Has anyone else noticed this imagery yet? A photo is taken of our Commander-in-Chief with the Presidential Seal as a backdrop, but positioned in such a way that it creates a "halo effect"...
Dubya, Obama, and the clearly contrived
Friday, October 30, 2009
Please, some original thought?
For the longest time I thought Bill Maher was the intellectual antithesis of Sean Hannity. Both mindlessly droning on, regurgitating outdated and ridiculous rhetoric. "14 U.N. resolutions, 14 U.N resolutions, 14 U.N. resolutions..." vs. "George Bush is dumb, George Bush is dumb, George Bush is dumb..."
But behold! I have discovered one opinion writer for the New York Times who's feeble and pathetic mind surpasses all challengers. This mutant's name is Maureen Dowd and she has the superpower of making any reasonable human being wish they were illiterate. You read that correctly. The dribble she publishes is so excruciatingly vacuous that it is difficult to read, often because the pain causes my eyes to well with tears.
If she isn't spewing (self-hating) anti-Catholic remarks so vile she'd get canned if applied to an other group (say Muslims, Jews, etc), she's writing articles titled Oval Man Cave where she freely pouts about how a fellow journalist played golf with the President and she didn't make the cut. Boo-fucking-hoo.
Simply put: she's an irrelevant whiner.
But behold! I have discovered one opinion writer for the New York Times who's feeble and pathetic mind surpasses all challengers. This mutant's name is Maureen Dowd and she has the superpower of making any reasonable human being wish they were illiterate. You read that correctly. The dribble she publishes is so excruciatingly vacuous that it is difficult to read, often because the pain causes my eyes to well with tears.
If she isn't spewing (self-hating) anti-Catholic remarks so vile she'd get canned if applied to an other group (say Muslims, Jews, etc), she's writing articles titled Oval Man Cave where she freely pouts about how a fellow journalist played golf with the President and she didn't make the cut. Boo-fucking-hoo.
Simply put: she's an irrelevant whiner.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Congressman Grayson
Turns out Congressman Grayson made a cameo appearance in the movie There's Something About Mary. "Franks and beans! Franks and beans!"
God's Gamblers
Cardinal Rigali of Philadelphia and Archbishop Dolan of New York are betting on the World Series, and Timmy Dolan had this to say about the senior prelate:
"Cardinal Rigali is one of my closest and dearest friends; for several years he even served as my Archbishop so I feel a particular loyalty to him. I know he has exquisite taste in most matters. I just wish he had better taste in baseball teams."That has a ring of Divine inspiration to it... GO YANKS!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Rome-SSPX Doctrinal Discussions
On October 26th the Holy See entered into dialog with representatives of the Society of Saint Pius X. They began by identifying issues of contention, and the one on the list that jumped out at me was the Missal of Paul VI. I have recently been made aware of a study the SSPX did on the new missal titled The Problem of the Liturgical Reform. While it is an interesting read, I am mostly left with the impression that it is an attempt to generate something to gripe about all while sounding erudite than actually having a legitimate beef and knowing what they are talking about.
For instance, a claim is made that the traditional theology concerning the holy Sacrifice of the Mass is on redemption - the economy of sin and satisfaction - and thus in the Pian Missal you find a natural emphases on the Passion of our Lord. In their examination of the Pauline Missal, they claim that there is a "new theology" of the Liturgy, which has a broader scope of redemption that not only encompasses the suffering and death of Christ, but his Resurrection and Ascension. This "new theology" emphasizes all three. Somehow this supposed perversion has allegedly fucked up contemporary Catholics understanding of sin as an offense against God and twisted our understanding of blah blah blah...
Who are they kidding? They are just spinning nonsense. Shit like this:
For instance, a claim is made that the traditional theology concerning the holy Sacrifice of the Mass is on redemption - the economy of sin and satisfaction - and thus in the Pian Missal you find a natural emphases on the Passion of our Lord. In their examination of the Pauline Missal, they claim that there is a "new theology" of the Liturgy, which has a broader scope of redemption that not only encompasses the suffering and death of Christ, but his Resurrection and Ascension. This "new theology" emphasizes all three. Somehow this supposed perversion has allegedly fucked up contemporary Catholics understanding of sin as an offense against God and twisted our understanding of blah blah blah...
Who are they kidding? They are just spinning nonsense. Shit like this:
If we consider Christ’s work insofar as it benefits men, the death on the Cross is still the most important of His actions. The Resurrection certainly contributes to our salvation, notably as an example for us, but classic theology maintains that only the death of Christ—and not His Resurrection—has a meritorious and satisfactory value. Thus for classic theology, it is the Passion rather than the Resurrection which sums up our salvation.While I would not argue that the Passion of our Lord is the meritorious cause of salvation, I do take issue with viewing its work as distinct from the Resurrection. By separating one from the other they completely devalue the Resurrection, saying it primarily contributes to our salvation "as an example for us". What kind of fucking "example" is it? If it is simply an "example", why is Easter the most solemn day of the year? Dying he destroyed OUR death, rising he restored OUR life. What value does his Passion have if he does not rise from the dead and break the dominion of sin and death? In Holy Communion we do not receive the dead flesh and blood of Christ, but his risen and glorified body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Savior. In one of the first conciliar statements on the Eucharist and the Liturgy the Council of Ephesus said the following:
Proclaiming the death according to the flesh of the only begotten Son of God, that is Jesus Christ, and professing his return to life from the dead and his ascension into heaven, we offer the unbloody worship [sacrificii servitutem] in the churches and so proceed to the mystical thanksgivings and are sanctified having partaken of the holy flesh [corpus] and precious blood of Christ, the saviour of us all.The Fathers of Ephesus shoot down their bullshit theory that the "classical" theology of the Mass is an emphasis on the Passion apart from and over the Resurrection and Ascension and the study itself reveals them as the blithering imbeciles they truly are.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Twisted Children
Since entering my late twenties, I've experienced a strong impulse to spawn a legion of mini-Timmys. Basic biology is hard at work, but one of the things that has always given me pause is the fear of how my children would turn out. Take half my DNA, throw it in the blender with that of even an ordinary woman (let alone some of the misfits I'm a magnet for), and BAM! Meet the next Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, or disgruntled postal worker from Oklahoma. Aside from the genetics, my parenting skills would no doubt supercharge their psychosis.
But wait. There are worse parent-progeny train wrecks than I have the potential for! Two different stories have come to my attention recently and are topically related: juvenile gang rape.
The first incident involves a woman who was raped in her own home by 10 or so teenagers. Her 12 year old son was tortured for about twenty minutes, forced at gunpoint to have sex with his mother, all before being doused with flammable liquids. They, however, were not set on fire as planed because no one remembered to bring a lighter. After the gang left, the two victims walked an hour to the hospital...
In the second case we have a 15 year old girl who was raped by 4 to 7 other students after her homecoming dance. As unnerving as that is, the real kicker is that roughly a dozen other students witnessed the whole thing over a 2 1/2 hour period. Taking pictures and recording it with their cell phone cameras.
And I thought my kids would turn out to be low lives. These other kids though... damn. Rape is not an intramural tag-team sport. These kids should become familiar with the story of Alberto Pocaterra, a serial rapist who only after 5 hours in prison was himself stabbed, raped, castrated, and then decapitated by twenty other inmates.
And then they used his head as a football.
But wait. There are worse parent-progeny train wrecks than I have the potential for! Two different stories have come to my attention recently and are topically related: juvenile gang rape.
The first incident involves a woman who was raped in her own home by 10 or so teenagers. Her 12 year old son was tortured for about twenty minutes, forced at gunpoint to have sex with his mother, all before being doused with flammable liquids. They, however, were not set on fire as planed because no one remembered to bring a lighter. After the gang left, the two victims walked an hour to the hospital...
In the second case we have a 15 year old girl who was raped by 4 to 7 other students after her homecoming dance. As unnerving as that is, the real kicker is that roughly a dozen other students witnessed the whole thing over a 2 1/2 hour period. Taking pictures and recording it with their cell phone cameras.
And I thought my kids would turn out to be low lives. These other kids though... damn. Rape is not an intramural tag-team sport. These kids should become familiar with the story of Alberto Pocaterra, a serial rapist who only after 5 hours in prison was himself stabbed, raped, castrated, and then decapitated by twenty other inmates.
And then they used his head as a football.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth
In a previous posting I spoke of the disintegration of Anglican communities and the potential impact on the Catholic Church. In 2007 the Traditional Anglican Communion, a group long splintered from Canterbury, petitioned the Holy See for reunification. Well, two years later it has come to pass. Rome has announced that it will publish an Apostolic Constitution in the coming weeks which will provide for conversions en masse of entire Anglican parishes, diocese, and provinces.
Reactions?
Hands down the best commentary on this topic goes to Father Rutler.
Reactions?
"May I firstly state that this is an act of great goodness on the part of the Holy Father. He has dedicated his pontificate to the cause of unity. It more than matches the dreams we dared to include in our petition of two years ago. It more than matches our prayers. In those two years, we have become very conscious of the prayers of our friends in the Catholic Church. Perhaps their prayers dared to ask even more than ours.
While we await the full text of the Apostolic Constitution, we are also moved by the pastoral nature of the Notes issued today by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. My fellow bishops have indeed signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church and made a statement about the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, reflecting the words of Pope John Paul II in his letter Ut Unum Sint.
Other Anglican groups have indicated to the Holy See a similar desire and a similar acceptance of Catholic faith. As Cardinal Levada has indicated, this response to Anglican petitions is to be of a global character. It will now be for these groups to forge a close cooperation, even where they transcend the existing boundaries of the Anglican Communion." -Archbishop John Hepworth, Traditional Anglican Communion
"This is a remarkable new step from the Vatican. At long last there are some choices for Catholics in the Church of England. I'd be happy to be reordained into the Catholic Church." -Rt. Rev. John Hind, Bishop of Chichester
Hands down the best commentary on this topic goes to Father Rutler.
BREAKING NEWS!!!
I just remembered I had one of these when I received a bill for the renewal of my domain. So I guess that means I'm gunna have to get back to posting...
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Sic Semper Tyrannis
"When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty." -Thomas Jefferson
In ancient Rome, in the earliest days of that republic, there was a political figure named Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus who is considered by many to be the embodiment of civic virtue. From a noble family, his fortune was decimated by the imprudence of one of his sons and was thus reduced to the status a humble farmer.
With the Roman Republic on the brink of devastation, at war with neighboring tribes that had cornered her army and laid siege to them in the Alban Hills, the Senate authorized the nomination of Cincinnatus as Dictator for a term of six months. A Senate delegation was dispatched to Cincinnatus' farm to announce his appointment and brief him on the state the Republic was in. Upon their arrival, they found their Dictator with his hand to a plow tilling his fields. With his family facing starvation if their crops went un-sown, Cincinnatus accepted the charge of dictatorial power. Immediately returning to the city, he assembled a civilian army on the Field of Mars and set out to relieve the units trapped in the Alban Hills by the Aequian and Sabine tribes. Personally leading the infantry into battle, the siege was lifted and the enemies of Rome were defeated.
Sixteen days after a sudden and unexpected rise to the pinnacle of power, having fulfilled his mission to the Republic, he went to the forum before the break of day and ceded the absolute authority he was entrusted back to the Senate. Thereafter he refused any grants of land, monetary gifts, or other spoils of war from the Senate, returning to till his fields.
In ancient Rome, in the earliest days of that republic, there was a political figure named Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus who is considered by many to be the embodiment of civic virtue. From a noble family, his fortune was decimated by the imprudence of one of his sons and was thus reduced to the status a humble farmer.
With the Roman Republic on the brink of devastation, at war with neighboring tribes that had cornered her army and laid siege to them in the Alban Hills, the Senate authorized the nomination of Cincinnatus as Dictator for a term of six months. A Senate delegation was dispatched to Cincinnatus' farm to announce his appointment and brief him on the state the Republic was in. Upon their arrival, they found their Dictator with his hand to a plow tilling his fields. With his family facing starvation if their crops went un-sown, Cincinnatus accepted the charge of dictatorial power. Immediately returning to the city, he assembled a civilian army on the Field of Mars and set out to relieve the units trapped in the Alban Hills by the Aequian and Sabine tribes. Personally leading the infantry into battle, the siege was lifted and the enemies of Rome were defeated.
Sixteen days after a sudden and unexpected rise to the pinnacle of power, having fulfilled his mission to the Republic, he went to the forum before the break of day and ceded the absolute authority he was entrusted back to the Senate. Thereafter he refused any grants of land, monetary gifts, or other spoils of war from the Senate, returning to till his fields.
***
As the sons and daughters of another Republic, millenia later and half a world away, we too find ourselves on the cusp of an abyss all too eager to swallow us up. How we approach this political, military, and economic disaster will no doubt profoundly shape the future of our society and culture. I point to Cincinnatus as a model (a man even George Washington chose to model himself after) because he was virtuous - moral, honorable, intelligent, vigorous - and did not abuse public office to satisfy the demands of his purse or vanity.
WHERE ARE SUCH MEN TODAY?!?!?!
Surely such men do not plan our Republic's foreign policy in the Oval Office. Nor are they debating the necessity (let alone the constitutionality) of pending legislation on the floor of the Senate. And when the members of the House of Representatives have prepared budgets over the past 40 years, words like "responsible" and "austere" are hardly synonymous. If men of the same ilk as Cincinnatus walked the halls of our capital city, we most certainly would not find ourselves in this situation.
There is no doubt that our fathers who endured real economic depressions or fought in World Wars were virtuous, some even being numbered among the "Greatest Generation". But in their wake the torch has been passed to a most decrepit and undeserving generation who have governed quite simply in a tyrannical fashion. They've vowed their children to indentured servitude to ensure their own comfort, ransomed personal liberty to assuage their fears, and have torn the fabric of this nation apart over petty and insignificant disputes in order to subvert our Republic to accumulate power.
Now, the intent of this post is not to indict or dwell on the short comings of that overwhelmingly rancid cabal of despots. Whether they realize it or not, if these little Caesars persist in their course of action they will not only inspire men like Cincinnatus to challenge them. Rather they will find themselves face to face with men like Brutus, who will no doubt bear a violent and swift fate for them in the palm of their hands. But regardless of what happens, I need not focus on them as history will more accurately measure out and dispense the meager respect (and abundant contempt) that they have earned.
The focus of this essay is to call upon the children of my generation, to step forward and assume the torch of liberty and justice that has been so carelessly flung about over the past decades, lest our own children find it extinguished. I know many of us are profoundly apathetic. We sit at home and roll our eyes at the empty rhetoric and platitudes that enthral so many into a mindless stupor. Fuck Bush, Obama, Gingrich, Pelosi, Guliani, Limbaugh, Carville, Coulter, and the Clintons. They are civil whores that should be cast away and acknowledged as the pariahs that they truly are.
Step forward Cincinnati and offer a legitimate remedy to this inept regime before before even lesser men and women seize power. You are, as John Adams said, the "natural aristocracy" and it is because of your virtue and talents that nature calls upon you to serve your fellow men and women. Strength is not there for its own use, but there to offset the frailty of the weak. Deliver a deathblow at the ballot box before the mob tries to accomplish the same in the halls of Congress with daggers. If ever there was a time, it would be now.
WHERE ARE SUCH MEN TODAY?!?!?!
Surely such men do not plan our Republic's foreign policy in the Oval Office. Nor are they debating the necessity (let alone the constitutionality) of pending legislation on the floor of the Senate. And when the members of the House of Representatives have prepared budgets over the past 40 years, words like "responsible" and "austere" are hardly synonymous. If men of the same ilk as Cincinnatus walked the halls of our capital city, we most certainly would not find ourselves in this situation.
There is no doubt that our fathers who endured real economic depressions or fought in World Wars were virtuous, some even being numbered among the "Greatest Generation". But in their wake the torch has been passed to a most decrepit and undeserving generation who have governed quite simply in a tyrannical fashion. They've vowed their children to indentured servitude to ensure their own comfort, ransomed personal liberty to assuage their fears, and have torn the fabric of this nation apart over petty and insignificant disputes in order to subvert our Republic to accumulate power.
Now, the intent of this post is not to indict or dwell on the short comings of that overwhelmingly rancid cabal of despots. Whether they realize it or not, if these little Caesars persist in their course of action they will not only inspire men like Cincinnatus to challenge them. Rather they will find themselves face to face with men like Brutus, who will no doubt bear a violent and swift fate for them in the palm of their hands. But regardless of what happens, I need not focus on them as history will more accurately measure out and dispense the meager respect (and abundant contempt) that they have earned.
The focus of this essay is to call upon the children of my generation, to step forward and assume the torch of liberty and justice that has been so carelessly flung about over the past decades, lest our own children find it extinguished. I know many of us are profoundly apathetic. We sit at home and roll our eyes at the empty rhetoric and platitudes that enthral so many into a mindless stupor. Fuck Bush, Obama, Gingrich, Pelosi, Guliani, Limbaugh, Carville, Coulter, and the Clintons. They are civil whores that should be cast away and acknowledged as the pariahs that they truly are.
Step forward Cincinnati and offer a legitimate remedy to this inept regime before before even lesser men and women seize power. You are, as John Adams said, the "natural aristocracy" and it is because of your virtue and talents that nature calls upon you to serve your fellow men and women. Strength is not there for its own use, but there to offset the frailty of the weak. Deliver a deathblow at the ballot box before the mob tries to accomplish the same in the halls of Congress with daggers. If ever there was a time, it would be now.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Essay on the Papacy
The following is an essay on the Papacy, taken from an exchange between myself and others on a forum.
"Jesus saith to them: But whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. Then he commanded his disciples, that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ."
-Matthew 16:18
There are a couple of things that have to be presumed when reading this text.
1. Christ is King
"He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever."
-Luke 1:32
2. The Church is the Kingdom of God (compare the eternity of the kingdom described below with Matthew 16, and the interchangeability of Church and Kingdom above):
"But in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and his kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people, and it shall break in pieces, and shall consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever."
-Daniel 2:44
I don’t think our Lord used terms or phrases that had no meaning behind them. The phrase "keys to the kingdom" is fairly loaded and has a particular meaning.
"This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: ’Go, say to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the house: What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock?... I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position. "In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will be a seat of honor for the house of his father. All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars."
-Isaias 22:15-16, 19-24
Israel and Judah did not exist in a vacuum, as they modeled their kingdom on those of other nations (primarily Egypt).
"Then all the ancients of Israel being assembled, came to Samuel to Ramatha. And they said to him: Behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: make us a king, to judge us, as all nations have... But the people would not hear the voice of Samuel, and they said: Nay: but there shall be a king over us. And we also will be like all nations: and our king shall judge us, and go out before us, and tight our battles for us."
-1 Samuel 4-5, 19-20
Did Egypt have a similar office to that of steward in Israel?
"And again Pharao said to Joseph: Behold, I have appointed thee over the whole land of Egypt. And he took his ring from his own hand, and gave it into his hand: and he put upon him a robe of silk, and put a chain of gold about his neck. And he made him go up into his second chariot, the crier proclaiming that all should bow their knee before him, and that they should know he was made governor over the whole land of Egypt. And the king said to Joseph: I am Pharao; without thy commandment no man shall move hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. And he turned his name, and called him in the Egyptian tongue, Zaphnah-paaneah (saviour of the world). And he gave him to wife Aseneth the daughter of Putiphare priest of Heliopolis. Then Joseph went out to the land of Egypt."
-Genesis 41:41-45
What our Lord is talking about is a royal office, that of the steward (vizier, majordomo). It is a single office, occupied by one person at a time, whose symbol of authority are the keys (Israel) or a signet ring (Egypt), etc. The authority that the steward had was over all of the king’s subjects, without exception. It was not limited to any precinct, territory, region, etc.
The power of binding and loosening is something different. That too is a loaded phrase, and I would turn to the Jewish Encyclopedia for clarity:
"And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican. Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you shall consent upon earth, concerning any thing whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by my Father who is in heaven."
-Matthew 18:17-19
Aside from Peter who was given the authority to bind and loosen, all of the other Apostles have to work together. At least two or three... none (aside from Peter) can act individually. Limits of territorial jurisdiction, are the byproduct of the power to bind and loosen, and not a Divine mandate itself (as the Petrine Ministry or Apostolic authority are) but is rather a custom which developed into law, in order to provide smooth governance. Revelation tells us that there is one Church ruled by many bishops:
"Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."
-Acts 20:28
"And I have so preached this gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation."
-Romans 15:20
It was not until the Council of Nicaea that clergy were absolutely restricted to their diocese (i.e. limits of jurisdiction) concerning ordinary affairs:
"On account of the great disturbance and the factions which are caused, it is decreed that the custom, if it is found to exist in some parts contrary to this canon, shall be totally suppressed, so that neither bishops nor presbyters nor deacons shall transfer from city to city. If after this decision of this holy and great synod anyone shall attempt such a thing, or shall lend himself to such a proceeding, the arrangement shall be totally annulled, and he shall be restored to the church of which he was ordained bishop or presbyter or deacon."
-Council of Nicaea, Canon XV
"Jesus saith to them: But whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. Then he commanded his disciples, that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ."
-Matthew 16:18
There are a couple of things that have to be presumed when reading this text.
1. Christ is King
"He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever."
-Luke 1:32
2. The Church is the Kingdom of God (compare the eternity of the kingdom described below with Matthew 16, and the interchangeability of Church and Kingdom above):
"But in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and his kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people, and it shall break in pieces, and shall consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever."
-Daniel 2:44
I don’t think our Lord used terms or phrases that had no meaning behind them. The phrase "keys to the kingdom" is fairly loaded and has a particular meaning.
"This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: ’Go, say to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the house: What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock?... I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position. "In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will be a seat of honor for the house of his father. All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars."
-Isaias 22:15-16, 19-24
Israel and Judah did not exist in a vacuum, as they modeled their kingdom on those of other nations (primarily Egypt).
"Then all the ancients of Israel being assembled, came to Samuel to Ramatha. And they said to him: Behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: make us a king, to judge us, as all nations have... But the people would not hear the voice of Samuel, and they said: Nay: but there shall be a king over us. And we also will be like all nations: and our king shall judge us, and go out before us, and tight our battles for us."
-1 Samuel 4-5, 19-20
Did Egypt have a similar office to that of steward in Israel?
"And again Pharao said to Joseph: Behold, I have appointed thee over the whole land of Egypt. And he took his ring from his own hand, and gave it into his hand: and he put upon him a robe of silk, and put a chain of gold about his neck. And he made him go up into his second chariot, the crier proclaiming that all should bow their knee before him, and that they should know he was made governor over the whole land of Egypt. And the king said to Joseph: I am Pharao; without thy commandment no man shall move hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. And he turned his name, and called him in the Egyptian tongue, Zaphnah-paaneah (saviour of the world). And he gave him to wife Aseneth the daughter of Putiphare priest of Heliopolis. Then Joseph went out to the land of Egypt."
-Genesis 41:41-45
What our Lord is talking about is a royal office, that of the steward (vizier, majordomo). It is a single office, occupied by one person at a time, whose symbol of authority are the keys (Israel) or a signet ring (Egypt), etc. The authority that the steward had was over all of the king’s subjects, without exception. It was not limited to any precinct, territory, region, etc.
The power of binding and loosening is something different. That too is a loaded phrase, and I would turn to the Jewish Encyclopedia for clarity:
Rabbinical term for "forbidding and permitting." The expression "asar" (to bind herself by a bond) is used in the Bible (Num. xxx. 3 et seq.) for a vow which prevents one from using a thing. It implies binding an object by a powerful spell in order to prevent its use (see Targ. to Ps. lviii. 6; Shab. 81b, for "magic spell"). The corresponding Aramean "shera" and Hebrew "hittir" (for loosing the prohibitive spell) have no parallel in the Bible.Our Lord only gave the keys to Peter. When we look at the power to bind and loosen, that too is given to Peter individually (the Greek is singular in Matthew 16), and the Apostles as a body (the Greek is plural).
The power of binding and loosing was always claimed by the Pharisees. Under Queen Alexandra, the Pharisees, says Josephus ("B J." i, 5, § 2), "became the administrators of all public affairs so as to be empowered to banish and readmit whom they pleased, as well as to loose and to bind." This does not mean that, as the learned men, they merely decided what, according to the Law, was forbidden or allowed, but that they possessed and exercised the power of tying or untying a thing by the spell of their divine authority, just as they could, by the power vested in them, pronounce and revoke an anathema upon a person. The various schools had the power "to bind and to loose"; that is, to forbid and to permit (Ḥag. 3b); and they could bind any day by declaring it a fast-day (Meg. Ta’an. xxii.; Ta’an. 12a; Yer. Ned. i. 36c, d). This power and authority, vested in the rabbinical body of each age or in the Sanhedrin (see Authority), received its ratification and final sanction from the celestial court of justice (Sifra, Emor, ix.; Mak. 23b).
In the New Testament.
In this sense Jesus, when appointing his apostles to be his successors, used the familiar formula (Matt. xvi. 19, xviii. 18). By these words he virtually invested them with the same authority as that which he found belonging to the scribes and Pharisees who "bind heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but will not move them with one of their fingers"; that is, "loose them, " as they have the power to do (Matt. xxiii. 2-4). In the same sense, in the second epistle of Clement to James II. ("Clementine Homilies, " Introduction), Peter is represented as having appointed Clement as his successor, saying: "I communicate to him the power of binding and loosing so that, with respect to everything which he shall ordain in the earth, it shall be decreed in the heavens; for he shall bind what ought to be bound and loose what ought to be loosed as knowing the rule of the church." Quite different from this Judaic and ancient view of the apostolic power of binding and loosing is the one expressed in John xx. 23, where Jesus is represented as having said to his disciples after they had received the Holy Spirit: "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." It is this view which, adopted by Tertullian and all the church fathers, invested the head of the Christian Church with the power to forgive sins, the "clavis ordinis, " "the key-power of the Church."
"And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican. Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you shall consent upon earth, concerning any thing whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by my Father who is in heaven."
-Matthew 18:17-19
Aside from Peter who was given the authority to bind and loosen, all of the other Apostles have to work together. At least two or three... none (aside from Peter) can act individually. Limits of territorial jurisdiction, are the byproduct of the power to bind and loosen, and not a Divine mandate itself (as the Petrine Ministry or Apostolic authority are) but is rather a custom which developed into law, in order to provide smooth governance. Revelation tells us that there is one Church ruled by many bishops:
"Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."
-Acts 20:28
"And I have so preached this gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation."
-Romans 15:20
It was not until the Council of Nicaea that clergy were absolutely restricted to their diocese (i.e. limits of jurisdiction) concerning ordinary affairs:
"On account of the great disturbance and the factions which are caused, it is decreed that the custom, if it is found to exist in some parts contrary to this canon, shall be totally suppressed, so that neither bishops nor presbyters nor deacons shall transfer from city to city. If after this decision of this holy and great synod anyone shall attempt such a thing, or shall lend himself to such a proceeding, the arrangement shall be totally annulled, and he shall be restored to the church of which he was ordained bishop or presbyter or deacon."
-Council of Nicaea, Canon XV
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