Bible - Apostle question

[Coreopisis]

I’ve only been reading the bible for about the past year adn I am not all the way through it yet. I find it difficult to understand sometimes well, alot of times. Anyway I’ve been most recently reading Matthew.

I am confused with the apostles names. Is Simon and Peter the same person? If I am understanding things correctly Jesus sort of renames him Peter. No?

Please advise.

 

[sedix]

I’ve only been reading the bible for about the past year adn I am not all the way through it yet. I find it difficult to understand sometimes well, alot of times. Anyway I’ve been most recently reading Matthew.

I am confused with the apostles names. Is Simon and Peter the same person? If I am understanding things correctly Jesus sort of renames him Peter. No?

Please advise.

Yes, Simon and Peter are the same person.

His name was Simon, Jesus gave him a new name: Peter (which, in the language spoken at those times, means “rock”)

 

[reganq]

Note: Simon was the only person in the new testament to get a name change. This happened many times in the old testament. Some will argue Saul’s name was changed to Paul, but Saul is another name for Paul. Kinda of like using Juan or John.

Happy reading.

 

[Cran]

And to add confusion, you’ll find him differently named through the four gospels: Simon, Petrus and Simon Petrus. Jesus calls him Simon Barjona (Son of Jona), too. Often you will find in the translations instead of Petrus the Aramaic Kephas, which is still the same name, anyway.
Simon Petrus/Kephas is the brother of Andreas. Their father is called John, too (Jona = John in English translations), so you might also find: Simon, son of John.

Add a bit more confusion: There is another Simon, whose byname is Kananaeus, in Luke he goes by the name Simon Zelotes. If the gospels refere to him, his byname is mentioned, otherwise it usually refers to Simon Petrus (exceptions see below, but they are made clear through the context).

Another Simon, but no apostle, is one of the so-called brothers of Jesus (for example mark 6,3) and the man who carried the cross of Jesus (Simon of Cyrene). The father of Judas Iskariot is called Simon Iskariot, by the way. In Acts, there is the magician Simon - he is of course no apostle! Again in acts, Petrus stays with another Simon at his house, Simon the tanner.

Confusion complete? Remember the easy rule: Usually, if nothing different is mentioned, Simon = Simon Petrus/Kephas

 

[Coreopisis]

And to add confusion, you’ll find him differently named through the four gospels: Simon, Petrus and Simon Petrus. Jesus calls him Simon Barjona (Son of Jona), too. Often you will find in the translations instead of Petrus the Aramaic Kephas, which is still the same name, anyway.
Simon Petrus/Kephas is the brother of Andreas. Their father is called John, too (Jona = John in English translations), so you might also find: Simon, son of John.

Add a bit more confusion: There is another Simon, whose byname is Kananaeus, in Luke he goes by the name Simon Zelotes. If the gospels refere to him, his byname is mentioned, otherwise it usually refers to Simon Petrus (exceptions see below, but they are made clear through the context).

Another Simon, but no apostle, is one of the so-called brothers of Jesus (for example mark 6,3) and the man who carried the cross of Jesus (Simon of Cyrene). The father of Judas Iskariot is called Simon Iskariot, by the way. In Acts, there is the magician Simon - he is of course no apostle! Again in acts, Petrus stays with another Simon at his house, Simon the tanner.

Confusion complete? Remember the easy rule: Usually, if nothing different is mentioned, Simon = Simon Petrus/Kephas

Ok, well at least you helped me not feel dumb about being confused because it is actually justified confusion. I was trying to figure out who these new apostles were but then realized they had to be the same person. Why not just pick one name and stick to it?

 

[Gardening_Mommy]

Two main reasons for multiple names:

1. Many people in Jesus’ day had multiple names, one Jewish, one Greek. Saul/Paul may be one of these. It made things easier if you dealt with Greek speakers a lot (not uncommon, in a conquered territory which had been conquered by the Greeks, then the Romans, but still operated mostly in Greek, not Latin).
2. There are several important instances in the Old Testament where God changes someone’s name. These indicate a major calling and mission from God and/or a particularly important event in that process of being called. Think Abram/Abraham, Sarai/Sarah, Jacob/Israel, and, in the New Testament, Simon/Peter (Kephas).

To most (if not all) ancient people, names were VERY important. You didn’t just pick one for your baby because you liked how it sounded; names had power. In some societies, there was a lighter name for public use and a secret name for family only.

In the OT especially, some names indicate something about a person’s role and invite you to reflect on whether or not they courageously fulfilled that role or not. The use of the different names of God also point things out about the story. Yahweh, for example, literally “I AM”, is often used to indicate covenants.

So the Gospel writers weren’t just doing it to confuse you.

 

[Cran]

And the “family name” or the fathers name added to the first name(Simon Barjona, for example) was also very important to keep people apart, because, as you have noticed, many names come up quite frequently.

It is just human how the evangelists write. Mind you, my friends call my Isa, many people call me Isabelle, my mom calls me Liesi (did I actually tell you that?! ), some use my middle name, too, and other people call me by my surname, but they all refer to me. If there was a book written where I’d come up, I could be referred to with five different names… maybe I’ll add a sixth one day when entering a convent… so I can compete with Simon Petrus - only in the range of names, of course.