Advertisement
Bringing people together in love and faith
My Blog
Blogs > Cathoholic > My Blog > Jun 21, 2008
My Blog
  
Welcome to my blog!
Title View |
Posts on 6/21View All
Church was built on Peter the Rock. Jun 21, 2008 9:35 am
322 Views


Many of my brothers and sisters in Christ are under the false assumption that Jesus built the Church on Peters "confession of faith" Not on Peter himself. I now will do my best on this post to explain how the one true Church was built on the foundation of Peter and the Apostles. Christ of course is the builder of the Church, and he is the wise man who built his house on a rock.(Peter).

The non-Catholic interpretation is that Jesus was not referring to Peter but to Peters confession. It always baffles me when people tell me this
because as we are about to see, there is nothing in this verse that even hints that Jesus will build his Church on Peters confession of faith.

The scriptures are so clear on this that I see this as one of the few times there should not even be any argument over what it means.


To understand this will take patience on part of the reader, because these explanations cannot be dumbed down because of the significance of this truth.

Mark 3:16; John 1:42 – Jesus renames Simon "Kepha" in Aramaic which literally means "rock."

So for this point we learn one very important thing, Peters very name means rock. There is no question that Peters name means rock. Protestants try to argue that Jesus changed his name to "a small stone".

Jesus said in Aramaic, you are "Kepha" and on this "Kepha" I will build my Church. In Aramaic, "kepha" means a massive stone, and "evna" means little pebble.

Some non-Catholics argue that, because the Greek word for rock is "petra", that "Petros" actually means "a small rock", and therefore Jesus was attempting to diminish Peter right after blessing him by calling him a small rock.

To make this easier to understand for those who are not familiar with this distinction, the New Testament was written in the greek language. However, Jesus Christ spoke Aramaic. So when he used the word rock he was speaking in a language that used a word that meant big rock. Not little
rock as many on the BC thread try to imply with poor sources from the internet.

Matt. 16:18 - Jesus said in Aramaic, you are "Kepha" and on this "Kepha" I will build my Church. In Aramaic, "kepha" means a massive stone, and "evna" means little pebble. Some non-Catholics argue that, because the Greek word for rock is "petra", that "Petros" actually means "a small rock", and therefore Jesus was attempting to diminish Peter right after blessing him by calling him a small rock. Not only is this nonsensical in the context of Jesus' blessing of Peter, Jesus was speaking Aramaic and used "Kepha," not "evna." Using Petros to translate Kepha was done simply to reflect the masculine noun of Peter.

Moreover, if the translator wanted to identify Peter as the "small rock," he would have used "lithos" which means a little pebble in Greek. Also, Petros and petra were synonyms at the time the Gospel was written, (meaning those 2 words were used interchangebly all the time) so any attempt to distinguish the two words is inconsequential. Thus, Jesus called Peter the massive rock, not the little pebble, on which He would build the Church. (You don’t even need Matt. 16:18 to prove Peter is the rock because Jesus renamed Simon “rock” in Mark 3:16 and John 1:42!).

Now, I realize that is quite a bit of information to follow. Take your time reading this slowly and carefully think about this. It actually took me quite a bit of time to understand these concepts so if you got this the first time around, your much smarter then I was. (grammer was never my strong point in school anyway!)

Now, if you look at the verse closely it says "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church"

Some Christians actually try to argue that Christ is referring to himself as the rock in this sentence. But that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Think about this for a minute please, Jesus actually says this: "You are Peter (rock) and upon this rock I shall build my Church!"

It's clear Jesus is speaking directly to Peter. He would not word things in a way that would have confused us as to what he actually was trying to say.

If Jesus wanted to point out that he is referring to himself, he would have worded it like this: "You are Peter, and upon myself I shall build my Church!"

Thats what most Protestants are trying to make this verse say. Which it clearly doesn't. But thats how there actually interpreting it.

Matt. 16:18-19 – to further rebut the Protestant argument that Jesus was speaking about Peter’s confession of faith (not Peter himself) based on the revelation he received, the verses are clear that Jesus, after acknowledging Peter’s receipt of divine revelation, turns the whole discourse to the person of Peter: Blessed are “you” Simon, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to “you,” and I tell “you,” “you” are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church. I will give “you” the keys to the kingdom, and whatever “you” bind and loose on earth will be bound and loosed in heaven. Jesus’ whole discourse relates to the person of Peter, not his confession of faith.

So lets run by this again ok?

Jesus identifies who PETER is. The same way Peter identifies who Christ is.

One guy says "Your the Christ!'

And Jesus says "Your the rock"

Isn't that amazing? It makes perfect sense that theirs a point where Peters confession of faith ends. Then Christs confession that Peter is rock on whom he will build the Church begins.

So once again lets sum up the things the Catholic Church teaches about this verse.

#1 Christ is not referring to Peters confession of faith, there is no mistaken this from grammatical reasoning that Jesus is talking to Peter, not talking about himself as non-Catholics claim.

#2 The argument that Peter was a "small stone" is a complete and unreliable argument for the simple fact that Jesus does earlier in the Bible refer Simon as Rock. Not little rock when he uses the word Kepha. (If Peter was a small rock the Bible would use the word Evna but it doesn't)

Lastly, I wish to make the point that Christ is also the Rock. That just because Peter is the Rock does not mean Christ (God) cannot be the rock of our faith. Christ is the very rock of our faith. However, the earthly Church had an actual foundation, that foundation was Peter and the Apostles on whom Jesus built the Church.

Jesus did not build a Church based on Peters confession of faith. He built a Church on actual living people.

Thank you for your time. For those who always thought Peters name meant a small stone, and who always thought that Jesus was referring to himself, I hope you found this explanation helpful in understanding why Catholics don't support the Protestant interpretation.


Moving forward, many Christians today have never heard the writings of the early Church Fathers. I highly recommend all Christians have a chance to read about what the early Church taught and how they were interpreting scripture.

Remember, they lived very close and some actual lived during the time of the Apostles. These men were not the least bit confused that Jesus built the Church on the foundation of Peter and the Apostles.

Now thats something worth thinking about isn't it?

Take care and God bless you all.
19 Comments
 

To link to this blog (Cathoholic) use [blog Cathoholic] in your messages.
26 M
Guidelines
June 2008
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1
  		2
  		3
  		4
  		5
  		6
  		7
 
8
  		9
  		10
  		11
  		12
  		13
  		14
 
15
  		16
1
17
  		18
  		19
  		20
1
21
1
22
  		23
  		24
  		25
  		26
  		27
  		28
 
29
  		30
  		         

Recent Visitors
VisitorAgeSexDate
GreenGal777 46F11/18
sensory40M11/12
christianfemale26F10/7
honeebee 46F9/16
deric16946M9/14
NunOther 80F8/30
drakk 41M8/30
mrsandman 35M8/8
Hidden_Treasure51F7/16
HolyMagi 36M7/14
Most Recent Comments by Others
PostPosterPost Date
Christians who support abortion leaders betray Christ.GreenGal777Nov 18 7:41 am
Church was built on Peter the Rock.NunOtherAug 30 10:06 pm
Will people condemned to hell stay there eternally?wpx1Aug 28 12:26 am
Catholic Church never changed 10 commandments.wpx1Aug 27 11:56 pm
Why Catholics Worship on Sunday? Tradition.GreenGal777Jul 22 2:27 pm
Constantine did not start Catholic Church.CathoholicJun 5 5:57 pm
Baptism is a requirement for entrance into the Church. Not merely sign of obedience.CathoholicMar 11 9:12 pm
Sola Scripture (bible alone) doctrine of God, or of men?CathoholicJan 24 9:21 am
Will the real Church of Jesus Christ, please stand up?sensoryNov 14 3:00 pm