In Matthew 16:18, is Peter the
rock that
Christ will build His Church?By
Jack Kettler
In
this
study, in Matthew 16:18,
was Jesus saying that
Peter was the rock that He would build His Church?
“And
I say also
unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my church; and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
(Matthew 16:18)
From Strong’s
Lexicon:
“Peter,
Πέτρος
(Petros)
Noun
- Nominative
Masculine Singular
Strong's
Greek
4074: Peter, a Greek name meaning rock. Apparently,
a primary word; a rock; as
a name, Petrus, an apostle.”
“rock
πέτρᾳ
(petra)
Noun
- Dative
Feminine Singular
Strong's
Greek
4073: A rock, ledge, cliff, cave, stony ground.
Feminine of the same as Petros;
a rock.”
Commentary evidence:
Starting with the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges:
“18.
Thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church]
Cp. Isaiah 28:16, from which
passage probably the expression is drawn. There
is a play on the words
“Peter” and “rock” which is lost in the E. V. It
may be seen in a French
rendering, “Tu
es Pierre et sur cette
pierre je bâtirai mon Eglise.”
(underlining emphasis mine)”
“On
these words
mainly rest the enormous pretensions of the Roman
pontiff. It is therefore
important (1) To remember that it is to Peter with
the great confession on his
lips that the words are spoken. The Godhead of
Christ is the keystone of the
Church, and Peter is for the moment the
representative of the belief in that
truth among men. (2) To take the words in reference:
(a) to other passages of
Scripture. The Church is built on the foundation of
the Apostles and Prophets,
Ephesians 2:20, on Christ Himself, 2 Corinthians
3:11. (b) To history; Peter is
not an infallible repository of truth. He is rebuked
by Paul for Judaizing. Nor
does he hold a chief place among the Apostles
afterwards. It is James, not
Peter, who presides at the Council at Jerusalem. (c)
To reason: for even if
Peter had precedence over the other Apostles, and if
he was Bishop of Rome,
which is not historically certain, there is no proof
that he had a right of
conferring such precedence on his successors.”
“my
Church] The
word ecclesia
(Church) occurs twice
in Matthew and not elsewhere in the Gospels. See
note ch. Matthew 18:17 where
the Jewish ecclesia
is meant. From
the analogy of the corresponding Hebrew word,
ecclesia in a Christian sense may
be defined as the congregation of the faithful
throughout the world, united
under Christ as their Head. The use of the word by
Christ implied at least two things:
(1) that He was founding an organized society, not
merely preaching a doctrine:
(2) That the Jewish ecclesia was the point of
departure for the Christian
ecclesia and in part its prototype. It is one among
many links in this gospel
between Jewish and Christian thought. The Greek word
(ἐκκλησία) has passed into the language of the Latin nations; église
(French), chiesa (Italian), iglesia
(Spanish). The derivation of the Teutonic Church is
very doubtful. That usually
given—Kuriakon
(the Lord’s house)—is
abandoned by many scholars. The word is probably
from a Teutonic root and may
have been connected with heathen usages. See Bib.
Dict. Art. Church.”
“the
gates of
hell] Lit. “the gates of Hades.” The Greek Hades is
the same as the Hebrew
Sheol, the abode of departed spirits, in which were
two divisions Gehenna and
Paradise. “The gates of Hades” are generally
interpreted to mean the power of
the unseen world, especially the power of death: cp.
Revelation 1:18, “the keys
of hell (Hades) and of death.”
“shall
not prevail
against it] The gates of Hades prevail over all
things human, but the Church
shall never die.” (1)
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
Bible
Commentary
says:
“18.
And I say
also unto thee—that is, “As thou hast borne such
testimony to Me, even so in
return do I to thee.”
“That
thou art
Peter—At his first calling, this new name was
announced to him as an honor
afterwards to be conferred on him (Joh 1:43). Now he
gets it, with an
explanation of what it was meant to convey.”
“and
upon this
rock—As “Peter” and “Rock” are one word in the
dialect familiarly spoken by our
Lord—the Aramaic or Syro-Chaldaic, which was the
mother tongue of the country—this
exalted play upon the word can be fully seen only
in languages which have one
word for both. Even in the Greek it is
imperfectly represented. In French,
as Webster and Wilkinson remark, it is perfect,
Pierre—pierre.”
“I
will build my
Church—not on the man Simon Bar-jona; but on him as
the heavenly-taught
confessor of a faith. “My Church,” says our Lord,
calling the Church His Own; a
magnificent expression regarding Himself, remarks
Bengel—nowhere else occurring
in the Gospels.”
“and
the gates of
hell — “of Hades,” or, the unseen world; meaning,
the gates of Death: in other
words, “It shall never perish.” Some explain it of
“the assaults of the powers
of darkness”; but though that expresses a glorious
truth, probably the former
is the sense here.” (2)
Matthew
Poole's
Commentary
adds:
“And
I say also
unto thee, that thou art Peter: Christ gave him this
name, John 1:42, when his
brother Andrew first brought him to Christ. I did
not give thee the name of
Cephas, or Peter, for nothing, (for what Cephas
signifieth in the Syriac Peter
signifieth in the Greek), I called thee Cephas and
thou art Peter, a rock. Thou
shalt be a rock. This our Lord made good afterward,
when he told him, that
Satan had desired to winnow him like wheat, but he
had prayed that his faith
might not fail, Luke 22:32. Thou hast made a
confession of faith which is a
rock, even such a rock as was mentioned Matthew
7:25. And thou thyself art a
rock, a steady, firm believer.”
“And
upon this
rock I will build my church. Here is a question
amongst interpreters, what, or
whom, our Saviour here meaneth by this rock.”
“1.
Some think
that he meaneth himself, as he saith, John 2:19,
Destroy this temple (meaning
his own body). God is often called a Rock, Deu 32:18
Psalm 18:2 Psalm 31:3, and
it is certain Christ is the foundation of the
church, Isaiah 28:16 1
Corinthians 3:11 1 Peter 2:6. But this sense seemeth
a little hard, that our
Saviour, speaking to Peter, and telling him he was a
stone, or a rock, should
with the same breath pass to himself, and not say,
Upon myself, but upon this
rock I will build my church.”
“2.
The generality
of protestant writers, not without the suffrage of
divers of the ancients, say
Peter’s confession, which he had made, is the rock
here spoken of. And indeed,
the doctrine contained in his confession is the
foundation of the gospel; the
whole Christian church is built upon it.”
“3.
Others think,
in regard that our Saviour directeth his speech not
to all the apostles, but to
Peter, and doth not say, Blessed are you, but,
Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-jona, that here is something promised to Peter
in special; but they do not
think this is any priority, much less any
jurisdiction, more than the rest had,
but that Christ would make a more eminent and
special use of him, in the
building of his church, than of the rest; and they
observe, that God did make a
more eminent use of Peter in raising his gospel
church, both amongst the Jews,
Acts 2:1-47, and the Gentiles, Acts 10:1-48. But yet
this soundeth a little
harshly, to interpret upon this rock, by this rock.
I do therefore rather
incline to interpret it in the second sense:”
“Upon
this rock,
upon this solid and unmovable foundation of truth,
which thou hast publicly
made, I will build my church. It is true, Christ is
the foundation of the
church, and other foundation can no man lay. But
though Christ be the
foundation in one sense, the apostles are so called
in another sense, Ephesians
2:20 Revelation 21:14 not the apostles’ persons, but
the doctrine which they
preached. They, by their doctrine which they
preached, (the sum or great point
of which was what Peter here professed), laid the
foundation of the Christian
church, as they were the first preachers of it to
the Gentiles. In which
sense soever it be taken, it makes nothing for the
papists’ superiority or
jurisdiction of St. Peter, or his successors. It
follows, I will build my
church. By church is here plainly meant the whole
body of believers, who all
agree in this one faith. It is observable, that
Christ calls it his church, not
Peter’s, and saith, I will build, not, thou shalt
build. The working of
faith in souls is God’s work. Men are but ministers,
by whom others believe.
They have but a ministry towards, not a lordship
over the church of God.” (3)
In closing:
Matthew
16:18:
The Petros-petra Wordplay—Greek, Aramaic, or
Hebrew? By David N. Bivin:
“The
pinnacle of
the gospel drama may be Jesus’ dramatic statement,
“You are Petros and on this
petra I will build my church.” The saying seems to
contain an obvious Greek
wordplay, perhaps indicating that Jesus spoke in
Greek. However, it is possible
that “Petros…petra” is a Hebrew wordplay.” (4)
John Piper’s comments are
helpful:
“Jesus
does not
say, “You are Petros, and on this petros I will
build my church.” He says, “You
are Petros, and on this petra I will build my
church.” Petra has a different
connotation than petros — it’s not a loose stone;
it’s bedrock stone. Here’s
what I mean: In Matthew 27:60, where it says that
Jesus’s tomb was cut out of
the petra, the bedrock, that doesn’t mean it was cut
out of a loose stone —
like, here’s a stone, it maybe weighs ten pounds,
it’s found on the side of the
road, and he cut a grave in that stone. Well, that
doesn’t work.”
“What
he means is
the side of this mountain is stone. This is a
massive bedrock where you’d build
something, and so you carve into this bedrock.
That’s the connotation of petra.
It’s not a loose stone like petros. Petra is
bedrock. The same word is used in
Matthew 7:24: “Everyone then who hears these words
of mine and does them will
be like a wise man who built his house on the rock
[petra]” — not a pile of
stones, not gravel, but the bedrock ground in the
side of the mountain that you
dig down into till you’ve got a good foundation. The
bedrock is solid and
permanent; it’s the teachings of Jesus, which he
says can never pass away.” (5)
Why did Jesus respond to Peter
the way
that He did?
It
is
Biblical and logical to conclude that Jesus
responded to Peter’s confession
of faith.
So,
when
Jesus said, “I say to you that you are Peter, and
upon this rock, I will
build My Church,” He distinguished between Peter and
the “rock” using two
different Greek words. The name Peter
is petros,
but the word for “rock” is petra.
It is significant to note who is
going to build the Church. Jesus said, “I will build
My Church. Why would Jesus
build His Church on a mortal man?
To
rephrase
Jesus’ words, Peter was told, “I say to you that you
are a stone, and
upon this rock I will build My church.” Jesus used a
word play with petra,
“on this rock,” to make a point.
Jesus does not say, “you are petra,
and on this petra
I will build.” Instead,
Jesus says, “you are petros
(a stone),
and on this petra
(bedrock) that
Jesus will build His Church.”
“πέτρα
(petra) is “bedrock or massive
rock formations.” (6)
The
rock
spoken of is the foundation or bedrock that Christ
will build His Church,
not a moral man.
“Therefore,
thus
saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a
foundation a stone, a
tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure
foundation: he that believeth
shall not make haste.”(Isaiah 28:16)
“Wherefore
also
it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in
Sion a chief corner
stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded.” (1
Peter 2:6)
Strong's
Greek
3037: A stone; met: of Jesus as the chief stone in a
building. Apparently, a
primary word; a stone.”
Peter
is
petros,not λίθον.
Therefore,
as
Isaiah says and Peter quotes, the rock is not Peter;
but is none other than
Jesus Christ the Lord.
“And
are
built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ
himself being the chief corner stone.” (Ephesians
2:20)
“Study
to
shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy
2:15)
Notes:
1.Cambridge Bible for Schools
and
Colleges, by A. & J. J. S. Perowne Carr, Matthew,
(Cambridge University Press,
1898), e-Sword version.
2.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown,
Commentary on the Whole Bible, (Grand Rapids,
Michigan, Zondervan, 1977) p. 931.
3.Matthew Poole's Commentary
on the
Holy Bible,
Matthew,
Vol. 3, (Peabody, Massachusetts, Hendrickson
Publishers, 1985) p. 75-76.
4.David
N.
Bivin, “Hebraisms
in the New Testament,”
Encyclopedia
of Hebrew Language and
Linguistics (4 vols.; ed. Geoffrey Khan;
Leiden: Brill, 2013), 198-201, and
the JP version, “Hebraisms in the New Testament.”
5.Interview
with
John Piper, on Matthew16:15–19 https://www.
desiringgod.org/interviews/what-are-the-keys-of-the-kingdom-of-heaven.
6.Walter
Bauer,
William Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, A
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and
Other Early Christian Literature,
(Chicago, The University of Chicago Press), p. 654.
Mr.
Kettler has
previously published articles in the Chalcedon Report
and Contra Mundum. He and
his wife Marea attend the Westminster, CO, RPCNA
Church. Mr. Kettler is the
author of books defending the Reformed Faith. Books
can be ordered online at
www. Jack Kettler .com