In Matt. 16, does the second rock refer back to the first rock?

[joe370]

I believe the “rock” in verse 18, refers to verse 17: " …for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." which is referring to verse 16: “Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.”.
The statement of “That thou art Peter” is a way that Jesus identified Peter as the next leader of the church through which the rock of revelation from the rock of our Lord would come through.

Grammatically speaking, the pronoun “this” rock (the second rock) - always refers to the nearest noun which is the first rock in verse 18, as opposed to Simon’s confession in verse 17, as you know - correct? My cousin is an English teacher so be honest. LOL…LOL…

Verse 17: Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

Verse 18: And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church…

 

[joe370]

rbarcia:
Rbarcia, grammatically speaking, the pronoun “this” rock (the second rock) - always refers to the nearest noun which is the first rock in verse 18, as opposed to Simon’s confession in verse 17, as you know - correct?

Verse 17: Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

Then

Verse 18: And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church…

 

[TimothyH]

But we only have what is written. You can’t know what was said. You are going on speculation. Petros and petra are two distinct words in the Greek. Petros is a shifting, rolling, or insecure stone, while petra is a solid, immovable rock. In the English language the gender is not specified by the article. We say the fork, the spoon, and the knife. The three words have the same article. In the Greek, as in many of the modern languages, each noun and corresponding article is in the masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. In many cases it is an arbitrary arrangement, regardless of sex. The article in Greek is important. If one noun is in the masculine it must have a masculine article, and if it is in the feminine it must have a feminine article. The text under consideration in the Greek shows that petros is in the masculine, and petra in the feminine, proving that they are two distinct words; and each one has a different meaning.

Not so fast. Both petra and petros refer to some form or rock or stone, pebble, boulder, etc.

Saying that we cannot know what was actually said is really disingenuous and ignores a large swath of scholarship on the subject. There is much compelling evidence that Jesus spoke Aramaic including the fact that Peter is referred to as Caiphas in several places in scripture. Caiphas would have been the transliterated aramaic word “kepha”. Calling Peter Caiphas only makes sense if Jesus spoke Aramaic and there is compelling evidence that he did. If Jesus spoke Aramaic, his words would have been

You are kepha, and upon this kepha I will build my Church.

Assuming that Jesus did speak Aramaic for a moment. the authors of the gospells would have been translating Jesus’ word kepha into Greek. To be gramatically correct, and as you have pointed out that there are several forms of the word, when refereing to a large immovable rock the masculine form of the word petros would have been used. But when referring to the name of a person, the feminine form of the word Petra would have been used. In English, this comes out as;

***You are Peter (feminine - petra) and upon this rock (masculine - petros) I will build my church. ***It’s simply good grammar and when viewed in light of the word Caiphas which is used in several places in scripture, makes perfect sense.

Consider how the phrase is rendered in French, where the word Pierre literally means rock;

Et moi, je te dis que tu es Pierre, et que sur cette pierre je bâtirai mon Eglise

Petros. Petra. Pierre. Peter. Rock. Caiphas. Kepha. They all reference some kind of stone, boulder, pebble or other form of rock.

-Tim-

-Tim-