May 2, 2010

  • Question 241 - Can the feminine "this" and "rock" refer to the masculine "Peter"?

    Dear Robert Sungenis,

    How can I respond to this email that a Protestant sent me which accuses the Catholic Church of violating a Greek Grammar Rule when we say that in Matthew 16:18 it is Peter that is the Rock on which Jesus built his Church? I would greatly appreciate your help! Thank You and God Bless You!

    This is his email below:

    Alan,
    Let me go into “this” a little more in depth, and correct a slight error in my previous email. I had stated the TAUTH could be translated “that”….it really should be “this.” “that” would be a distant demonstrative pronoun, and here we have a “near demonstrative pronoun.” Here‟s a more full explanation.

    Ôáõôç TAUTH (this)

    Declension
    Is in general, an ADJECTIVE, and in particular, it is a DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN type adjective. It is in the Dative case, Feminine gender and Singular in number. This is basic grammar, and I would expect Will would come to agreement on this basic point, if not let me know.

    Basic Info on Adjectives
    Now, we know generally what the character of an ADJECTIVE is.1 The character of Adjectives is closely related to a substantive (as opposed to, for example, a verb). It is a highly specialized use of a substantive. Furthermore, its use in Greek is highly specialized, much more specialized than, for example, its use in Latin (which the Catholic Church uses extensively). Quoting Winer, Machen observes:
    “…there are „two sorts of nouns, substantive and adjective,‟ and that, though they are „distinct from each other in thought, yet the latter … enters the sphere of substantives far more abundantly in Greek than, for instance, in Latin.” (W.234)

    Substantives & Nouns2
    Noun A noun is a word that denotes a person, place, thing, or idea. A noun is also referred to as a substantive. Besides all the common nouns, such as "man", "son", "truth", "word", etc., there are also proper nouns, which are names of particular people (e.g. Jesus Christ, Paul), of particular places (e.g. Ephesus, Rome), or of particular things (e.g. Passover, Jews). Proper nouns are usually capitalized.
    Substantive A substantive is a noun, pronoun, or any word functioning like a noun. This could include such items like an adjective, participle, or infinitive used as the subject or a direct object of the sentence. A substantive may be one word or a group of words.

    1 This discussion is taken from Dana & Mantey, Manual Grammer of the New Testament Greek, §III The Adjective, pg 115.
    2 Retrieved from http://www.ntgreek.org/learn_nt_greek/terms.htm     28 Feb 2010.

    Direct Object
    The direct object in a sentence is the substantive that receives the action of a transitive verb. For example: "... receive with meekness the engrafted word..." (James 1:21). The word which is directly receiving the action of the finite verb "receive", (answering the question "Receive what?") is the word "word", and therefore it is the direct object of this sentence.
    Indirect Object An indirect object is the person or thing that is indirectly affected by the action of the verb. It is often translated in English by the phrase "to somebody" or "for somebody (or something)". For example: "I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens" (Matt     16:19). The word "keys" is the direct object of the transitive verb "give", and thus receives the action of the verb. But the action of the verb is also indirectly affecting "you" and therefore "to you" is said to be the indirect object of this sentence. "To you" is answering the question, "give to whom?" or "for whom?"

    Agreement of Adjectives
    The fact that the adjective is closely related to a substantive is revealed by the fact that the substantive “regularly governs its form.”3 “The adjective agrees with the noun it qualifies in gender, number, and case.” (emphasis added).

    Comment:
    Thus the word “this” is an adjective (demonstrative pronoun type adjective) whose form is governed by the substantive that it modifies.

    Question:
    What is the substantive that “governs” the form of the adjective (and in this case, the demonstrative pronoun)?

    Consider:
    If the substantive that “governed” the form of “this” was the man Peter, and thus the Greek ðåôñïò (petros: which is classified as a Noun; gender:masculine; number:singular), then the form of “this” would be driven by this same form, namely masculine, singular.4 BUT what we find is the form is NOT masculine singular, but instead is of the form, gender:feminine; number:singular. If one says that Peter/petros is the antecedent of “this”, then it would govern the gender of “this” and force it to be masculine….but it doesn‟t. Thus we must look elsewhere for an antecedent substantive. Now we recall that a substantive is “one word or a group of words” which are used as a noun, which describes a “person, place, thing, or idea.” Since “this” is feminine, it cannot be governed

    3 Dana & Mantey, pg 116.
    4 Note: the case is determined not by the antecedent, but by the use in the sentence and thus does not enter into the governance here.

    by something masculine. Now knowing the basic difference between masculine5 and feminine6 uses,7 we conclude “this” cannot be governed by something that is tangible, concrete, physical, material, but must in fact be governed by something that is conceptual, theoretical, spiritual, immaterial and non-physical, but not „abstract‟8. The “group of words” capturing the “idea” embodied in the confession of Peter, qualifies.

    Tentative Conclusion:
    Thus we would come to a tentative conclusion that the “confession of Peter” does in fact qualify as the antecedent of “this”. But is this convincing?

    Consider further—the Demonstrative Pronoun:
    “Sometimes it is desired to call attention with special emphasis to a designated object … in the … the literary context of the writer.”9
    If the speaker wanted to call attention to something that is “relatively distant in actuality or thought”10 the remote demonstrative is used—åêåéíïò (ekeinos:that). On the other hand, if the speaker wanted to point out something that is “relatively near in actuality or thought” the immediate demonstrative is used—ïóôïóò (outous or in this case tauth, the dative feminine singular form of outous: THIS).
    Now we already know it can‟t be Peter (petros:masculine) because of the “governance rule.” The “relatively near in … thought” is the specific thing that Jesus has focused the entire conversation on, namely the confession of Peter that He (Jesus) was the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

    Firm Conclusion:
    Thus we now have two lines of thought and consequent proof that coincide to yield the conclusion that “this” refers to Peter‟s confession (the near conceptual idea and the very thing to which Jesus Himself has brought the focus of the conversation), namely, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and antecedent is NOT the (masculine) Peter (petros), which would violate the “substantive governance rule.”
    QED.

    5 See for example: Dana & Mantey, pg 118, (2), a. the adjective used as a masculine noun.
    6 See further: Dana & Mantey, pg 119, (2), b. the feminine gender is generally in agreement with a feminine substantive understood.
    7 Masculine describes things that are physical, material, concrete and tangible, while feminine describes things that are conceptual, theoretical, spiritual, immaterial and non-physical.
    8 See Dana & Mantey, pg 119 (2) c. The neuter singular is ordinarily used as an abstract noun.
    9 Dana & Mantey, pg 127. The Demonstrative Pronoun.
    10 Dana & Mantey, pg 128, b.

    R. Sungenis: Alan, the answer to this is rather simple. Greek grammar does not follow masculine/feminine matching when proper nouns are in use. Or, we should say more specifically, just because a masculine noun precedes a feminine adjective or noun does not mean that the masculine noun cannot be the antecedent of the feminine adjective or noun. Proper nouns are the exception to the rule because one cannot make a masculine proper noun into a feminine noun, nor can one make a feminine proper noun into a masculine noun. As such, “Peter” will remain a masculine noun no matter what the gender of the following adjectives or nouns. Hence, “rock,” even though it is a feminine noun, and “this,” even though it is a feminine adjective, can refer back to Peter regardless whether Peter is masculine. If this were not the case, then the use of “rock” in the feminine to describe “Christ” in the masculine in 1 Corinthians 10:4 would be erroneous, but there it is, nonetheless, written by St. Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who does not make mistakes in grammar. The real reason that “this” is feminine in Matthew 16:18 is because “rock” is feminine, and the rule is that the adjective preceding the noun it modifies must be the same gender. But again, that rule does not apply to proper nouns, such as Peter and Christ.