[SUP]17 [/SUP]Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? [SUP]18 [/SUP]The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. [SUP]19 [/SUP]Is it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own shame? [SUP]0 [/SUP]Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched." Jer. 7:17-20
The Queen of Heaven was never Mary in the Bible, but rather a pagan goddess whom God condemned, as well as the people who worshiped and offered sacrifices to her.
I had a friend and her son was in a Catholic school. When the day came to offer up flowers to a statue of Mary, he asked me for a ride home. He knew it was pagan idolatry and he was in grade 6. One of those little Catholic ceremonies you don't hear very much about. I guess secret services are necessary because Mariology is so pagan?
As for the first pope being Peter, not so much.
"The
Patriarch of Alexandria is the
archbishop of
Alexandria and
Cairo,
Egypt. Historically, this office has included the designation
pope (etymologically "Father", like "Abbot"). The first bishop known to be called "
Pope" was the thirteenth Patriarch of Alexandria, Papas
Heraclas.The position at first was an
episcopate, revered as one of the three oldest episcopates (with
Rome and
Antioch) several centuries before
Jerusalem or
Constantinople attained that status in 381 or 451; the five were subsequently known as the
Pentarchy. It was elevated to
de facto archiepiscopal status by the Alexandrine Council and regulated by the
canon law of the
First Ecumenical Council, which stipulated that all the Egyptian episcopal and metropolitan provinces were subject to the
Metropolitan See of Alexandria (already the prevailing custom).
The word
pope derives from the
Greek πάππας, meaning "Father". In the early centuries of Christianity, this title was applied (especially in the east) to all bishops and other senior clergy. In the west it began to be used particularly for the Bishop of Rome (rather than for bishops in general) in the sixth century; in 1075,
Pope Gregory VII issued a declaration widely interpreted as stating this by-then-established convention. By the sixth century, this was also the normal practice in the imperial chancery of Constantinople.
The earliest record of this title was regarding
Pope Heraclas of Alexandria (227–240) in a letter written by his successor,
Pope Dionysius of Alexandria, to Philemon (a Roman
presbyter):
τοῦτον ἐγὼ τὸν κανόνα καὶ τὸν τύπον παρὰ τοῦ μακαρίου πάπα ἡμῶν Ἡρακλᾶ παρέλαβον.
This is translated:
I received this rule and ordinance from our blessed father/pope, Heraclas.
[SUP]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_of_Alexandria
[/SUP]
