Time Frames and Taboo Data Blog

There is a remarkable verse in the New Testament (Matthew 16:23, written c. 70-75 CE) that pretty much states what is wrong with all the world’s organized religions.  Jesus is portrayed as speaking to Simon/Peter, saying, “…thou art an offense unto me: for you savor not the things that be of god, but those that be of men.”  The real kicker in this statement is that the reproach comes immediately after Peter has been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven! (in verse 19)

It is thus implied that the worldly structure that Peter is to establish is to be fashioned as a polar adversary to the infinite creative powers that man personifies and refers to as “god.”  Speak of diabolical!  But there is profound Gnostic wisdom revealed in this scene.

The reason for this scene of rebuke by Jesus is that Peter stands as the representative of the continuity in matter-existence that resists the necessity of its own physical-matter destruction.  Thus Jesus utters the accusation that Peter (formerly Simon) savors those things that are of man’s creation.  What this illustrated with this  peculiar incident is that the confinement of  personal consciousness in our physical-matter form is what actually traumatizes the human ego that is so obsessed with material identity and wishes to dam the natural flow that we interpret as life/death.  And so  in Matthew 15:23 it is stressed: “But he (Jesus) turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me Satan: thou art an offence unto me…”  And then in Luke 22:31 another reference to Peter’s position: “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat…”  Which means that Satan is merely the personification of man’s blind tendency to obsess over and lust after material things.

These lines, among many more, warn us that we must understand that the character we know as Peter from New Testament narratives is mythical, not historical.  Indeed, to take any scriptural verses literally is extremely perilous to spiritual wellbeing.  Peter (formerly Simon) is proudly proclaimed as meaning “rock,” but it is a carefully placed clue that the character actually represents and personifies the rock upon which we all live, this planet, Earth, not the cornerstone of a faith system.  This implication is accentuated again in St. John 21 where Peter is told not once but three times “…feed my lambs,” a reference to the three biologic kingdoms on this planet.  (St. John 21:15, 16, 17)

To claim this characterization of our rocky planet as the cornerstone of a faith system is artificial and self-defeating.  Once we understand this, that Peter’s character was used to symbolize planet Earth, it is evident why no  provision for a successor to Peter was ever provided for in the story.  Nonetheless, the Catholic encyclopedia insists that Peter’s founding of the Roman bishoric is “among the best ascertained facts  of history…’

Sorry.  It’s all myth.

This entry was posted on June 14, 2009 at 11:05 pm and is filed under Atheist, Bible, Christianity, culture, random, religion with tags Earth, keys to the kingdom, Peter, Satan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.