WHETTING YOUR THEOLOGICAL APPETITE

Introduction           Coming from different backgrounds, the two apostles, Peter and Paul became great leaders in their own ways. Peter was handpicked by Jesus along with the other disciples to become the apostle to the Jews while Paul was a persecutor of the church but later he became the greatest apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 1:13). He became the founder of churches in Asia Minor and Greece, and he had great influence on the Church through the centuries (Buttrick 1962, 681).           Peter, whose original name was Simon (or Simeon), was also known as “Cephas” (Aramaic) or “Petra” (Greek). Translated, it means “Rock” or “Stone” (Gundry 1981, 121, 147). He was a man with low education, and somewhat unrefined in his character. A fisherman by profession, Peter was later called to fish for men (Matthew 4:19). He was designated as the leader of the Jerusalem church for at least the first 15 years of the church (Acts 1-12) (Butt...