“In a manuscript of the first century, a combination of the Demotic and Greek texts, and mostly probably one of the few which miraculously escaped the Christian vandalism of the second and third centuries, when all such precious manuscripts were burned as magical, we find occurring in several places a phrase, which, perhaps, may throw some light upon this question.
One of the principal heroes of the manuscript who is constantly referred to as “the Judean Illuminator” or Initiate, Τελειωτής, is made to communicate but with his Patar; the latter being written in Chaldaic characters. Once the latter word, is coupled with the name Shimeon. Several times, the “Illuminator”, who rarely breaks his contemplative solitude, is shown inhabiting a cave, and teaching the multitudes of eager scholars standing outside, not orally, but through this Patar.
The latter receives the words of wisdom by applying his ear to a circular hole in a partition which conceals the teacher from the listeners, and then conveys them with explanations and glossaries to the crowd. This, with a slight change, was the method used by Pythagoras, who, as we know, never allowed his neophytes to see him during the years of probation, but instructed them from behind a curtain in his cave.
But, whether the “Illuminator” of the Graeco-Demotic manuscript is identical with Jesus or not, the fact remains, that we find him selecting a “mystery” appellation for one who is made to appear later by the Catholic Church as the janitor of the Kingdom of heaven, and the interpreter of Christ’s will.
The word Patar or Peter locates both master and disciple in the circle of initiation and connects them with the “Secret Doctrine”. The great hierophant of the ancient Mysteries never allowed the candidates to see or hear him personally. He was the Deus-ex-Machina, the presiding but invisible Deity, uttering his will and instructions through a second party; and, 2,000 years later, we discover that the Dalai-Lamas of Thibet had been following for centuries the same traditional programme during the most important religious mysteries of Lamaism.
If Jesus knew the secret meaning of the title bestowed by him on Simon, then he must have been initiated; otherwise, he could not have learned it; and if he was an initiate of either the Pythagorean Essenes, the Chaldean Magi, or the Egyptian Priests, then the doctrine taught by him was but a portion of the “Secret Doctrine” taught by the Pagan hierophants to the few select adepts, admitted within the sacred adyta.
But we will discuss this question further on. For the present we will endeavor to briefly indicate the extraordinary similarity – or rather identity, we should say – of rites and ceremonial dress of the Christian clergy with that of the old Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Egyptians, and other of the hoary antiquity.”
H. P. Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 