Foremost of Jesus’ Twelve Apostles
The New Testament records that Peter was a fisherman of the Sea of Galilee, called by Jesus — "follow me, and I will make you fishers of men" — and the most outspoken and impulsively frank of the twelve apostles. Jesus said to him, "on this rock I will build my church," and Catholic tradition accordingly sees Peter as the first bishop of Rome (the pope), a doctrine that is a key source of the long-standing division between Catholicism and Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times on the night of his trial, then repented deeply, and tradition holds he was finally martyred in Rome.
When Jesus walked on the sea by night and the disciples cried out in terror, thinking they saw a ghost, Peter called, "Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water." At first he truly walked on the water, but seeing the wind and waves he grew afraid and began to sink, crying "Lord, save me," and Jesus reached out and caught him, saying, "you of little faith, why did you doubt?"
After Jesus was arrested, Peter, in the high priest’s courtyard, was identified as one of Jesus’ companions and flatly denied it three times; when the rooster crowed he remembered Jesus’ prophecy, "before the rooster crows you will deny me three times," and went out and wept bitterly. For its unflinching candor this record is seen as the most moving scene of "weakness and repentance" among biblical figures.
Catholicism, on the record "on this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18), sees Peter as the first bishop of Rome (the pope), the scriptural basis for the legitimacy of the papacy; most Protestant denominations understand this differently, holding the passage to stress the symbolic meaning of Peter’s personal confession of faith rather than an institutional succession — one of the core doctrinal differences long standing between Catholicism and Protestantism.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
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