Ginger, your explanation was a good one, except that you’re missing some key points. First of all, there is a variation in mss, so we don’t even know for sure if Matthew has “Eli” or “Eloi”. Secondly, you seem to have completely missed the fact that the rest of this saying is in Aramaic, not Hebrew, in both Matthew and Mark. So the question is: why would they have recorded it in Aramaic unless that is what Jesus said? Matthew could have had “Eli” in Hebrew because he was directly quoting the Psalm and because his primary audience was the Jews. But Mark’s primary audience were Greek speakers, so if Jesus said it in Hebrew then why would Mark record it in Aramaic? If he was going to translate it, then why translate it into Aramaic instead of Greek? That makes no sense. The only thing that makes sense is that Jesus said it in Aramaic, and Matthew and Mark left it untranslated, although Matthew may have written “Eli, Eli” for the reasons I gave.
And so we’re right back to the original point: the overwhelming opinion of scholars, both believing and unbelieving, both Protestant and Catholic, is that the plain and obvious meaning is that Jesus founded His Church on Peter the Rock; and that our Lord spoke Aramaic, and called Peter, “Kepha”. And that He didn’t decide to all of a sudden speak Greek in the middle of that passage! It’s really very simple. There’s no need to jump through hoops in order to deny what God has done, especially since it’s confirmed in Eph. 2:20 and Rev. 21:14. Not to mention, that it doesn’t even matter if you call Peter a “pebble” - that “pebble” holds the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and has the power to bind and loose all of us on Earth, and it’s enforced by God! Some pebble!
And if your next attempted escape is to say that that power and authority was not passed on to Peter’s successors, then you’re in luck - somebody just started
a new thread on that very topic. See you there!