You can take it however you want to. Because authority is part of the issue at hand isn’t it?. You are relying on 1 or 2 things, Calvin and Knox’s interpretation or your own with them as the major authoritative source.
As I said the term Papa from the Greek Papas [literally Daddy] was applied to not only the Bishop of Rome, but all Bishops and priests, gradually, the term Papa or Pope began to be reserved as an ecclesiastical title for the Bishop of Rome and the word father was used as an ecclesiastical title for priests who were not Bishops.
By which they nullified the command of God in using a forbidden ecclesiastical title. I never read Calvin or Knox on the subject. The text is obvious on its own to any typical reader. There are no major ambiguities to wade through. This isn’t rocket science. My five year old granddaughter could understand this. But you have a tradition to defend, and so you do. Nothing surprising in that. But you understand how this terminates rational discussion of the meaning of the text. Your presumed authority can rewrite this text however they like in any given century. Talk about a blank check. And we poor weak ones look on with amazement as you carefully weave your rationalization for direct disobedience to a clear command of Christ. If you want to take that kind of chance, and trust that kind of authority, that’s a matter of your own personal judgment. I can’t go there. I’d be worrying all the time God wasn’t buying the rationalization. Jesus sure didn’t buy it when the pharisees tried it.
Peace,
SR
This is a clear, plain, simple command by Jesus. It can be taken at face value and does not need interpretation, as it has no hidden meaning. It's not allegory, metaphor, parable. It's a very clear, concise command of Jesus which the Catholic church has deliberately chosen to disobey and no amount of rationalization or excuses can justify it.
pope (n.) Old English papa (9c.), from Church Latin papa "bishop, pope" (in classical Latin, "tutor"), from Greek papas "patriarch, bishop," originally "father." Applied to bishops of Asia Minor and taken as a title by the Bishop of Alexandria c.250. In Western Church, applied especially to the Bishop of Rome since the time of Leo the Great (440-461) and claimed exclusively by them from 1073 (usually in English with a capital P-). Popemobile, his car, is from 1979. Papal, papacy, later acquisitions in English, preserve the original vowel. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pope
The word pope derives from 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, and later became reserved in the west to the Bishop of Rome, a reservation made official only in the 11th century.[13][14][15][16][17] The earliest record of the use of this title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria, Pope Heraclas of Alexandria (232–248).[18] The earliest recorded use of the title "pope" in English dates to the mid-10th century, when it was used in reference to Pope Vitalian in an Old English translation of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum.[19]
The title was from the early 3rd century a general term used to refer to all bishops.[20] From the 6th century the title began to be used particularly of the Bishop of Rome, and in the late 11th century Pope Gregory VII issued a declaration that has been widely interpreted as stating this by then established Western convention.[20] By the same 6th century, this was also the normal practice of the imperial chancery of Constantinople. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope