Good lets start here…what church father 1.)recognizes Peter as the first bishop? writer date and quote please.
2.) recognized that Peter** alone** passed on the keys.
Firstly, I want to be sure that we agree on what you mean by “first bishop”. You are referring to the primacy of the office of the Bishop of Rome, correct? Otherwise, I don’t understand what you are asking. Secondly, I still don’t understand the 189 date. The Canon of Scriptures was not defined for 400 hundred years after Christ and you are comfortable with the decisions they made, yet the writings of men in the Church after 189 on the primacy of Peter are not authoritative? I don’t get it.
Anyway, here are just a few of the vast number of quotes from ECF on the 1) and the 2), all written before the Canon of the New Testament was set:
“Thus Peter,
the first of the Apostles, having been often apprehended, and thrown into prison, and treated with igominy, was last of all crucified at Rome.” *Peter of Alexandria, The Canonical Epistle, Canon 9 (A.D. 306). *
“I think it my duty to consult
the chair of Peter, and to turn to a church whose faith has been praised by Paul…My words are spoken to the successor of the fisherman, to the disciple of the cross.” *Jerome, To Pope Damasus, Epistle 15 (A.D. 377). *
“Which was mere to the interest of the Church at Rome, that it should at its commencement be
presided over by some high-born and pompous senator, or
by the fisherman Peter, who had none of this world’s advantages to attract men to him?” *Gregory of Nyssa, To the Church at Nicodemia, Epistle 13 (ante A.D. 394). *
“After such things as these, moreover, they still dare–a false bishop having been appointed for them by, heretics–to set sail and to bear letters from schismatic and profane persons
to the throne of Peter, and to the chief church whence priestly unity takes its source; and not to consider that these were the Romans whose faith was praised in the preaching of the apostle, to whom faithlessness could have no access.”
Cyprian, To Cornelius, Epistle 54/59:14 (A.D. 252).
”The reason for your absence was both honorable and imperative, that the schismatic wolves might not rob and plunder by stealth nor the heretical dogs bark madly in the rapid fury nor the very serpent, the devil, discharge his blasphemous venom. So it seems to us right and altogether fitting that priests of the Lord from each and every province should report to their head, that is, to
the See of Peter, the Apostle." *Council of Sardica, To Pope Julius (A.D. 342). *
“And this case likewise is to be provided for, that if in any province a bishop has some matter against his brother and fellow-bishop, neither of the two should call in as arbiters bishops from another province. But if perchance sentence be given against a bishop in any matter and he supposes his case to be not unsound but good, in order that the question may be reopened, let us, if it seem good to your charity,
honour the memory of Peter the Apostle, and let those who gave judgment write to Julius, the bishop of Rome, so that, if necessary, the case may be retried by the bishops of the neighbouring provinces and let him appoint arbiters; but if it cannot be shown that his case is of such a sort as to need a new trial, let the judgment once given not be annulled, but stand good as before.”
Council of Sardica, Canon III (A.D. 343-344).