demonstrate historically that Peter in fact became the first bishop of Rome and not simply assert it dogmatically. But what are the facts? Irenaeus and Eusebius of Caesarea both make Linus, mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:21, the first bishop of Rome.28 That Peter may have died, as ancient tradition has it, in Rome is a distinct possibility (see 1 Peter 5:13 where “Babylon” has been rather uniformly understood by modern commentators as a metaphor for Rome), but that he ever actually pastored the church