April 28, 2009

• Question 134 - Is Peter the Rock?

  Question 134 - Is Peter the Rock?
  
  

  I have question regarding who is the "rock" in Matthew 16:18. Recently, I watched a Youtube video on this subject and the author of the video makes the assertion that the "rock" refers to Christ, not Peter. To substantiate his argument, he gives a parallel example to Mattthew 16:18. He says that "In this verse, Jesus says 'You are Peter (petros) and upon this rock (petra) I will build My Church' so Jesus said that he will build his on the feminine (petra) not the masculine (petros)." He then tries to illustrate his example by using the nouns actor and actress, he says "You are the actor and with this actress I will make my movie" He says that in Matthew 16:18 there is masculine and feminine nouns and likewise actor is masculine and actress is feminine and since there is a distinction in noun gender, the feminine noun must refer to something else. He says the the word "petra" occur in 1 Corinthians 10:4 and 1 Peter 2:8 in direct reference to Christ and therefore Christ is the "rock" not Peter. He also mentions that Kepha is not a proper name since proper names are not usually translated. These are some of the assertions that he made, he did make other assertions in the video that I would like you to address if you don't mind. The video is 8 minutes long and here is the link to it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Y26qPWzTg&feature=related I plan on making a video response to him so your help would be very much appreciated. Thank you very much for your help and time, I look forward to hearing your response. God Bless!
  
  Frank

  R. Sungenis: Frank, this is an easy one. First, there was no feminine form for the word Petros in Greek, so it is nonsensical to argue that the two nouns must match in gender in Matt. 16:18. 

   

  Second, proper nouns in Greek do not require a matching gender noun. It is the very reason that Christ (Greek: Kristos) can be matched with the feminine "rock" (Greek: petra) in 1 Corinthians 10:4, since there is no feminine form for Kristos.

   

  So, if the feminine petra can be coupled with the masculine Kristos in 1 Cor 10:4, what's to stop us from coupling the feminine petra with the masculine Petros in Matthew 16:18? Answer: Nothing.

   

  Third, he can't use 1 Cor 10:4 to argue that Mt 16:18 cannot call Peter the rock, simply because they are two different contexts. Christ is the focus of 1 Cor 10:4. Peter is the focus of Matthew 16:18.

   

  Fourth, one cannot argue that "rock" can only apply to Christ anymore than he can argue that "son of God" can only apply to Christ. The Bible calls Christians "sons of God," yet without infringing on the fact that Christ is God's unique son. Likewise, the Bible can call Peter a rock without infringing on the fact that Christ is the supreme rock.

   

  Fifth, the Bible obviously allows Peter to be called a rock, for in John 1:42, the Greek word Petros is coupled with the Aramaic word Kepha, meaning rock. 

  If he agrees that the rock (petra) of 1 Corinthains 10:4 refers to Christ, and if he claims that the femininewell then, how can the Greek feminine petr

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