Some Questions Answered

We are in a study of the church, looking at the history of the church. There were some questions asked last week [Lesson 6 – Part 1], and we were looking at the period of history about from the 6^th Century AD to about the mid-part of the 11^th Century AD—looking at some of the events contained therein. We will continue these studies next week, but first let’s clarify some points—answer some questions, and then try to make clear the path of the New Testament church in history as shown in these Lessons.

There were some questions that were asked at that time, and I didn’t have any answers. And I told you that I would research those questions, and that I would give you some answers. Before we get started, I wanted to answer those questions.

One of three questions that I remembered from last week had to do with the meaning of the world “pope.” We were talking about the term, the position, and so on, and one asked the question about the meaning of the word. Some of us speculated that it did have something to do with “father,” and indeed, it is from the Latin, which means “father.” The Old English in this particular reference that I looked up had the word “papa,” and I thought that was sort of interesting. As a matter of fact, some other languages—like the Spanish language—have a word which is very similar to our word “papa.” So, the meaning of this word “pope” is indeed “father.”

Now, another question that was asked in this regard had to do with when the title of “pope” was actually officially adopted and when it was begun to be used. It seems, at least from what I was able to find about that particular question, that there is some confusion about that, just as there seems to be confusion about who was to be credited with being the first pope. You know, we have mentioned that a couple times as we have been looking over this material. Some say it was Leo; some say it was Gregory I. But according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, it was Gregory I who was the pope, who was the “bishop of Rome” during the period about AD 590 to AD 604—who was first to adopt this title—this title of “pope.” You recall that initially there was the title of “patriarch,” and then the title “bishop of Rome,” and then eventually this title of “pope” came into being. However, I read from another source that Gregory eschewed this title—it was a title that he did not want to use. So, there is a bit of a conflict there. It does seem clear, however, that it was Boniface III who took the title for himself—actually bestowed the title on himself, if my understanding is correct, of “Universal Bishop of the Catholic Church,” and that took place in AD 606. He, thus, became recognized as the first head of the Catholic Church. Now, there were others, however, in this same period of time, who also used this title. Remember the word, the name, means “father,” and so there were some who were wearing this title as it had to do with their limited position—perhaps the “pope,” or the “father,” if you will, of a diocese or a region, or something of that nature. However, it would be Gregory VII, in the 11^th Century, who would declare that the title “pope” be worn only by the “bishop of Rome,” or, as the Catholic Encyclopedia says, “by the successors of Peter.”

The third question that I recall being asked was, when we were talking about the rise of the religion of Islam, of Mohammed, and the very rapid spread—we talked about some of the major cities that were taken over by these ones, one of those cities being Jerusalem. And the question was asked, who was in Jerusalem at this time—in this period of time? And this took place in the 7^th Century AD. Well, according to Muslim tradition, Omar, the first Caliph after Mohammed, accepted the surrender of Jerusalem from the Byzantines. The Byzantine Empire is the following empire from the Roman Empire.