Previous
NextArticles
The Bible, the New Ressourcement, and Peter’s Priestly Keys
Michael Patrick Barber
Issue 2
Volume 1
pp. 269 - 313
https://doi.org/10.65172/vhpuOrQaH6PkXFbP
Abstract
In continuity with the original ressourcement movement, Barber argues for Scripture's primacy in theology. He offers the example of Matthew 16 as a test case, showing how the priestly meaning of the keys given to Peter ultimately illuminates the sacrament of Holy Orders. By retrieving this neglected but ancient reading of Matthew 16, Barber shows how biblical exegesis can revitalize contemporary theological reflection on the ministerial priesthood.
Citations
Pope Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church (September 30, 2010), §35.
Jean Daniélou, The Bible and the Liturgy, Liturgical Studies 3 (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1956), 8 (emphasis added); trans. of Bible et Liturgie (Paris: Cerf, 1951).
L’Osservatore Romano, English Edition (April 24, 1969), 12.
Thomas P. Harmon, ‘Scrutinizing the Signs of the Times’: Truth and History in Catholic Social Doctrine,’ in Wisdom and the Renewal of Catholic Theology: Essays in Honor of Matthew L. Lamb, ed. Thomas P. Harmon and Roger W. Nutt (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2016), 155.
Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (November 18, 1965), §24.
Ronald K. Rittgers, The Reformation of the Keys: Confession, Conscience, and Authority in Sixteenth-Century Germany (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004).
Martin Luther, Sermon on the Sacrament of Penance 15, in The Catholic Luther: His Early Writings, ed. Philip D.W. Krey and Peter D.S. Krey (New York: Paulist, 2016), 66.
H. Benedict Green, Matthew, Poet of the Beatitudes (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic, 2001), 135.
Jügen Mettepenningen, Nouvelle Théologie—New Theology: Inheritor of Modernism, Precursor to Vatican II (London: T&T Clark, 2010), 88.
Lewis Ayres, Patricia Kelly, and Thomas Humphries, “Benedict XVI: A Ressourcement Theologian?,” in Ressourcement, 423.
Verbum Domini §35.
Catechism of the Catholic Church §1444.
Athanasius, Contra gentes 1, in NPNF2 4:4 (emphasis added).
Pope Leo XIII, Aeterni Patris, Encyclical Letter on the Restoration of Christian Philosophy (August 4, 1879), §17.
Council of Constance, “Condemned Articles of J. Hus” 8, in Decrees, 1:429.
John W. O’Malley, What Happened at Vatican II (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), 43.
Jared Wicks, Investigating Vatican II: Its Theologians, Ecumenical Turn, and Biblical Commitment (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2018), 80–97.
Verbum Domini §37, quoting Augustine, De libero arbitrio 3.21.59; De Trinitate 2.1.2.
George R. Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986), 184.
Fourth Lateran Council, On the Catholic Faith, in Translation from Norman P. Tanner, ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 vols., ed. Norman P. Tanner (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1990), 1:230.
Expositio super Isaiam ad litteram 22.537.
Expositio super Isaiam ad litteram 22.540.
Nicholas Perrin, Jesus the Priest (London: SCM, 2018), 82.
L’Osservatore Romano, English Edition (April 24, 1969), 1.
Cardinal Michael Czerny and Christian Barone, Siblings All, Sign of the Times: The Social Teaching of Pope Francis (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2022), 26.
Ormond Rush, “Conciliar Hermeneutics,” in The Cambridge Companion to Vatican II, ed. Richard Gaillardetz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 104.
Pius XII, Divino Afflante Spiritu, Encyclical Letter Promoting Biblical Studies (September 30, 1943), §47.
Massimo Faggioli, “Reading the Signs of the Times through a Hermeneutics of Recognition: Gaudium et Spes and Its Meaning for a Learning Church,” Horizons 43 (2016): 332–50, at 338, 339.
Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians §§86–89.
Jean Daniélou, God and the Ways of Knowing, trans. Walter Roberts (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2003), 169, 174; trans. Dieu et nous (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1956).
Henri de Lubac, Scripture in the Tradition, Milestones in Catholic Theology, trans. Luke O’Neil (New York: Herder & Herder, 2000), 73–74; trans. L’Ecriture dans la Tradition (Paris: Aubier-Montaigne, 1967).
Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 7.41, in St. Jerome Commentary on Isaiah, Including St. Jerome’s Translation of Origen’s Homilies 1–9 on Isaiah, trans. Thomas Scheck, ACW 68 (New York: Newman, 2015), 375.
Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (December 7, 1965), §4.
Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World (November 24, 2013), §51
de Lubac, Scripture in the Tradition, 154–55
Ormond Rush, The Eyes of Faith: The Sense of the Faithful and the Church’s Reception of Revelation (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), 205.
Pope Francis, Ad theologiam promovendam, Motu Proprio Apostolic Letter Approving New Statutes of the Pontifical Academy of Theology (November 1, 2023), §1.
Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum §24.
“Present Orientations of Religious Thought,” Josephinum 18, no. 1 (2011): 51–62 (trans. Anna Mathie Lenshek).
Joseph S. Flipper, “Reading the Mystery of God: The Ignatian Roots of Henri de Lubac’s Understanding of Scripture,” in Ressourcement after Vatican II: Essays in Honor of Joseph Fessio, ed. Nicholas J. Healy Jr. and Matthew Levering (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2019), 206.
Joseph Ratzinger, “Part I: The Church and Man’s Calling, Introductory Article and Chapter I,” in Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II, ed. Herbert Vorgrimler, trans. W.J. O’Hara (New York: Herder & Herder, 1969), 5:115.
Yves Congar, The Revelation of God, trans. A. Manson and L.C. Sheppard (New York: Herder & Herder, 1969), 10; trans. Les voices du Dieu vivant (Paris: Cerf, 1962).
Congar, Tradition and Traditions, 110.
Jean Daniélou, “Le orientations présentes de la pensé religieuse,” Études 79 (1946): 5–21.
Gerald O’Collins, “Ressourcement and Vatican II,” in Ressourcement, 379.
Avery Dulles, Essential Writings from “America” Magazine, ed. James T. Keane (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria, 2019), 339.
Yves Congar, Tradition and Traditions: An Historical Essay and a Theological Essay (New York: The Macmillan, 1967), 35; trans. La Tradition et les Traditions, 2 vols. (Paris: Fayard, 1960, 1963).
Emery de Gaál, The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI: The Christocentric Shift (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 99.
Pope Francis, Aperuit Illis, Motu Proprio Letter Instituting the Sunday of the Word of God (September 30, 2019), §2.
Augustine, De doctrina christiana 2.63.42, in Teaching Christianity (De Doctrina Christiana), The Works of Saint Augustine I/11, trans. Edmund Hill (Hyde Park, NY: New City, 1996), 162.
Tertullian, The Soul, 6: “It is the soul itself which makes the body either animate, if it be present to it, or else inanimate, if it be absent from it” (ANF 3:185).
Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses mystagogicae 4.17, in The Works of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, The Fathers of the Church 61, trans. Leo P. McCauley and Anthony A. Stephenson (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1969), 127–28 (emphasis added).
Congar, Tradition and Traditions, 111.
Yves Congar, The Meaning of Tradition, trans. A.N. Woodrow (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1964), 45; trans. La Tradition et la vie de l’Église (Paris: Cerf, 1963).
Joseph Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology: Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology, trans. Mary Frances McCarthy (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1987), 321
Jürgen Mettepenningen, “Nouvelle Théologie: Four Historical Stages of Theological Reform Towards Ressourcement (1935–1965),” in Ressourcement, 181.
Yves Congar, My Journal of the Council, trans. Mary John Ronayne and Mary Cecily Boulding (Hindmarsh, AU: ATF, 2012), 78; trans. Mon journal du Concile, 2 vols. (Paris: Les Cerf, 2002).
Verbum Domini §17, quoting Augustine, De libero arbitrio 3.21.59; De Trinitate 2.1.2.17.
Gerard Loughlin, “Nouvelle Théologie: A Return to Modernism?,” in Ressourcement: A Movement for Renewal in Twentieth-Century Catholic Theology, ed. Gabriel Flynn and Paul D. Murray (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 48.
Jon Kirwan, An Avant-garde Theological Generation: The Nouvelle Théologie and the French Crisis of Modernity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 243.
Gerald O’Collins, The Second Vatican Council: Message and Meaning (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2014), 12.
Joseph Ratzinger, “Chapter II,” in Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II, 2:197.
Expositio super Isaiam ad litteram 22.543.
The Mishnah, trans. Herbert Danby (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933), 591.
Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on John 11.6.1561, 1562, in Commentary on the Gospel of John, trans. F. Larcher and J.A. Weisheipl, 3 vols. (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010), 2:250.
Andrew Hofer, foreword to Cajetan on Sacred Doctrine by Hieromonk Gregory Hrynkiw, (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2020), xii–xiv.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Isaiah: Vol. II: Chapters 15–39, trans. Robert Charles Hill (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox, 2008), 89–91.
Pope Francis, Scripturae Sacrae Affectus, Apostolic Letter on the Sixteenth Hundredth Anniversary of the Death of Saint Jerome (September 30, 2020).
Verbum Domini §7, quoting Bernard of Clairvaux, Homilia super missus est 4.11.
Henri de Lubac, Scripture and Theology, 59n9.
The Divine Institution of the Pontifical Office Over the Whole Church in the Person of the Apostle Peter, 7, in Cajetan Responds: A Reader in Reformation Controversy, ed. and trans. Jared Wicks (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1978), 115–16.
Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians §27, in Commentary on the Letters of Saint Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians, trans. Fabian R. Larcher and Matthew R. Lamb, ed. John Mortensen and Enrique Alarcón, Latin/English Edition of the Works of St. Thomas Aquinas, 39 (Lander, WY: Aquinas Institute, 2012), 13.
Aaron Pidel, The Inspiration and Truth of Scripture: Testing the Ratzinger Paradigm, Verbum Domini (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2023), 58.
Congar, Tradition and Traditions, 114.
John J. Collins, Scepter and the Star: Messianism in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 162.
Mothy Varkey, Salvation in Continuity: Reconsidering Matthew’s Soteriology, Emerging Scholars (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2017), 205–6.
Expositio super Isaiam ad litteram 22.538.
Expositio super Isaiam ad litteram 22.543.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, q. 1, a. 8 ad 2, in Summa Theologiae Prima Pars, 1–49, trans. Laurence Shapcote, ed. John Mortensen and Enrique Alarcón, Latin/English Edition of the Works of St. Thomas Aquinas, 13 (Lander, WY: Aquinas Institute, 2012), 12.
Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of John §2656, in Commentary on the Gospel of John, 3 vols., trans. Fabian R. Larcher and James A. Weisheipl (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010), 3:307.
Rucker, The Temple Keys of Isaiah 22:22, 59–96.
Josephus, Against Apion 2.108 (Thackeray, LCL).
Summa contra Gentiles IV, ch. 72, in Summa contra Gentiles, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 5 vols. (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1924), 5:251–53.
Thomas Aquinas, Super Evangelium S. Matthaei Lectura 16.2.1387, in Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, 2 vols. (Lander, WY: Aquinas Institute, 2013), 2:101.
Expositio super Isaiam ad litteram 22.543.
Hans Kvalbein, “The Authorization of Peter in Matthew 16:17–19: A Reconsideration of the Power to Bind and Loose,” in The Formation of the Early Church, ed. Jostein Ådna, WUNT 183 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005), 155.
Evangelii Gaudium §175; quoting Benedict XVI.
Joseph Ratzinger, “The Question of the Concept of Tradition: A Provisional Response,” in God’s Word: Scripture—Tradition—Office, ed. Peter Hünermann and Thomas Söding, trans. Henry Taylor (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2008), 56.
Joshua Brotherton, “Revisiting the Sola Scripture Debate: Yves Congar and Joseph Ratzinger on Tradition,” Pro Ecclesia 1 (2015): 85–113.
Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Sentences, 4.19.3.
Pope Francis, “Address to the Delegation of the Catholic Action Movement of France,” January 3, 2022.
Henri de Lubac, History and Spirit: The Understanding of Scripture according to Origen, trans. Anne Englund Nash (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2007), 83n171; trans. Histoire et esprit: L’Intelligence de l’Éscriture d’après Origéne (Paris: Éditions Montaigne, 1950).
de Lubac, Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man, trans. Lancelot C. Sheppard and Elizabeth Englund (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1988), 179; trans. Catholicisme: Les aspects sociaux du dogme, Unam Sanctam 3 (Paris: Cerf, 1947).
Andrea Monda and Roberto Cetera, L’Osservatore Romano (October 24, 2022).
Eusebius of Caesarea, Commentary on Isaiah, trans. J.J. Armstrong, ed. Joel C. Elowsky, Ancient Christian Texts (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2004), 113.
Michael Patrick Barber, “Jesus as the Davidic Temple Builder and Peter’s Priestly Role in Matthew 16:17–19,” JBL 132, no. 4 (2013): 935–53.
Michael Patrick Barber, The Historical Jesus and the Temple: Memory, Methodology, and the Gospel of Matthew (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), 156–88.
Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentaire sur Isaïe, Tome II: Sections 4–13, SC 295, ed. Jean-Noël Guinot (Paris: Cerf, 1982), 168.
Ben F. Meyer, The Aims of Jesus (London: SCM, 1979), 185–202.
Peter Schäfer, “Tempel und Schöpfung. Zur Interpretation einiger Heiligtumstraditionen in der rabbinischen Literatur,” in Studien zur Geschichte und Theologie des rabbinischen Judentums, AGJU 15 (Leiden: Brill, 1978), 122–33.
Ratzinger, “Biblical Interpretation in Conflict,” in God’s Word, 99.
H. Daniel Zacharias, Matthew’s Presentation of the Son of David, T&T Clark Biblical Studies (London: T&T Clark, 2017), 111–12.
Thomas Joseph White, “The Priesthood Makes the Church: Ecclesial Communion and the Power of the Keys,” Nova et Vetera 9, no. 1 (2011): 209–36.
John XXIII, Humanae Salutis, Apostolic Constitution Convoking a Second Ecumenical Vatican Council (February 2, 1962), §4. Translations from this source are taken from The Encyclicals and Other Messages of Pope John XXIII, ed. the staff of The Pope Speaks, trans. Austin Vaughn (Washington, DC: TPS, 1964).
Richard Schenk, “Officium Signa Temporum Perscrutandi: New Encounters of Gospel and Culture in the Context of the New Evangelization,” in Scrutinizing the Signs of the Times in the Light of the Gospel, ed. Johan Verstraeten (Leuven, BE: Leuven University Press, 2007), 173.
Brian Pedraza, Catechesis for the New Evangelization: Vatican II, John Paul II, and the Unity of Revelation and Experience (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2020), 50.
Gerhard Lohfink, The Most Important Words of Jesus, trans. Linda M. Maloney (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2023), 238–39; trans. Die wichtigensten Worte Jesu (Frieburg: Herder, 2022).
Matthew Levering, Reconfiguring Thomistic Christology, Current Issues in Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), 21.
Giles Emery, Trinity in Aquinas (Ypsilanti, MI: Sapientia, 2003), 91–93.
Thomas G. Weinandy, Daniel A. Keating, and John P. Yocum, preface to Aquinas on Scripture: An Introduction to His Biblical Commentaries, ed. T.G. Weinandy, D.A. Keating, and J.P. Yocum (London: T&T Clark, 2005), ix.
Yves Congar, “Le prophète Péguy,” Témoignage Chrétien (August 26, 1949), 1.
Pietro Parente, “Nuove tendenze teologiche,” L’Osservatore Romano, February 9–10, 1942, 1.
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, “La nouvelle théologie où va-t-elle,” Angelicum 23 (1946): 126–45.
M.-Michel Labourdette, ‘La Théologie et ses sources,’ Revue Thomiste 46 (1946): 353–71.
Jon Kirwan and Matthew K. Minerd, “Translators’ Introduction: A Dialogue Delayed,” in The Thomistic Response to the Nouvelle Théologie and the Nature of Theology (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2023), 1–84.
Henri de Lubac, At the Service of the Church: Henri de Lubac Reflects on the Circumstances that Occasioned His Writings, trans. Anne Englund Nash (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1993), 361.
Peter Kwasniewski, “The Rights of Immemorial Tradition and the Limits of Papal Positivism” (paper presented at the Paix Liturgique conference, Rome, October 28, 2022); text available online: https://catholicfamilynews.com/blog/2022/11/25/the-rights-of-immemorial-tradition-and-the-limits-of-papal-positivism/ (accessed November 1, 2023).
Anthony Giambrone, The Bible and the Priesthood: Priestly Participation in the One Sacrifice for Sins, Catholic Biblical Theology of the Sacraments (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2022), 203, 271.
Aidan Nichols, Holy Order: Apostolic Priesthood from the New Testament to the Second Vatican Council (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1990), 80, 82, 95, 171n43.
Romanus Cessario, The Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023), 126.
Summa contra Gentiles IV, ch. 74; IV, ch. 76; Summa Theologiae III, q. 84, a. 7; Catena Aurea in Mattheum 16.L3; Super Evangelium S. Ioannis Lectura 13.3.1779; Super Evangelium S. Matthaei Lectura 16.2.1388; Super ad Romanos 11.4.929; Super I ad Timotheum 3.2.114; Liber contra impugnantes Dei cultum et religionem 4.
Summa Theologiae, Supplementum q. 7, a. 1; q. 8, a. 6; q. 9, a. 1.
Timothy M. Rucker, The Temple Keys of Isaiah 22:22, Revelation 3:7, and Matthew 16:19, WUNT II/559 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021), 59–96.
G.K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God, New Studies in Biblical Theology 17 (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2004), 187–88.
Bruce Chilton, “Shebna, Eliakim and the Promise to Peter,” in Jesus in Context: Temple, Purity, Restoration, ed. B. Chilton and C.A. Evans (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 319–52.
Bruce Chilton, “Temple Restored, Temple in Heaven: Isaiah and the Prophets in the Targumim,” in Restoration: Old Testament, Jewish, and Christian Perspectives, ed. J.M. Scott, SJSJ 72 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 343–49.
W.D. Davies and Dale C. Allison Jr., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, ICC, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988–97), 2:640.
Joshua W. Jipp, The Messianic Theology of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2020), 56.
Brendan Byrne, “Matthew,” in The Paulist Biblical Commentary, ed. J.E.A. Chiu et al. (New York: Paulist, 2018), 941–42 [900–71].
Mothy Varkey, Salvation in Continuity: Reconsidering Matthew’s Soteriology, Emerging Scholars (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2017), 205–6.
Simon J. Joseph, Jesus and the Temple: Crucifixion in Its Jewish Context, SNTSMS 165 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 221.
H. Daniel Zacharias, Matthew’s Presentation of the Son of David (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), 112.
Craig Evans, Matthew, New Cambridge Biblical Commentary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 314.
R.T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007); 625.
Pheme Perkins, Peter: Apostle for the Whole Church (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000), 69.
John T. Willis, “An Interpretation of Isaiah 22.15–25 and Its Function in the New Testament,” in Early Christian Interpretation of the Scriptures of Israel: Investigations and Proposals, ed. Craig A. Evans and James A. Sanders (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic, 1997), 344–51.
Donald Hagner, Matthew, 2 vols., WBC 33B (Dallas: Word, 1993–95), 2:472.
Ben Witherington III, Jesus, Paul and the End of the World: A Comparative Study in New Testament Eschatology (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1992), 90–91.
Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Matthew, Sacra Pagina 1 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 1991), 251.
J.A. Emerton, “Binding and Loosing—Forgiving and Retaining,” JTS 13 (1962): 325–31.
Contact us at [email protected] or (866) 928-1237
Word on Fire © 2026 - All Rights Reserved
Word on Fire Catholic Ministries is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit ministry.