How did the name Bishop of Rome emerge?

Answer 1

The office of bishop is described in the New Testament: This saying is trustworthy: whoever aspires to the office of bishop desires a noble task. (1 Timothy 3:1) For a bishop as God's steward must be blameless, not arrogant, not irritable, not a drunkard, not aggressive, not greedy for sordid gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, temperate, just, holy, and self-controlled, holding fast to the true message as taught so that he will be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute opponents. (Titus 1:7-9) Very early in the history of the Church, the Apostles either became or ordained other suitable men to become the bishops of cities where large bodies of believers had grown. The bishops were the shepherds (you might say, the most senior pastors) of these individual churches. Simon Peter became the first Bishop of Rome and due to his prior office as leader of the Apostles and the entire Church (now called Pope) the two offices joined as one. Here are a few places in ancient documents that speak of Peter as Pope and Bishop of Rome. Irenaeus in 189 C.E.:

"The very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; ... The blessed apostles, then, having founded and built up the Church, committed into the hands of Linus the office of the episcopate." (Against Heresies 3:3:2-3) http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.ix.iv.iv.html Tertullian in 200 C.E.:

"For this is the manner in which the apostolic churches transmit their registers: as the church of Smyrna, which records that Polycarp was placed therein by John; as also the church of Rome, which makes Clement to have been ordained in like manner by Peter." (Demurrer Against the Heretics 32) http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm Anonymous in 211 C.E.:

"For they say that all the early teachers and the apostles received and taught what they now declare, and that the truth of the Gospel was preserved until the times of Victor, who was the thirteenth bishop of Rome from Peter" (The Little Labyrinth, in Eusebius, Church History 5:28:3) http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.x.xxix.html Cyprian of Carthage in 251 C.E.:

"And although to all the apostles, after His resurrection, He gives an equal power, and says, "As the Father hath sent me, ..., they shall be retained;" (John 20:21-22) yet, He founded a single Chair. That He might set forth unity, He established by His authority the origin of that unity, as having its origin in one man alone. No doubt the others were all that Peter was, but a primacy is given to Peter, and it is thus made clear that there is but one Church and one Chair. So too, even if they are all shepherds, we are shown but one flock which is to be fed by all the apostles in common accord. If a man does not hold fast to this oneness of Peter, does he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he deserts the Chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, has he confidence that he is in the Church?" (The Unity of the Catholic Church 4)