Some people say that St. Peter could not have been the bishop of Rome because he was never in Rome at all. Apologist Trent Horn gives reasons why we can believe that he not only spent time in Rome, but was martyred there as well.
Transcript:
Some people say that St. Peter could not have been the bishop of Rome because he was never in Rome at all. But archaeologists have discovered St. Peter’s tomb right below St. Peter’s basilica in the city of Rome.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Saints, “it is probable that the tomb is authentic. It is also significant that Rome is the only city that ever claimed to be Peter’s place of death” (353). The Lutheran scholar Oscar Cullman, in his monumental study of Peter, concludes, “The excavations speak in favor of the report that the execution of Peter took place in the Vatican district (152.)
In 1 Peter 5:13 Peter says he was writing from the city of Babylon. This could not be the literal city of Babylon because the Jewish historian Josephus tells us that by the time of Emperor Claudius the Jews had left Babylon. In the second century emperor Trajan found Babylon to be nothing but a ghost town. Sean McDowell, an Evangelical scholar who has written the definitive treatment on the fate of the 12 apostles, says:
“The Old Testament city of Babylon was in ruins, so he could not have been referring to that city. Rather, it was a relatively common cryptic name for Rome, the enemy of God. Like the Hebrews exiled in the Babylon of the Old Testament, Christians in Rome felt themselves exiles in a foreign land, a sinful city that oppressed the people of God.”
Jewish literature, such as the Sibylline Oracles and 4 Baruch, as well as Christian literature like the book of Revelation, all used the name Babylon in reference to Rome. The evangelical scholar D.A. Carson likewise believes that Peter was in Rome about A.D. 63 or when 1 Peter was written and McDowell concludes, “it is historically very probable that Peter was in Rome for at least some period of time.” (60)
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For Catholic Answers I’m Trent Horn, and thanks for watching.