"That's not really the passage I had in mind" It's very relevant. Is there a better passage?

@Geremia: Yes; the one in which he clearly, explicitly, and unambiguously states that, once ordained, neither apostles, nor bishops, nor priests, engaged in intercourse with their wives.

This contradicts the apostle Paul's injunction that married persons are not to 'defraud' one another in regard to having marital relations. It is therefore not a valid argument (whoever originally made that argument and however famous they happened to be). Marrying, then declaring oneself 'celibate' is a simple matter of contractural fraud. Jesus makes it clear that a man cannot 'put away' a wife . . . ever. (Except for one reason and one reason only.)

@NigelJ: Which is why, within Roman Catholicism, married men were eventually rejected from being received into the clergy altogether.

@NigelJ You're assuming St. Peter didn't obtain his wife's permission. Also, St. Jerome et al. are not claiming St. Peter divorced / "put away" his wife; St. Peter's and his wife's marriage bond remained indissoluble while they lived.

@NigelJ: My opinions are irrelevant, insofar the OP never asked for them.

@Geremia We have no evidence that Peter ever became 'celibate' after marriage. That is the big problem in the conjecture. If he did so and if his wife was not in agreement then not only was she denied marital relations by her husband, she was also in an 'indissoluble' bondage which did not permit her to be released to marry another man.

@NigelJ "We have no evidence that Peter ever became 'celibate' after marriage." Matt 19:27: "Then Peter answering, said to him: Behold we have left all things, and have followed thee".

@NigelJ "she was also in an 'indissoluble' bondage which did not permit her to be released to marry another man" Yes. Your point?

@Geremia 1. So for anyone (all of us) to leave all and follow Christ : means becoming celibate. But Paul censures those who 'forbid marriage'. So you are demanding that all must become celibate in order to follow Christ ? Even the married ? ? ? 2. I don't have a point. I was clarifying your own point. I don't try to put people under bondage.

@NigelJ "you are demanding that all must become celibate in order to follow Christ" Where did I say that? I said that St. Peter "left all things" (incl. his wife) for Christ's sake.

@Geremia . . .. and you thus assume that anyone else (other than Peter) in order to follow Christ (if they be married) must do as you speculate that Peter did. This is illogical. And it 'forbids marriage' contrary to the apostolic statement of Paul.

@NigelJ Where did I say one must be celibate to follow Christ?

@Geremia You are saying that because Peter followed Christ, therefore he must have ceased having marital relations with his wife. In order for him to say that he had given up all, you say he must have given up marital relations. This is your speculation. If his wife also had followed Christ - then why must he stop having marital relations with her ? Why do you forbid marriage ? What is wrong with being married ?

@NigelJ Celibacy is a higher calling with a greater reward: Mt. 19:27-29: "Peter answering, said to him: Behold we have left all things […] And Jesus said to them: […] every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting."

@NigelJ: Within context, the passage about forbidding marriage refers to the Jewish custom of not intermarrying with Gentiles.

@Lucian That is your own interpretation and is not founded on any textual evidence.

@NigelJ: All of Paul's epistles, without exception, are directed at Judaizers; I thought this was well-known. As Christianity evolved from a Jewish sect to a mixed group, including both Jews and Gentiles, certain disputes arose, concerning ritual purity (e.g., permissible foods), mentioned briefly in Acts 15, and, in considerable more detail, throughout the Pauline corpus.

@Lucian I think it best to discontinue this discussion. To speak of Christianity 'evolving' from a Jewish sect is so contrary to all I perceive in Holy Scripture that I think it pointless to proceed any further. Regards.

@NigelJ: The very early Christians were exclusively Israeli Jews; following Peter's sermon at Pentecost, many diaspora Jews were added to their numbers; which, upon returning home, preached the Christian message to other diaspora Jews, living among the Gentiles, and, ultimately, to the Gentiles among whom they lived.