19/09/2025
HINDI NAKARATING SI APOSTOL PEDRO SA ROMA
Kinikilala nating mga Katoliko bilang unang Santo Papa si Apostol Pedro. Naniniwala din tayo na nakapunta siya sa Roma. May mga kapatid naman tayong mga Protestante na ayaw maniwala sa paniniwalang ito at patuloy tayong inaatake dahil hindi raw mababasa sa mga talata ng Bibliya na si Apostol Pedro ay nakarating sa Roma.
Ang talatang pinagtatalunan ng mga Protestante at ng mga Katoliko tungkol sa bagay na ito ay ang nakasulat sa 1 Pedro 5:13:
“Kinukumusta kayo ng mga kapatid na nasa Babilonia, mga pinili ring katulad ninyo; kinukumusta rin kayo ni Marcos, na aking anak sa pananampalataya.”
Naniniwala tayo na ang binabanggit na “Babilonia” sa talata ay tumutukoy sa Roma.
Para sa isang Katolikong Iskolar na si Daniel Keating sa kanyang libro na *Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture*:
“**The city of Babylon was not only an image for the dominant political power in the world, which Rome had become, but because Babylon had been the place of exile for Israel**, it also fits extremely well with Peter’s emphasis on Christians as “aliens and sojourners” (1:1; 2:11).”
Naniniwala rin si Bernard Green, isang dalubhasa sa kasaysayan na ang tinutukoy na “Babilonia” sa 1 Pedro 5:13 ay ang Roma. Pinatotohanan ito ni Green sa kanyang isinulat na aklat na may pamagat na *Christianity in Ancient Rome* sa pahina 46.
Ayon din kay Green sa pahina 49 ng kanyang libro, merong dalawang malinaw na posibleng motibo kung bakit pumunta si Apostol Pedro sa Roma at ang unang motibo niya ay maaring siya ay nagtungo sa Roma pagkatapos ng pag-uusig noong 64 AD para magbigay ng simpatiya o palakasin ang mga loob ng mga Kristiyano doon.
Ayon naman kay Walter Wagner sa kanyang aklat na ***After the Apostles***, si Apostol Pedro at maging si Apostol Pablo ay namatay bilang mga martir sa Roma.
Para kay John Norman Davidson Kelly na isa ring Iskolar, “Roma” din ang tinutukoy sa 1 Pedro 5:13 at yan ang nakasulat sa kanyang aklat na *The Epistles of Peter and of Jude* sa pahina 218:
Josephus *(Ant. *xviii. 371-379), however, the Jewish population had been forced to abandon it in Claudius's reign (A.D. 41-54); it was declining rapidly in the 1st cent., and when Trajan visited it in 115 he found little but ruins (Cassius Dio, *Hist, *bcviii. 30). A missionary stay there by the Apostle of the circumcision (accompanied, moreover, by some astonishing coincidence, by Mark and Silvanus) seems therefore hard to credit, and the complete absence of local traditions attesting one reinforces these doubts. The key to the problem, in the view of most critics, lies in the fact that in the ist cent.' **Babylon' was becoming in Jewish and Christian circles a symbolical title for Rome.
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Isa mga bersyon ng Bibliya na isinalin ng mga Protestanteng Iskolar ay ang *The Living Bible*. Sa bersyon na ito ay mababasa natin ang ganito: “The church here in Rome—she is your sister in the Lord—sends you her greetings; so does my son Mark.” (1 Peter 5:13)
At ito ang nakasulat sa Footnotes:
1 Peter 5:13 The church here in Rome, literally, “She who is at Babylon is likewise chosen”; but Babylon was the Christian nickname for Rome, and the “she” is thought by many to be Peter’s wife to whom reference is made in Matthew 8:14; 1 Corinthians 9:5, etc. Others believe this verse should read: “Your sister church here in Babylon salutes you, and so does my son Mark.”
Source: biblegateway.com
Naririto naman ang mga patotoo ng mga Protestanteng mga Iskolar:
**1.) Gary M. Burge, Gene L. Green, and Lynn H. Cohick**
“**Early church testimony confirms Peter was martyred in Rome
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(sometime between AD 64 when the fire broke out and AD 68 when Nero died). A likely date for the letter is in the early 60s. “ (The New Testament in Antiquity: A Survey of the New Testament Within Its Cultural Context, page 402)
**2.) Philip W. Comfort
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**Ancient and modern exegetes alike have considered that Peter was using “Babylon” as a code word for Rome** because (1) according to early church tradition Peter was in Rome (2) there is no evidence for Peter’s having been in Babylon in Egypt, or Babylon in Mesopotamia…(New Testament Text and Translation Commentary, page 755)
**3.) John MacArthur
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Peter closed the epistle not by commanding the attitude of love, but by personally illustrating it. **His love for the believers in the church at Rome, from where he wrote**, is seen in the designation she who is in Babylon, which is an oblique reference to that church. (1 Peter MacArthur New Testament Commentary)
**4.) Paul J. Achtemeier
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Again, the location of the author, **"Babylon," stands for Rome** in some apocalyptic literature of this period. - Peter 1 Hermeneia (Hermeneia: A Critical & Historical Commentary on the Bible) page 106)
