OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF ST. PETER: “PRIME MINISTER” “OVER THE HOUSE”, “STEWARD”, “MAJORDOMO”, “VIZIER”
by: bro. Rey V. Entila
CFD - Diocese of Bacolod
A. Joseph the prime Minister
Since the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament, and the New is understood by studying the Old, some of the important personages who foreshadowed the role of St. Peter in the New Testament will be considered. The first one is Joseph, one of the twelve sons of the Patriarch Jacob, and in fact Jacob’s favorite one since he was born of his beloved Rachel. Just as there were 12 apostles of our Lord whom Peter was chosen to be their leader, among Jacob’s sons, God’s chosen leader and liberator was Joseph.
He was endowed with the gift of predictive dreams and correct interpretation of dreams. He said to them, "Hear this dream which I have dreamed: behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and stood upright; and behold, your sheaves gathered round it, and bowed down to my sheaf." His brothers said to him, "Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to have dominion over us?" So they hated him yet more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreamed another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, "Behold, I have dreamed another dream; and behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me” (Gen.37:6-9, emphasis added). It means that not only his eleven brothers shall obey him because of his authority, but also their parents. Clearly, it was God’s will that one should lead and the others should follow despite initial resistance.
The realization of Joseph’s prediction came through his God-given ability to interpret anyone’s dreams, including that of Pharaoh’s of Egypt. In Gen.41:38-46, Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find such a man as this, in whom is the Spirit of God?" 39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discreet and wise as you are; 40 you shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command; only as regards the throne will I be greater than you." This is indeed the Pharaoh’s appointment that Joseph became the Prime Minister of the whole of Egypt.
Furthermore, Pharaoh said to Joseph, "‘Behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.’ Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; and he made him to ride in his second chariot; and they cried before him, ‘Bow the knee!’ Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt. Moreover Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no man shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.’ And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On. So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt. Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went through all the land of Egypt” (Gen. 41:41-46, emphasis mine).
Joseph, in the presence of his brothers who cruelly sold him to the Ishmaelites, pointed out to God’s providential design. “So it was not you who sent me here, but God; and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt” (Gen.45:8).
Like him, St. Peter in the New Testament was appointed by God through His Son Jesus Christ, to be the leader of the New Israel or the spiritual twelve tribes of Jacob to save His people not anymore to save them from famine, but to give them food that comes from the mouth of God (Mt. 4:4) and the manna from heaven that is flesh, the true food that leads to eternal life (Jn.6:51).
B. Moses and His Teaching Authority over the Hebrew People
The second among the prototypes of Simon Peter is the prophet Moses, who came from among the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, privileged to be educated in the palace, and became God’s mighty instrument of liberation of Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. Through him, God spoke infallible words to rule His people in their wanderings in the desert of Sinai. Through the written and the oral Torah or Law, God’s chosen people knew what was God’s will for them to live holy lives, until the grace of God in Christ superseded it (Gal.3:24).
According to the accounts in Exodus, “Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood about Moses from morning till evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, ‘What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand about you from morning till evening?’ And Moses said to his father-in-law, ‘Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God and his decisions’" (Ex.18:13,15-16). Here, Moses was the judge, another term for the leader, from whose mouth came God’s infallible decisions for God’s whole people. Since it was too exhausting to listen to everyone’s concerns, his concerned father-in-law, upon knowing Moses’ predicament suggested that Moses put up 70 minor judges to decide on minor issues while he (Moses) decide on the major ones. Therefore, Moses was clearly the supreme judge among the judges, just as in the New Testament, Peter was appointed the supreme leader among all the apostles.
Surprisingly, in Luke 10:1-2, Jesus also appointed 70 (in some versions, 72) disciples aside from the twelve apostles. Peter’s exercise of powerful leadership is found immediately after Christ’s Ascension (Acts 1) until Acts 15:7-11 when through his own mouth, God has decreed that the gentiles shall hear the gospel and believe. He infallibly decided that the gentiles are saved not by following the law of Moses but by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Just as God made a covenant with the Israelites to become his chosen people (Exodus 19 and 20) in the huge rock, Mount Sinai, and wrote the law upon two tablets of stone, in the New Testament Jesus brought the 12 disciples in Caesaria Philipi, with the background of the massive rock mountain called Petra. It was in that place that Jesus proclaimed Simon to be the rock-foundation upon which the New People of God shall be built (Mt.16:18-19). This time, God’s law is not anymore written in tables of stone, but “on tablets that are hearts of flesh” (2 Cor.3:3; Jer.31;31-34; Heb.10:16).
In the book of Matthew, Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice” (Mt.23:1-3). What this implies is that Moses sat as a supreme judge during his time. The New Testament teachers of the law and Pharisees succeded in the line of Moses; therefore, they have authority. Even Jesus recognized their teaching authority and urged people to follow what they say but not what they do. Peter, however, was installed by Jesus to be His duly appointed Prime Minister, a figure of Moses in the New Testament, who will judge or rule God’s people. Therefore, the Church recognizes this divinely instituted authority until today.
C. Eliakim - Vizier/ Prime Minister/ the one who was “over the house”
The third Old Testament to be considered as foreshadowing St. Peter’s role is Eliakim. Isaiah 22:20-22 reads, “In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. And they will hang on him the whole weight of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. In that day, says the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a sure place will give way; and it will be cut down and fall, and the burden that was upon it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken" (important words are italicized for emphasis).
Some observations need to be spelled out here. First, it is God who calls the person to the office and the person responds. Eliakim was called by God just as Peter was called by Christ. Secondly, the office is that of servanthood. Eliakim was God’s servant, as Peter was in the New Testament, and as the Pope today is called the “servus servorum Dei” (servant of the servants of God). Thirdly, when Eliakim took the office of the King’s Prime Minister, taking the place of Shebna, that office is continuing, just as the office of the papacy existed from the first century onwards until Jesus comes again in glory. Fourthly, the authority God gave to Eliakim made him the “father” of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah, St. Peter became a “father” (Greek Pappas, Pope) to St. Mark (1 Pet.5:13) and to all Christians. The Pope today continues that privilege. Fifthly, just as Eliakim was given the Key of the house of King David, Peter was given the Keys (plural) of the Kingdom of God by Christ the King (Matt.16:19), signifying that he was given authority by the King who himself holds the key or keys of his kingdom (Rev.1:18 – (keys); Rev.3:7 – (keys) Greek “kleis”; Rev.9:1 – (key); Rev.20:1 – (keys).
Sixthly, God Himself fastened Eliakim as an immovable peg in a sure place, Peter was pronounced by Jesus as Kephas (Aramaic, immovable rock) in John 1:42. Lastly, the whole glory (weight) of the house of Eliakim’s family will be upon him. If ever he becomes unfaithful to God, he and his family will suffer disaster. If ever Peter and his successor the Popes, will anger God, the whole Church will suffer disaster. This last characteristic suggests nothing against the infallibility of the Pope in pronouncing officially on faith and morals, but on his peccability, as a man tempted to commit sin. Yet, God promised through His divine grace, “I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place.” Jesus said to Peter, “And when you are converted, strengthen your brethren” (Lk.22:32).
D. The Prime Ministers of the Palace and their Succession of Office
The Prime Minister is called in the Sacred Scriptures by different titles: “over the house” (Heb.’al bayith/ beyth); “steward”; “majordomo”; “Master of the Palace” (according to the New Amercian bible); “vizier”. “And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, clothed with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz” (Isa.37:2). “And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper dwelt in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the LORD. And Jotham his son was over the king's household, governing the people of the land” (2 Chron. 26:21).
Aside from Joseph, Moses and Eliakim, the succession of the different Prime Ministers in the Kingdom of Israel and Judah prefigure the office of Peter as the Prime Minister of Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of lords, in God’s Kingdom on earth, the Church. Just as today, Prime Ministers serve the Kingdom in behalf of the King, and the office does not end with his death or expulsion, God’s people in both the Old and New Testaments, have the unbroken succession of office. The following are:
1. (Ahishar during the reign of Solomon). “Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram the son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor” (1 Kgs.4:6).
2. (Azra during the reign of King Elah). “His servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him. When he was at Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household in Tirzah, Zimri came in and struck him down and killed him” (1 Kgs.16:9-10).
3. (Obadiah during the reign of King Ahab). “Obadiah, who was over the household” (1 Kgs.18:3).
4. “And Jotham the king's son was over the household, governing the people of the land” (2 Kgs 15:5).
5. “And when they called for the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder” (2 kgs 18:18).
It seems that the former Prime Minister Shebna was demoted to being a secretary.
E. The Old Testament High Priest and his permanent Office
Just as there was a divinely ordained High Priest in the Old Testament to ensure purity of doctrine and morals, the New Testament which is the perfection of the Old Testament, there was a divinely ordained High Priest in the Person of Christ (Heb.5:10). However, since Christ ascended into heaven, Christ appointed in the Church His visible leader and ambassador in the Person of Peter. Cardinal Gibbons wrote a lucid explanation on this topic of which the researcher wishes to add nothing more:
“…in the Old Law the High Priest appointed by the Almighty God filled an office analogous to that of the Pope in the New Law. In the Jewish Church there were Priests and Levites ordained to minister in the altar; and there was, also, a supreme ecclesiastical tribunal, with the High Priest at its head. All matters of religious controversy were referred to this tribunal and in the last resort to the High priest, whose decision was enforced under the pain of death. ‘if there be a hard matter in judgment between blood and blood, cause and cause, leprosy and leprosy…thou shalt come to the Priests of the Levitical race and to the judge….but he that…will refuse to obey the commandment of the priest, who ministereth at the time…that man shall die, and thou shalt take away the evil from Israel’”(Deut 17:8-12).
From the passage above it is evident that in the Hebrew Church the High Priest had the highest jurisdiction in religious matters. By this means unity of faith and worship was preserved among the people of God….Now the Jewish synagogue, as St. Paul testifies, was the type and figure of the Christian Church; for ‘all these things happen to them (the Jews) in figure’ (1 Cor.10:2). We must, therefore, find in the Church of Christ a spiritual judge, exercising the same supreme authority as the High Priest wielded in the Old Law. For if a supreme Pontiff was necessary in the Mosaic dispensation to maintain purity and uniformity of worship, the same dignitary is equally necessary now to preserve the unity of faith. (The Faith of our Fathers, pp.78-79).
