Did our Lord Jesus Christ declare Peter to be the first of the apostles?

Interpretation 1:
Yes.

Summary: 

The words that our Lord spoke specifically to Peter are a proof text of Peter’s leadership in the church, which, after his death, was passed to his successors as bishop of Rome.

Arguments in favour of this view:

1. In Matthew 16:1–28 Jesus calls his disciple Simon, the son of Jonah (or John) by the name he gave him earlier (John 1:42): Cephas (in Hebrew) or Petros (in Greek). This naming already indicates a special position for this disciple in Christ’s church assembly, because it means rock (see also Mark 3:16).

2. That this disciple would come to occupy a special leadership position in Christ’s church is quickly made clear as Christ more than once takes only him, along with James and John, to special events (see Mark 5:37, Mark 9:2, Mark 14:33).

3. In Matthew 16:18, Christ recalls this naming, after Simon confessed him as the promised Christ, the Son of the living God. And he now pledges that this Peter would be the foundation stone upon which he will build his church. In the original Aramaic version of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus will also have used the name Cephas for this purpose. In the later Greek edition, the word “petra” is now chosen, because Petros primarily means a loose piece of rock, and petra has the meaning of a larger piece of rock. But also giving that name to the disciple Simon would be strange, because petra is a feminine word and Petros is masculine. These words together do emphasize that Simon will thus become the foundation of Christ’s church.

4. This fundamental position of Peter in the church is further emphasized in Matthew 16:19, where Jesus Christ entrusts the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and thus the power to bind and to dissolve, to Simon Peter. 

5. In Luke 5:10 Jesus only says to Simon Peter that from now on you [singular] will be catching men, even though the disciples James and John were also present.

6. In John 21:1–14 the fisherman Simon Peter is again called to fish for people. But now Jesus Christ additionally appoints him as the shepherd of his flock in John 21:15–18.

7. In Luke 22:31–32 Christ specifically exhorts Peter, after being sifted in Satan’s sieve, to strengthen his brothers.

8. After Christ’s resurrection he has a special conversation with Simon Peter that same day (Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 15:5).

9. After Christ’s ascension we find Peter taking on a natural role of leadership in the circle of disciples (Acts 1:15; Acts 2:14; Acts 3:1, Acts 3:4–7, Acts 3:12–13; Acts 5:3, Acts 5:15).

Arguments against this view:

1. When the Lord Jesus Christ reminded his disciple Simon of the nickname given to him, “Petros,” and then went on to speak of this petra on which he would build his church, he could not have been thinking of Simon exclusively in doing so. After all, he could have simply said, “on you” or “on this I will build my church.”

2. The fact that the Greek translation of Matthew’s Gospel, originally written in Aramaic, did not use the word “cephas” twice (“You are Cephas and on this cephas will I build my church”) but used “petra,” shows that it was already understood at that time that the Lord Jesus, with that second use of rock (stone) was no longer thinking of his disciple Simon only.

3. “Petra” has a broader meaning: a solid rock foundation. Interpreters offer two explanations for this:

   a. Jesus is thinking of his apostles together and pointing to them at this moment, as it were, with a wave of his arm.

   b. Jesus is thinking of the confession Peter has just made. His church will be built on this confession.

   Explanation B is more obvious because after these words are uttered, Jesus continues to speak about the keys to the kingdom of heaven (see below at 4).

   It is not necessary, however, to choose between A and B, because they go together: the apostles together are of value for Christ’s church building, only if they bring into the world the same confession that Peter just expressed.

4. Simon Peter was indeed soon given a special position among the other apostles. However, it was always together with the others: before Christ’s death with James and John. And after Pentecost he is soon mentioned together with Jesus’ half-brother James (Galatians 1:19; the apostle James was beheaded by King Herod soon after Pentecost: Acts 12:1–2) and John (Galatians 2:9). Note that Paul even mentions James before Peter. The reason will be that not Peter, but this James soon became the leader of the council of elders in Jerusalem (Acts 12:17; Acts 21:18).

5. The authority of the keys that the Lord entrusts to Peter in Matthew 16:19 he then entrusts to all twelve apostles (see Matthew 18:18 and John 20:23). Christ even ensures that the conviction of Thomas’s confession, “My Lord and my God,” becomes the foundation stone under his church.

6. The authority of the keys granted by Christ is not a personal authority. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world, sent by God. Until then the administration of the key had been entrusted to the scribes or lawyers in Israel (Luke 11:52). Here Christ identified this key as the knowledge. The translation should not be: “the key of knowledge” as in the ESV. Knowing Jesus of Nazareth as the Saviour from heaven as he is designated in the scriptures of the Old Testament (see John 5:39) is the key by which people enter God’s kingdom of heaven. When Israel’s scribes took this key away from God’s people while Peter was found to have it, Christ designated him—along with the other apostles—as the new distributors of this key.

7. In Luke 5:10 Christ indeed only calls Simon Peter a future fisher of men. But in Mark 1:16–20 he also said this to other future apostles. Thus, the fact that in Luke only Simon Peter is addressed, while James and John was also present, cannot be taken as evidence that Jesus thus assigned this task exclusively to Simon Peter. He is specifically addressed in response to his shock after the overwhelming catch of fish: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord! Simon had already become a follower and disciple of Jesus, but no longer felt qualified to be such. That is why the Lord answered him: Do not be afraid, I am keeping you in my service: from now on you will be catching men.

8. That this commission also applied to the other disciples is shown after Christ’s resurrection, when he reminds not only Simon Peter, but six other disciples of this commission to go and catch people (John 21:1–14).

9. After the catch of fish, Jesus’ profound questions especially to Simon Peter, followed by the assignment to go and tend Christ’s flock, are not meant to appoint Peter as the special shepherd of Christ’s church. They are intended to put the seemingly most promising and ambitious apostle in his place and to make him small and humble. He is called to the plain and simple work of shepherding (see also the exegetical note on John 21:15–17).

10. Peter understood the humbling lesson of John 21:15–17 and passed it on to the next generation of shepherds in Christ’s service (see 1 Peter 5:1–4). He did not write this as a shepherd who lorded over them, but as a fellow elder.

11. The fact that Jesus Christ was one of the first to see his disciple Simon Peter after his resurrection and to have a separate conversation with him is understandable after Peter’s vehement denial of his Lord. But it does not serve as additional evidence of a special leadership position for this disciple.

12. Jesus Christ’s instruction to Simon in Luke 22:31–32 to strengthen his brothers is given after Christ’s teaching to the complete circle of disputing apostles (including Peter!) not to be focused on achieving the first place; and after his promise to all that they will sit on thrones in his kingdom to judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Luke 22:24–30).

13. Earlier Christ had taught the same lesson to his apostles, warning them not to call anyone on earth father (and therefore also not pope: the holy father): But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven (Matthew 23:8–9).

14. The strengthening by Simon Peter of his brothers after he escaped Satan’s sifting thanks to Christ’s intercession, does not imply that from then on he would have become the most important in their circle, or indeed the leader in the church of the centuries to come. Instead, it implied that Peter could now show the others from his own experience both how dangerous self-importance is and how great Christ’s forgiving grace is.

15. Beneath the New Jerusalem, as seen by John in a vision, there is not one foundation stone—Peter—but twelve foundation stones bearing the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (Revelation 21:14).

Interpretation 2:
No.

Summary: 

No, at most these words indicate that Peter, through his confession as the first disciple, proves to be useful to Christ in building up his church. But we cannot derive from this expression that Peter had a higher position than the other disciples—let alone an appointment as being the substitute of Christ on earth and therefore the leader of his worldwide church.

Arguments in favour of this view:

All the arguments against Interpretation 1.