Peter, James and John, Page 3

At the outset it is well to remember the significance of one’s “Name” and of the prevalent fact of “Name Change” in the Bible. (See “I AM,” the discussion of Ex 6,2-3.) For not only in Peter’s case, among these three, are we concerned here with a change of name. Of these three names, only “Peter” has no Jewish origin. In that respect, it bears some resemblance to “Paul,” although that relates to the Hebrew “Saul.” But both Peter and Paul are otherwise uniquely Greek words. Inasmuch as Matthew was originally written in Hebrew (as Jerome noted and Steiner insisted), it is curious that only in Matthew is Peter identified as the “rock” upon which the Church would be built (Mt 16,15-20), especially since Peter was oriented more in outlook to the Jerusalem church, at least initially (though the “Rock” was clearly a prophetic Hebrew concept; see, e.g., Gen 49,24; Num 20; Deut 32; 1 Sam 23,25,28; 2 Sam 23,3; Ps 89,26; Is 17,10 and 44,8; Hab 1,12).

The other two names are shrouded in mystery, but of the identity of Peter there is never any doubt. With James uncertainty begins to creep in, and with John it abounds. ABD (3 ABD 616) identifies at least four persons named “James,” namely, the brother of Jesus and head of the Jerusalem church, the son of Zebedee, the son of Alphaeus, and the father of Judas (Lk 6,16; Acts 1,13), the first three being relatively familiar. The name derives from the Hebrew “Jacob.” At least nine persons are identified as “John” in 3 ABD 886, which makes no allowance for the possibility that none of them became the revered Presbyter (Gk presbys = old) John in Ephesus which, as shall be shown, is the case.

In terms of spiritual “consciousness” demonstrated by these three, we see that Peter has already demonstrated a degree of this, for his “Name Change” immediately before the experience of the Transfiguration so indicates (Mt 16,13-20, esp. vs 18). Peter, taken from the Greek Petros, means “Rock,” which as we will see in a later volume is a term for the Christ himself (1 Cor 10,4). Peter’s new name characterized him as the first of the “Twelve” to recognize the Christ. When Christ says of him that “on this rock I will build my church,” he is referring not to Peter as a person but to that “impulse . . . in human nature” that reveals the Christ, for it is an impulse “revealed to you by the Father in Heaven, not by what you are at present as a man of flesh and blood.” See The Gospel of St. Matthew (GSMt), Lect. 11, p. 194. While the organized church in Rome identifies itself as the representative of Peter the person, the “church universal” will come about when this spiritual impulse, the true “Rock,” arises within individual human beings (cf. Jer 31,33-34 and Heb 10,16-17). Scripturally, it is within the immediate context of Peter’s

“Name Change” and the Transfiguration that the sons of Zebedee begin to demonstrate their inabilities to measure up to the level of consciousness Christ had yearned to develop in them. And while Peter had recognized the Christ, he immediately thereafter showed that he was unable to comprehend the reason for the sacrifice Christ faced (Mt 16,21-23), and with James and John he too slept through the height of the Transfiguration (Lk 9,32). Light is shed on Peter’s lack of comprehension by Luke 9,30-31, saying that Moses and Elijah talked with Christ “and spoke of his departure,” all presumably while Peter was sleeping. The “name” James derives etymologically from Jacob, and even though that name is highly revered in Hebrew ancestry, it had no flattering meaning, and the first Jacob eventually surrendered it for the more noble one, Israel. Yet even then, it did not carry the power of recognizing the Name of Christ (see Gen 32,29, where he seeks, but is not given, the Name of his antagonist). But it is particularly the Name of “John” that we become progressively more interested in.

At first blush, it seems very odd that the sons of Zebedee were so significant in the synoptic Gospels, yet tend to pale later in relation to Peter, James the brother of Jesus, and the one to whom are ascribed the Gospel, Epistles and Apocalypse of John. For a considerable time this prompted me to postulate tentatively that the James and John who appeared along with Jesus and Peter on the three (or five) special occasions above were not the sons of Zebedee but the brother of Jesus and the author of the Johannine books. A reasonable prima facie case can be constructed for that scenario, though it quickly becomes vulnerable upon careful inspection. Nevertheless, the mystery surrounding these second two, most notably John, justifies our looking carefully at this threesome as a group.

Let us look briefly at James before getting to the more mysterious questions surrounding John. In large part, the relative significance of these two relates directly to the weight accorded the canonical books that bear their respective names.