cannot settle the deeper question. The real issue Christians must ask ultimately is much simpler and much earlier: What do Scripture and the earliest Christian witnesses actually say about Peter’s role in the Church?
If we begin where Protestants themselves insist we begin—with the Bible—the prominence of Peter becomes immediately clear. The most famous passage appears in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus says to Simon:
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. (Mt. 16:18–19)
The Greek wording is striking:
su ei Petros, kai epi taute te petra oikodomeso mou ten ekklesian; “You are Petros, and upon this petra I will build my Church.”
The distinction between Petros and petra is simply grammatical in Greek.
In the Aramaic language Jesus likely spoke, the word would have been Kepha, meaning “rock.” The New Testament itself preserves this form when Peter is called Cephas (Jn. 1:42; Gal. 2:9; 1 Cor. 1:12).
Equally significant is the imagery of the “keys of the kingdom.” This language echoes Isaiah 22:22, where authority over the Davidic kingdom is entrusted to the royal steward:
I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; what he opens no one shall shut, and what he shuts no one shall open. (Is. 22:22)
Many biblical scholars note that Jesus’ words in Matthew deliberately evoke this Old Testament background.
The steward was not the king but held delegated authority over the household of the king. In the same way, Jesus appears to entrust Peter with a unique responsibility within the messianic community. “Catholics do not claim that the fully developed papacy appears in the New Testament exactly as it exists today. Rather, the claim is that the foundations of Petrine leadership are present from the beginning.”
Even Protestant scholars acknowledge the significance of this passage. The Lutheran historian Oscar Cullmann concluded that Matthew 16 represents a genuine historical tradition in which Peter receives a foundational role in the Church (Oscar Cullmann, Peter: Disciple, Apostle, Martyr, Westminster Press, 1962). Similarly, evangelical New Testament scholar Craig Keener observes that the imagery of the keys strongly suggests administrative authority within the kingdom framework Jesus invokes (Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, Eerdmans, 2009).
Peter’s prominence does not rest on a single passage. It appears repeatedly throughout the New Testament. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells him:
Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. (Lk. 22:31–32)
After the resurrection, the Gospel of John records Jesus addressing Peter three times: “Feed my lambs…Tend my sheep…Feed my sheep” (Jn. 21:15–17). The repetition mirrors Peter’s three denials and publicly restores him while entrusting him with pastoral responsibility over the entire flock.
Even the ordering of the apostles reflects Peter’s prominence. Matthew writes: “The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, also known as Peter” (Mt. 10:2). The Greek term used here, protos, does not merely indicate chronological order but suggests primacy or prominence. “Across multiple strands of New Testament tradition, Peter consistently appears at the center of the apostolic community.”
The apostle Paul provides another intriguing witness. In recounting the appearances of the risen Christ, Paul writes: “He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve” (1 Cor. 15:5). The sequence is notable. Peter’s encounter with the risen Christ is distinguished from the collective appearance to the Twelve.
Some interpreters point out that James, the relative of Jesus, clearly leads the church in Jerusalem. Paul himself refers to James, Cephas, and John as “pillars” of the Church (Gal. 2:9). Yet this observation does not undermine Peter’s broader role. James appears to function as the bishop of the Jerusalem community, while Peter operates as a leading apostolic witness across the wider mission of the Church.
At the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, Peter speaks first in the debate regarding Gentile believers before James offers the final pastoral judgment for the local community (Acts 15:7–21).
Raymond E. Brown notes that the repeated prominence of Peter across independent New Testament traditions strongly suggests that his leadership role was historically recognized in the earliest Christian communities (Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, Doubleday, 1997).
Beyond the New Testament, the earliest Christian writers consistently connect Peter with the Church in Rome.
A letter written around A.D. 96 by Clement of Rome refers to the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul and treats their witness as foundational to the Roman Church (First Epistle of Clement, in The Apostolic Fathers, ed. Michael Holmes). By the second century, Irenaeus of Lyons describes the succession of bishops in Rome beginning with the apostles (Against Heresies, Book III). Later church historian Eusebius of Caesarea records the same succession, tracing the line of Roman bishops from Peter through the earliest generations of the Church (Ecclesiastical History, Book III).
Rome’s prominence was not merely theological but also practical. As the capital of the Roman Empire, it became a central hub for the growing Christian movement. When disputes arose between Christian communities, the Roman Church increasingly served as a point of reference and unity. “The papacy did not suddenly appear in Christian history; it gradually emerged from the leadership role that Peter exercised among the apostles.”
Over time, the bishop of Rome emerged as a figure of arbitration among other bishops—a development that would eventually mature into what Christians later called the papacy.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes this belief by stating that the bishop of Rome, as successor of Peter, serves as “the perpetual and visible source and foundation of unity” (CCC 882).
Perhaps the most striking feature of Peter’s story, however, is not his authority but his humanity. The Gospels portray him as impulsive, often confused, and sometimes even fearful. He walks on water but begins to sink. He boldly confesses Jesus as the Messiah yet later rebukes Him.
Most dramatically, he denies Christ three times on the night of the crucifixion. Thus, “the most remarkable feature of Peter’s leadership is not perfection but vocation.” And yet, it is precisely this flawed disciple whom Jesus chooses to strengthen the others. In that sense, Peter’s role is not a sign of perfection but of calling. The leadership entrusted to him reflects not human greatness but divine vocation.
The apostle Paul ultimately reminds believers that no human leader stands at the center of the Church. Writing to the Corinthians, he warns against factions built around particular apostles: “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe…I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Cor. 3:5–7).
Scripture and early Christian tradition together indicate that Peter exercised a distinctive leadership role among the apostles and in the life of the early Church. Whether one approaches the question as a Catholic or a Protestant, the biblical evidence makes one conclusion difficult to avoid:
Peter stands at the center of the apostolic community—but the Church ultimately belongs to Christ alone.
