Christ IS the Rock – and SO is Peter and SO is Avraham
Time for a Bible and a Linguistics Lesson . . .
IF Jesus and the Apostles spoke to each other in Greek – then you would have a point - but you don't..
HOWEVER, they didn’t speak in Greek – they spoke in Aramaic. Greek was the lingua franca of commerce in the 1st century and had a FAR more broadly used than Aramaic, so it’s why the Books of the NT are written in Greek.
The Aramaic word for “Rock” is “Kepha”. There is NO distinction between “little rock” and “large rock” – just “ROCK”.
So, what Jesus actually said to Simon was:
Matt. 16:18
“And so I say to you, you are Kepha (Rock), and upon this Kepha (Rock).”
This is why Peter is referred to as Cephas in many of St. Paul’s letters, because Cephas is the closest Greek transliteration of the Aramaic, Kepha.
This couldn’t be related properly in the Greek because “Petra” is a FEMININE noun.
Unlike English, many other languages employ feminine and masculine traits to nouns and verbs.
Your false beliefs about Peter NOT being the Rock in Matt. 16:18 are only as old as the Protestant Revolt some 500 years ago
Christ’s Church has been around a LOT longer than that . . .
Finally - Jesus is the NOT the only “Rock” mentioned in Scripture, although He is the most important one.
Abraham is ALSO called the “Rock” in Isa. 51”1-2 – and Peter in Matt. 16:18.
You might also want to turn to Isaiah 22, which shows a prefigurement of what happened in Matt. 16:18 . . .
Isaiah 22:20–22 - In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the keyof the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
Matt. 16:18-19 - And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosedin heaven."
Thou art Peter (οὺ εἶ Πέτρος)
Christ responds to Peter's emphatic thou with another, equally emphatic. Peter says, “Thou art the Christ.” Christ replies, “Thou art Peter.” Πέτρος (Peter) is used as a proper name, but without losing its meaning as a common noun. The name was bestowed on Simon at his first interview with Jesus (Joh_1:42) under the form of its Aramaic equivalent, Cephas. In this passage attention is called, not to the giving of the name, but to its meaning. In classical Greek the word means a piece of rock, as in Homer, of Ajax throwing a stone at Hector (“Iliad,” vii., 270), or of Patroclus grasping and hiding in his hand a jagged stone (“Iliad,” xvi., 784).
On this rock (ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέρᾳ)
The word is feminine, and means a rock, as distinguished from a stone or a fragment of rock (πέτρος, above). Used of a ledge of rocks or a rocky peak. In Homer (“Odyssey,” ix., 243), the rock (πέτρην) which Polyphemus places at the door of his cavern, is a mass which two-and-twenty wagons could not remove; and the rock which he hurled at the retreating ships of Ulysses, created by its fall a wave in the sea which drove the ships back toward the land (“Odyssey,” ix., 484). The word refers neither to Christ as a rock, distinguished from Simon, a stone, nor to Peter's confession, but to Peter himself, in a sense defined by his previous confession, and as enlightened by the “Father in Heaven.”
The reference of πέτρα to Christ is forced and unnatural. The obvious reference of the word is to Peter. The emphatic this naturally refers to the nearest antecedent; and besides, the metaphor is thus weakened, since Christ appears here, not as the foundation, but as the architect: “On this rock will I build.” Again, Christ is the great foundation, the “chief corner-stone,” but the New Testament writers recognize no impropriety in applying to the members of Christ's church certain terms which are applied to him. For instance, Peter himself (1Pe_2:4), calls Christ a living stone, and, in 1Pe_2:5, addresses the church as living stones. In Rev_21:14, the names of the twelve apostles appear in the twelve foundation-stones of the heavenly city; and in Eph_2:20, it is said, “Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (i.e., laid by the apostles and prophets), Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.”
Equally untenable is the explanation which refers πέτρα to Simon's confession. Both the play upon the words and the natural reading of the passage are against it, and besides, it does not conform to the fact, since the church is built, not on confessions, but on confessors - living men.
“The word πέτρα,” says Edersheim, “was used in the same sense in Rabbinic language. According to the Rabbins, when God was about to build his world, he could not rear it on the generation of Enos, nor on that of the flood, who brought destruction upon the world; but when he beheld that Abraham would arise in the future, he said' 'Behold, I have found a rock to build on it, and to found the world,' whence, also, Abraham is called a rock, as it is said' 'Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn.'
The parallel between Abraham and Peter might be carried even further. If, from a misunderstanding of the Lord's promise to Peter, later Christian legend represented the apostle as sitting at the gate of heaven, Jewish legend represents Abraham as sitting at the gate of Gehenna, so as to prevent all who had the seal of circumcision from falling into its abyss” (“Life and Times of Jesus”).
The reference to Simon himself is confirmed by the actual relation of Peter to the early church, to the Jewish portion of which he was a foundation-stone. See Acts, Act_1:15; Act_2:14, Act_2:37; Act_3:12; Act_4:8; Act_5:15, Act_5:29; Act_9:34, Act_9:40; Act_10:25, Act_10:26; Gal_1:15.
Vincent
On this rock (epi tautēi tēi petrāi) Jesus says, a ledge or cliff of rock like that in Mat_7:24 on which the wise man built his house. Petros is usually a smaller detachment of the massive ledge. But too much must not be made of this point since Jesus probably spoke Aramaic to Peter which draws no such distinction (Kēphā). What did Jesus mean by this word-play?
I will build my church (oikodomēsō mou tēn ekklēsian). It is the figure of a building and he uses the word ekklēsian which occurs in the New Testament usually of a local organization, but sometimes in a more general sense. What is the sense here in which Jesus uses it? The word originally meant “assembly” (Act_19:39), but it came to be applied to an “unassembled assembly” as in Act_8:3 for the Christians persecuted by Saul from house to house. “And the name for the new Israel, ekklēsia, in His mouth is not an anachronism. It is an old familiar name for the congregation of Israel found in Deut. (Deu_18:16; Deu_23:2) and Psalms (Psa_22:25), both books well known to Jesus” (Bruce). It is interesting to observe that in Psalms 89 most of the important words employed by Jesus on this occasion occur in the lxx text.
So oikodomēsō in Psa_89:5; ekklēsia in Psa_89:6; katischuō in Psa_89:22; Christos in Psa_89:39, Psa_89:52; hāidēs in Psa_89:49 (ek cheiros hāidou). If one is puzzled over the use of “building” with the word ekklēsia it will be helpful to turn to 1Pe_2:5. Peter, the very one to whom Jesus is here speaking, writing to the Christians in the five Roman provinces in Asia (1Pe_1:1), says: “You are built a spiritual house” (oikodomeisthe oikos pneumatikos). It is difficult to resist the impression that Peter recalls the words of Jesus to him on this memorable occasion. Further on (1Pe_2:9) he speaks of them as an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, showing beyond controversy that Peter’s use of building a spiritual house is general, not local. This is undoubtedly the picture in the mind of Christ here in Mat_16:18. It is a great spiritual house, Christ’s Israel, not the Jewish nation, which he describes. What is the rock on which Christ will build his vast temple?
Not on Peter alone or mainly or primarily. Peter by his confession was furnished with the illustration for the rock on which His church will rest. It is the same kind of faith that Peter has just confessed. The perpetuity of this church general is guaranteed.
Robertson
www.thegospelcoalition.org
