MHFM: Francesco Antonio Zaccaria (born 1714) was a Jesuit theologian and historian. He was ordained a priest at Rome in 1740 and died in 1795. He was the author of many works. Pope Pius VI appointed him professor of Church History at the Sapienza and director of the Accademia de'Nobili Ecclesiastici. In his dissertation about the rebuke of Cephas by St. Paul (Zaccaria, Dissertazione su Cefa ripreso da S. Paolo: Diss. varie. I, 195; Roma 1780), which was written in Italian, Zaccaria favors the position that the Cephas whom St. Paul rebuked in Galatians 2 was not St. Peter but a different person with the same Aramaic name. We have a detailed video on this matter. It presents the overwhelming biblical evidence in support of this position (see below). Contrary to what some people might have you believe, a number of theologians during Zaccaria’s period held the same view, i.e. that the Cephas rebuked by St. Paul was not St. Peter. That is the true position. Here are some quotes from Zaccaria’s work.
Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, S.J., Dissertation VIII, paragraph II, page 195 (18th cent.): "Fr. Arduino… set out to prove that ‘Cepham a Paullo reprehensum Petrum non esse (Cephas rebuked by Paul was not Peter)’, but one of the 70 disciples of the Lord with that name (of Cephas)."
Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, S.J., Dissertation VIII, paragraph III, page 196 (18th cent.): "And in truth from the earliest times to the present day supporters of the Arduinian opinion have been found; Clement of Alexandria, ancient writer of the second Christian century in the fifth book of hisHypotyposes, of which Eusebius tells us in the first book of the Ecclesiastical History, clearly taught that Cephas rebuked by the Apostle Paul was one of the 70 disciples."
Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, S.J., Dissertation VIII, paragraph XI, pages 211-212 (18th cent.): "… it does not seem that if St. Paul, having intended to speak to us about Peter, would write: ‘Jacobus, et Cephas, et Joannes’, but rather ‘Cephas, et Jacobus, et Joannes’, putting him in the first place, as indeed Fr. Mamachi observes this having been done by the Evangelists, by St. Luke in the Acts, and by St. Paul himself in that same epistle to the Galatians, where he specifically speaks about Peter."
Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, S.J., Dissertation VIII, paragraph VII, page 203 (18th cent.): "In verses 7 and 8 St. Paul tells us about Peter, and calls him Peter. In verse 9 (we read) Cephas. So those ancients said: this is a different person. It is true that Cephas and Peter are names which have the same meaning; but why would Paul, wishing to identify the same person after calling him by the common name of Peter... have used a name of a different language...?"
