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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Where is the word "pope" found in the Bible?

“Love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul,
                                        and with all your MIND”--Matt 22:37

Where is the word "pope" found in the Bible?

Again, as discussed in previous 3-minute Apologetics, this question "Where is found in the Bible?" can always be answered with, "Where does it say in the Bible that all we believe about God is contained in the Bible?" (Answer: nowhere.) In fact, the Bible explicitly says 2 things in regard to this:

-it states that it does NOT contain all that Jesus said and did: 
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of (his) disciples that are not written in this book. (John 20:30)
and
-that it is NOT the norm nor foundation by which Christians know the teachings of Christ; the Scriptures say the sure norm is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth. 1Tim: 3:15

Thus, we must look to the teachings handed on from the Apostles, either by Tradition or by Scripture, in order to know the entire deposit of faith that has been left to us by God.)


The Catholic faith was whole and entire before a single word of the New Testament was ever put on paper (or papyrus, as the case might be).  Christianity is not distilled from the words of Scripture, but the Scriptures reflect the paradosis, the handing on of the faith of the Apostles.

In other words, we do not extract doctrine from the Scriptures, but rather the Scriptures reflect that which was taught and believed and understood by the Apostles, as proclaimed by the Word of God:  Jesus.

From apologist John Martignoni's "Two-Minute Apologetics" (NB:  I did not "borrow" the title of my emails from him, but actually borrowed it from a website called "3-Minute Retreats"...but I digress  :-)

Well, you will not find the word “Pope” in the Bible. Just as you will not find the word “Trinity,” or the word “Incarnation” in the Bible...Just because a particular word is not found in the Bible, does not mean that we should not use that word or that the theology implied by that word is somehow unbiblical. The word “Bible” is not found in the Bible, so does that mean we should not believe in the Bible? Of course not.
The fact of the matter is, even though the word “Pope” is not found directly in the Bible, the underlying meaning of that word is. The word “Pope” is derived from the Greek word, “pappas,” which means, "father" (Latinized as “papa”). In Isaiah 22, verses 19-24, we see God telling Shebna, who was the chief minister of the House of David, that he will be replaced in his office by Eliakim, and that Eliakim will have authority and will be a “father” [papa; pope] to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah.


So, with that being said, this Sunday's Gospel reflects and affirms the constant teaching of the Church regarding the papacy:  Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter in Matt 16:19.

I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Interestingly, this echoes that which is proclaimed in the first Sunday reading, from Isaiah 22:

I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim's shoulder;
when he opens, no one shall shut
when he shuts, no one shall open.

I find this parallel in the OT reading fascinating as it really is quite obvious what is being fulfilled in the NT by Peter:  Eliakim is the chief steward of the house of David, as Peter is the chief steward of the house of God.  And keys are significant in both passages.

"Eliakim is made master of the palace, a post roughly equivalent to prime minister. As the king's right-hand man, the master of the palace is given the "key of the House of David."

Keys symbolize authority, so bestowing the key to the House of David upon Eliakim is equivalent to giving him, as the king's duly appointed representative, authority over the kingdom." source

19 comments:

  1. Does the the Greek word 'papas' appear in the Greek New Testament?

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    1. Good question, Shawn. I did a search and no, it is not found in the NT.

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  2. what is not written in the bible is of no value only what is written now is valued,and if the pope say pray to mary or pray for the dead or say many decades of the rosary or pray to statues or pray to the saints or even bow to statues then the church will do so no questions asked,this is the very problem that the catholic church has it never questions what the church says only because they are all brainwashed hearing the same boaring speaches over and over like a broken record,i should know i was a catholic for 60 years till i started reading the bible, and what the church was teaching did not correspond with what the church was saying so then i knew it was just tradition and not biblical so i left and was glad i did,

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    1. Thanks for your comments, john blogger. A few responses. Firstly, you said "what is not written in the bible is of no value only what is written now is valued"--do you realize that you have just professed something that is not in the Bible? It's a man-made tradition that you've obeyed because you heard or read another man say this. Secondly, you said "then the church will do so no questions asked"--this is incorrect. No Catholic is to blindly obey. That is a heresy called Fideism, which the Church rejects.

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    2. Also, while there may be some boring homilies in Catholic churches, that's certainly not a reason to leave. You should follow Christ, and where He started His church, which is, of course, the Catholic Church.

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    3. I don't see "anything "at all in the Holy Bible about Catholicism anywhere. God's the Father and there are no others except Him. That is the first commandment and it says to pray to Jesus to get our prayer request to God the only Father. There is no Pope or as y'all say father mentioned in the Bible. It says blessed are the feet of a pastor not a pope nor does it say anything about praying to Mary. Also it doesn't say at all about rosaries or hail Mary's. I take God's word literally from cover to cover and the last chapter of the last book in Revelation states that no one is to add to or take away from this book at all. God is very matter of fact and quite specific. It's either yes or no, right or wrong, good or bad because their is no middle ground. Take care and have a good Godly day!!!

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    4. Ok thanks because it wasn't anything mean just my view point and my understanding according to the knowledge I have researched about various things.

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    5. Thanks for your comments. Firstly, yes, God is the Father and there are no others except Him. That's a central tenet of Catholicism.

      And yes, we Catholics pray to Jesus.

      And there is no word Pope in the Bible but "Where does it say in the Bible that all we believe about God is contained in the Bible?" (Answer: nowhere.)

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    6. Regarding "blessed are the feet of a pastor"--you do realize that the Pope is a pastor, yes?

      It doesn't say anything about praying to Mary, yes, but do you ever pray to the Holy Spirit? The Bible doesn' say anything at all about that, either.

      And you do realize that "Hail Mary, full of Grace" is in the Bible (see Luke 1), yes? And "the Lord is with you!" And "blessed are you among women" is right there in the Bible, too! As is "and blessed is the fruit of your womb".

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    7. Finally, if you do actually take the Bible literally (which the Bible never says to do, BTW), then you'd only have the book of Revelation in your Bible, because it says to not add anything to "this book", which is referencing the scroll of the book of Revelation. You've added to that, which is contrary to the literal reading of the Bible.

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    8. Catholicism is the worst thing to ever happen to the Trinity. Why in the world would I pray to a man and ask forgiveness from a man.. when Jesus died for my sins; to wash me clean as snow, so I can have a relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit? God and sin cannot coexist.. Jesus' blood gave us/me the ability to have a relationship with Christ Jesus, again.

      Answer me this: how do you get into heaven?

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    9. Thanks for your comment, freznhimer. You don't pray to a man and ask for forgiveness from that same man. I think you misunderstand Catholicism. When you go to confession, you're not praying to the priest.

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    10. As far as your comments here: "when Jesus died for my sins; to wash me clean as snow, so I can have a relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit? God and sin cannot coexist.. Jesus' blood gave us/me the ability to have a relationship with Christ Jesus, again", all of these are very Catholic.

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    11. To answer your question: how do we get to heaven? The Catholic answer is this:

      By believing in Christ (Jn 3:16; Acts 16:31)

      By repentance (Acts 2:38; 2 Pet 3:9)

      By baptism (Jn 3:5; 1 Pet 3:21; Titus 3:5)

      By eating his flesh and drinking his blood (Jn 6)

      By the work of the Spirit (Jn 3:5; 2 Cor 3:6)

      By declaring with our mouths (Lk 12:8; Rom 10:9)

      By coming to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4; Heb 10:26)

      By works (Rom 2:6-7; James 2:24)

      By grace (Acts 15:11; Eph 2:8)

      By his blood (Rom 5:9; Heb 9:22)

      By his righteousness (Rom 5:17; 2 Pet 1:1)

      By keeping the commandments (Matt 19:17)

      By feeding the hungry and clothing the naked (Matt: 25:42)

      By our words (Matt 12:37)



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  3. Nobody is justified by works but solely through faith in Jesus! Make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad. Make a tree good and its fruit will be good. Catholics put the cart before the horse in that they believe good works and faith justify us before God. We enter heaven by nothing other than putting all our eggs in the basket that is Jesus's blood and death on the cross. Even faith is a gift from God. Jesus said, "Nobody can come to me unless the father draws him." Nobody looks to the Son as their sole source of justification unless the father draws him. One of the purposes of the reformation was to dismantle the Catholic doctrine of salvation, which included faith plus works and still does.

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    1. Thanks for your comments, Joshua. You are correct and agree with the Catholic Church that nobody is justified by works. And we are saved ONLY by Jesus, correct. And, yes, nobody can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him. All of this is very Catholic.

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    2. As far as the purpose of the Protestant Reformation wishing to dismantle the Catholic doctrine of salvation, perhaps. But the fruit of this is that there is now chaos and confusion regarding what's the correct doctrine of salvation. Thanks to the Protestant Reformation, you folks profess "Once Saved, Always Saved" but also "You can lose your salvation!". You Protestants profess "The soul goes straight to God!" while another group says "The soul sleeps until the resurrection!"

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    3. Some Protestants profess that they will be Raptured straight to heaven. Others profess that this is nowhere found in the Scriptures.

      Some Protestants believe that they are the Elect and that others, sadly, are those God rejects and are predestined to hell. Others reject Predestination.

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    4. Finally, you have unfortunately added to Scripture by declaring that we are saved "SOLELY" through faith. That is something you can search Genesis through Revelation and you will never find. You just heard a man say it...who heard another man say it...who heard another man say it...but no one ever read "You are saved solely by faith in Jesus" in a single verse of the Bible.

      In fact, YOU don't even believe this, unless you believe that babies who die go to hell, since they obviously cannot have FAITH in Jesus.

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