Saint Peter

[The Prodigal Son]

Dear Cyprian,

Thank- you very much! That's more of an answer than I've ever gotten before.

According to that then if it's accurate - Fr. Thomas Hopko is not quite right.

But neither was the Orthodox man I had my previous discussion with because he asserted that St. Peter was indeed a bishop... but he also at the same time declared that St. Paul was not a bishop.

I said that if Peter was a bishop - then Paul also neccessarily must have been a bishop as well. He ended up getting angry with me, saying that he was Orthodox and I was clearly not!

He said that Paul wasn't a bishop because he didn't do baptisms... and bishops do baptisms.

Anyhow - is there any way you could provide a link here to the source for those writings of St. Epiphanius of Salamis?

Thanks again!

St.E... cross_crucifixion.gif (152.59 KiB) Viewed 1618 times

[Cyprian]

Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ, Joshua.

To put it nicely, Fr. Thomas Hopko, St. Vladimir's and the OCA are not right about a lot of things. I don't know if you are aware of the controversy re: Fr. Thomas Hopko and his view of the Virgin birth in his book: The Winter Pascha

He said that Paul wasn't a bishop because he didn't do baptisms... and bishops do baptisms.

Where did this man come up with such a foolish notion that the holy apostle Paul did not perform baptisms? That is patently absurd. Of course St. Paul baptized--he wrote of baptisms he performed at the beginning of his first epistle to the Corinthians.

The Panarion of Ephiphanius of Salamis: Book I (sects 1-46)
http://books.google.com/books?id=s9-utOHPLfEC

Simply type in 'Linus' in the search field and it will direct you to page 104 where this citation can be found.

Let know if I can assist your efforts any further.

Cyprian