Arguing over whether the creature in question is an elephant or a pachyderm; while it steps on everyone’s toes in the room and craps in the corners.
I’m not so sure about that, You nay have gotten too specific too soon. That is, is this entity even an animal, let alone an elephant.
o Simon bar Jona, disciple/apostle of Jesus the Nazarean: Mt. 4:18, 10:2~, 16:16*, 16:17**; Mk. 1:16, 1:29, 1:30, 3:16~, 14:37; Lk. 4:38, 5:3, 5:4, 5:5, 5:8*, 5:10, 6:14~, 22:312x, 24:34; Jn. 1:40*, 12:41, 1:42**, 6:8*,6:68*, 13:6*, 13:9*, 13:24* , 13:36*, 18:10*, 18:15*, 18:25*, 20:2*, 20:6*, 21:2*, 21:3*, 21:7*, 21:11, 21:15*, 21:15**, 21:16**, 21:17**; Ac. 10:18, 10:32~, 11:13~, 15:14Simeon; 2 Pet. 1:1*
o Simon the Canaanite, called Zelotes: Mt. 10:4, Mk. 3:18, Lk. 6:15, Ac. 1:13
o Simon, son of Joseph the carpenter, son pf Mary, brother of Jesus: Mt. 13:55, Mk. 6:3
o Simon the leper: Mt. 26:6, Mk. 14:3
o Simon of Cyrene: Mt. 27:2, Mk. 15:21, Lk. 23:26,
o Simeon the aged prophet: Lk. 2:25, 2:34
o Simeon, an ancestor of Mary: Lk. 3:30
o Simon the Pharisee: Lk. 7:40, 7:43, 7:44
o Simon the father of Judas Iscariot: Jn. 6:71, 12:4, 13:2, 13:26
o Simon of Samaria, the sorcerer: Ac. 8:9, 8:13, 8:24
o Simon of Joppa, a tanner: Ac. 9:43, 10:5, 10:6, 10:17, 10:32,
o Simeon called Niger: Ac 13:1
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Notes:
~ = the phrases "Simon called Peter" or "Simon, named Peter"
* = indicates the doubled name "Simon Peter"
** = the patronymic phrase "Simon bar Jona"<br>
Some of the comments I wish to make on this will probably be anticipated by the savvy reviewers of the list. But I would make some points worth evaluating:
-- Among the Jewish culture, the name Simon or Simeon apparently is very common.
-- There are 12 Sim(e)ons mentioned in the NT, and 9 of them are alive in Jesus' and Simon Peter's time.
-- Note that I was forced to use "Peter" to distinguish him from the others even in the above sentence.
-- Of particular interest is that in the Acts 15 church council, the ruling elder James did not call Simon by the alternate distiguishing name "Peter," but called him by his name Simeon, distinguishing him from all other Simons by denoting that Simon Peter had preached to them on a particular topic.
-- Reading the above, one sees that Jesus addressed Simon as "Peter" only once or twice, and that was to give him the unique identifier in the community where there was already one other Simon. But in speaking directly to Simon-the-brother-of-Andrew, where a third identifier is unnecessary, Jesus called him by his true name "Simon" or by the honorific patronymic title "Simon bar Jona."
-- The doubled identifying name "Simon Peter" was used once by Matthew, once by Luke, and once by Simon bar Jona of himself, but 15 times by John in his Gospel.
-- The alternate identifier, which by virtue of it almost unknown and unused Aramaic noun "Kefa" and equivalenty unused identifier "Peter" (masculine form) for humans, was used in either of the forms Kephas or Petros about 170 times, but never for any other object or person. Being thus unique, it was a convenient shorthand verbal flag with which to speak about Simon bar Jona to other people, or to write about him.
-- Nowhere in the NT is there any intimation that explicitly it was an estimate of Simon bar Jona as to possessing reliable, steady, mature handling of difficult situations, and unquestionable leadership traits. In fact, it is quite obvious that his behavior was quite power-seeking, selfish, unreliable, divisive, and even Satanically influenced, quite obviously opposite to what one might expect if the sobriquet was meant to describe desirable character attributes.
So, then, what I say is that the word "Kepha" or "Petros" was meant merely as an identifying tag by which to distinguish any communication that was about him or with him, not from which to draw any beneficial character qualities.
And therefore, this opinion is quite consistent with Scripture throughout.
The name "Peter" is just simply a convenient and uniquely irreproducible tag assigned by the foreknowing Master to distinguish him from all other Simon/Simeons favored with that identity. No more, no less.
(Presented for your perusal and criticism -- imardmd)