Theological Tuesdays: Peter

Matthew 16:18 (NASB)

18"I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it."

"Stone," what a cool nickname huh? Yep thats right, we might as well call Peter, Stone Cold because people during his day would have been caught off guard when he told them his name was Peter. Peter in the Greek and Hebrew literally means "stone." What's so great about Jesus is that he would call one of his buddies Stone (Luke 6:14) even when at that time Petros (Peter) was not being used as a personal name. Jesus rocks. Petros is the greek word which means stone rock or pebble. And later in this verse we see Jesus saying "upon this rock (petra), I will build My church."

So now we have the following saying: "Thou art Petros, and upon this petra I will build My church; and the gates of Hades (which means death or the grave) will not overcome it."

Now I'm not a Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic scholar in the least stretch of the imagination but I think this verse carries some heavy implications. If your not familiar with the Catholic Church then you do not know the weight this verse and the following verse (19) carry according to their veiw of the Pope's infallibility or "papal infallibility." Growing up in Sunday School, I had always heard this verse being interpreted that Jesus was saying to Peter that "you, Peter will be the rock which I build My Church." Basically that Jesus was picking Peter out to be the foundation of the early church. I think this is a huge misinterpretation. Here's the issue:

Petros(Peter) vs. petra(rock): "Thou art Petros, and upon this petra I will build My church"

Obviously if we look at these two words in Greek we can see that they are different. But that is not how we have been interpreting this verse. In order for Jesus to have been claiming that Peter was the rock which he would build his foundation he would have just said: "Thou art petra, and upon this petra I will build My church." But he didn't. Yes these words are very similar and sound similar, but similarity of words doesn't imply similarity in meaning, much less, identical meaning. Another point: Petros and petra are two distinctively different Greek words with different meanings. Petros more clearly means "pebble" while petra more clearly means "bedrock." Makes sense right? We could see a pebble laying on the ground and a huge bedrock laying on the ground and we could call both of them a rock, but they are definitely different. I think the meaning of these words was lost in translation when they both were translated as "rock." But I understand that too. What if you had a spanish speaking friend who didn't know English. If your friend pointed to a pebble on the ground or a huge rock on the ground you would probably in both instances tell him that the object was a "rock" because that is simple. He might not understand it if you try to use bigger words like pebble or bedrock. So where am I going with all of this?

I think we should realize that what Jesus is saying here is not that Peter is the foundation upon which the Church will be built but rather Jesus Christ, Himself is the rock and foundation. Afterall this is The Foundation blog, check the verse out at the top. Doesn't make sense for Jesus to call Peter the foundation of the church. We all know Jesus is the Foundation. So he we go the SRV (Spoon Revised Version) of Matthew 16:18:

(speaking to Peter)

Hey I'm telling you that you are a Pebble, you are rocky, and upon THIS very bedrock and foundation(Jesus pointing to Himself), I will build My Chruch and the grave, death, nor Hell will ever overcome it.


So basically Jesus jump starts his teaching here by getting Peter's attention real quick and comparing Peters own "rockyness" to Himself. Jesus is making a true confession about himself, that his life and ministry, his teaching, his miracles, his future suffering, and him being the "I AM" is the bedrock and foundation that he will build His Chruch upon. Thus he is making a prophecy fulfilling statement because elsewhere in the OT Scriptures we see reference to a "stone being rejected" and becoming the corner stone (Psalms 118:22). And later we see God saying that he "is laying in Zion, a stone" a costly stone, which will become the foundation (Isaiah 28:16).

Cool stuff huh? Jesus was a cool guy. I wish he would have given me a nickname and then later I could realize that my nickname was to remind me of Jesus and the foundation which he had already laid for me to build upon. Once we realize that Jesus is the Rock and that he has already done the work, paved the way; all we have to do is be like Peter a couple verses earlier, and confess:

16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."' (Matt. 16:16)

Jesus ROCKS, literally!