There is another angle that crossed my mind. The Catholics claim Peter was using code when he said Babylon but was really referring to Rome and that was common in that day. If that was so common wouldn’t the Romans also know of the term? So much for hiding his whereabouts. And when Herod Agrippa imprisoned Peter, he was in Jerusalem (Acts 12:1-4) Also Paul goes to Jerusalem to see Peter and even abides with him there. Therefore, Peter must have lived there (Galatians 1:18).
Exactly, CB. Galatians gives us so much information regarding the 12, and Paul. And if it were read like it is written, without preconceived opinions of what “religion” has taught, it would be crystal clear. But alas, there is no power or money or puffed up sense of self in religion if the truth is simply believed as it is simply told.
If you have read Acts, you must have noticed how abruptly Peter “leaves” the story, as if the writer intends later to tell you more, and shifts to the story of Paul. The greater part of Acts is about Paul’s missions ending with return to Jerusalem, where he meets James but not Peter. The story abruptly ends, as if the author had simply laid down his pen. He may have intended to resume the story later, or he may simply have told us all he knows. And what he knows is NOT a complete story of the activities of the Apostles. I am not making an argument from silence. I am only pointing to what anyone who reads the New Testament notices, which is how it it is an anthology of occasional writings, whose only common thread is the proclamation of the Gospel. And we must consider the audience: to those Christians who knew far more than we can ever know about the persons and their comings and going and other deeds than we can ever know, until we encounter them ourselves.
Re Peter his preeminence in Rome:
And then you have all those letters to the churches reminding them to remember the holy Father reigning in Rome, and thus Paul was sure to mention him among all the acquaintances he named in the epistles to the Romans...
But Peter did have a general pastoral role as the leader among brethren, but perpetuating that and placing it on steroids is where Scripture ends and Rome begins.
This data is found in the penumbra of the early fathers writings...