ARE YOU READY TO MAKE DEVOTION TO INA PENAFRANCIA?
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This is what is said in Matthew 16:18.
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”(Matthew 16:18, NRSV) Why did St. Matthew use these two words in the same verse? Petra was a customary word for “rock” in Greek. St. Matthew was translating, he could have used petra for “rock.” Yet, there would have been a problem. Petra is a feminine noun. It would have been inappropriate to address Peter Petra. It follows that when St. Matthew was translating, he would have used petra for “rock.” However, in so doing, he would have encountered a problem. Petra is a feminine noun. It would have been improper to call Peter Petra. This would be equivalent to calling a male. in English. Hence, petros was used instead of petra for Peter’s name. Think About This! My name is Bernard which can also be translated as Bernardo. I am male so you will not call me Bernarda since it is feminine. The author cannot use Petra incorrectly since this can cause embarrassment to the person. Yet, it is beside the point. The actual conversation is in Aramaic. Simon became kephas in Aramaic. In St. John 1:42, the Aramaic translation of Simon’s new name, Kephas means “rock.” Let us say that Anti-Catholics are correct and Peter was only a “little stone” (petros). In that case, the Aramaic word should have been “evna” and not “kephas.” “Kephas” (John 1:42 and Matthew 16:18) comes from the Aramaic word כיפה “kefa” (Classic Galilean spelling is כיפא or in Syriac ܟܐܦܐ). The word for Peter, kefa’, is the same word for rock. If the words are compared, Peter is the rock. In said verse, the same word is used for his name ܟܐܦܐ “Kefa” and what our Lord said he would build His Church upon ܟܐܦܐ . In Galilean Aramaic of Matthew 16:18, the only likely possibility is a play on words between כיפה “kefah” or “rock” and the verb בני “bne” which means “to build” and puns with אבן “eben”. I would reconstruct this passage as: את כיפה ועל הדן אבנה אבני כנישתה “at kefah, w‘al hadən əvnah əvney kništah” You are Kefa, and upon this rock, I will build my church. You can see the progression: Kefah (rock) to əvnah (rock/build) to əvney (I will build). This is what is written in Greek text of Matthew 16:18. “κἀγὼ δέ σοι λέγω ὅτι σὺ εἶ Πέτρος, καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέτρᾳ οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ πύλαι ἅ|δου οὐ κατισχύσουσιν αὐτῆς. “(Matthew 16:18, Greek New Testament) Let us analyze this deeply καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃͅ τῇ πέτρᾳ. The καί is a connective conjunction. It must be translated as “and.” If used with the dative, ἐπί it can be taken in a spatial, temporal, or causal sense. A spatial understanding is more appropriate and the word may be defined as “on, upon”. The object of ἐπί should be described as πέτρα. The ταύτη (“this”) refers to πέτρα. The use of the article τῇ with the demonstrative pronoun ταύτη, which is in the predicate form, shows attributive function. So, the phrase may be translated as such: “and upon this rock.” The word πέτρα means “rock, stone”; plainly and refers to the rock out of which a tomb is constructed. in the LXX, πέτρα can be used to signify the following: a. “rock or cliff” (Exod 17:6; Ps 80:16); b. place-name or geographical note, The word is mentioned 15 times in the New Testament ; nine of those are in the Gospels while five of the fifteen can be read in Matthew. Only in Matt 16:18 are πέτρα and Πέτρος used in the same verse. The greek word Petros was not an exact synonym of petra since it was translated literally as “a stone.” Jesus in a play on words switched petra when He turned from Peter’s name to what it signified for the church. There is no logical reason to think that Jesus changed from petros to petra to show that he did not refer to Peter but of his acknowledgment as the foundation of the church. The words “on this rock [petra]” refer to Peter due to the revelation he received and the confession (for which he would use ekeinος) that it motivated in him. Peter was appointed by Jesus to establish the foundation of the future church. The word πέτρα is feminine in the Greek and has a feminine ending (-α). The New Testament opted for a Greek word with masculine ending (-ος) for the apostle: Πέτρος.There is no basic difference between πέτρα and Πέτρος, even though πέτρα meant “live rock” and Πέτρος, a “detached stone.” The distinction was not observed precisely. The reason of Jose Ventilacion is if we say Peter is the Rock, there are two rocks since only Christ is the rock according to 1 Corinthians 3:11? It is true that there are several cases of God the Father being referred to as “rock” (Deuteronomy 32: 4 15, 1 Samuel 2:2, Psalms 18:31 Isaiah 30:29) and Jesus being described as “rock” or “foundation” in the NT (1 Corinthians 3:11, 10:4). Nonetheless, that does not essentially mean that Jesus calls himself (or the Father) as the “rock” of Matthew 16:18. Matthew 16 talks about the theme of Jesus’ identity, but verses. 17-19 focuses mainly on Peter and his statements about the identity of. It will appear that the πέτρα of v. 18 either refers to the man. Likewise, in v. 17, Jesus refers to the apostle as “Simon”. In v. 18, Jesus expressly refers to Simon as Peter which is the nickname he gave this apostle. If Peter is not being referred to, why would Jesus intentionally use a word that almost copied the apostle’s name? if this is the only place in the New Testament wherein πέτρα and Πέτρος are used in the same verse, it is hard to think that Jesus was not somehow referring to Peter.
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