Petra vs petros

[Fatima-Crusader]

I have heard thre word rock is petra, which means "a rock; a cliff; a projecting rock; mother rock; huge mass; solid formation; fixed; immovable; enduring.
And the word Peter in Greek is petros, which means “a piece of rock; a stone; a single stone; movable, insecure, shifting, or roll ing.” But ive also heard the terms are the same just one masucline and feminine, anyone knowlegable in koine greek help me out?

 

[BartholomewB]

Jesus said it in Aramaic, presumably Keifa. That’s the way “Peter” appears in the standard Hebrew translation of the NT: כֵּיפָא

https://haktuvim.co.il/en/study/Matt.16

 

[Todd_Easton]

Catholic Answers apologist Tim Staples discussed this topic in his 2013 article, “Peter the Rock.”

 

[Bithynian]

Catholic Answers apologist Tim Staples discussed this topic in his 2013 article, “Peter the Rock .”

That’s a really good article.

I did my undergraduate in Classical and Koine Greek. I think the simplest answer is that there is no absolute distinction between πέτρα or πέτρος in Koine. It’s similar to how we use the words “rock” and “stone” without much differentiation.

Jesus likely used πέτρα first as its the predominant noun for “rock” (πέτρος was very uncommon even in Classical). Because πέτρa is a feminine noun, it was not acceptable for use as a male name: so Jesus applied a masculine cognate noun, πέτρος to Simon, son of Jonah.

This happens commonly in Greek names. For example, Ἀναξαγόρας (Anaxagoras) was a male 5th century BC Greek philosopher. His name consists of two words: ἂναξ (anax) meaning “lord” and ἂγορα (agora) meaning “assembly”. However, ἂγορα is a feminine noun, and so a masculine ending (-ας) was added to make it more appropriate (compare his name to Lysias, a 5th century BC Greek male orator).