St. Peter, not St. Rock

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Why do we NOT Call St. Peter “St. Rock”? After all if that’s what his name means, that what we should call him.

“Thou art Kepha and on this Kepha I will build my Church” - Kepha means rock.
“Thou art Rock and on this rock I will build my Church”
 
Remember, his original name was Simon. Jesus changed that name to Cephas, “which is interpreted Peter.” John 1:42.
 
Kind of following what 1ke pointed out, Peter is the English transliteration to my understanding.

Perhaps to illustrate, my name is Nicholas.

“Nicholas or Nikolas is a male given name, derived from the Greek name Νικόλαος (Nikolaos), a combination of the words for “victory” (νίκη; níkē) and “people” (λαὸς; laós). The name can be understood to mean victory of the people.”

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas

So, I am called Nicholas or Nick, not “victory of the people” or ‘victory’. Names seem to tend to not be translated into other languages (at least this is often the case.)
 
BobCatholic said:
Why do we NOT Call St. Peter “St. Rock”? After all if that’s what his name means, that what we should call him.

“Thou art Kepha and on this Kepha I will build my Church” - Kepha means rock.
“Thou art Rock and on this rock I will build my Church”
Click to expand...
Good question.
There are certain words that, for whatever reason are not strictly “translated” – Though I don’t know why…
Yes Kepha means rock in Aramaic and we receive in the Greek Gospels as Petros. But the meaning is Rock.
Similarly the term “Baptizo” (Greek) which means to immerse is not translated.
Think of the different feel the great commission might have if it were…
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Or this verse…
I have immersed you (in) water; but he will immersed you (in) the Holy Spirit."

Sorry - don’t mean to hijack your thread…but like I said, it’s a good question.

Peace
James
 
I’m wondering what Rock and Roll would be called if we had called the first Pope St. Rock 🙂
 
LionHeart777 said:
Kind of following what 1ke pointed out, Peter is the English transliteration to my understanding.

Perhaps to illustrate, my name is Nicholas.

“Nicholas or Nikolas is a male given name, derived from the Greek name Νικόλαος (Nikolaos), a combination of the words for “victory” (νίκη; níkē) and “people” (λαὸς; laós). The name can be understood to mean victory of the people.”

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas

So, I am called Nicholas or Nick, not “victory of the people” or ‘victory’. Names seem to tend to not be translated into other languages (at least this is often the case.)
Click to expand...
(Linguistic Joke) Well, we could always render it as Sigfolk (siġe + folc ‘victorious people’). 😃
I could see it now: “Jolly old St. Siggyfolk, lean your ear this way…” 😛
 
LionHeart777 said:
Kind of following what 1ke pointed out, Peter is the English transliteration to my understanding.

Perhaps to illustrate, my name is Nicholas.

“Nicholas or Nikolas is a male given name, derived from the Greek name Νικόλαος (Nikolaos), a combination of the words for “victory” (νίκη; níkē) and “people” (λαὸς; laós). The name can be understood to mean victory of the people.”

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas

So, I am called Nicholas or Nick, not “victory of the people” or ‘victory’. Names seem to tend to not be translated into other languages (at least this is often the case.)
Click to expand...
This is very true, except that, in this case and assuming Jesus spoke Aramaic, the name was translated from the Aramaic, “Kepha”, into the Greek, “Petros”. 🤷

Peace
James
 
Sometimes English has translation problems that Romance languages and Greek often avoid:

thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church

tú eres Pedro, y sobre esta piedra edificaré mi iglesia

tu es Pierre, et que sur cette pierre je bâtirai mon Église

If we spoke French or Spanish per the above examples, we might not be having this conversation.
 
kkollwitz said:
Sometimes English has translation problems that Romance languages and Greek often avoid:

thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church

tú eres Pedro, y sobre esta piedra edificaré mi iglesia

tu es Pierre, et que sur cette pierre je bâtirai mon Église

If we spoke French or Spanish per the above examples, we might not be having this conversation.
Click to expand...
Amen to this. Of course since our bibles have to explain the “clunkiness” of the verse due to this English translation problem by providing notes (“Peter used in the text means ‘rock’ in Greek”), those same notations could just as easily explain that “Rock” used in the text means Peter…
I say tomato - you say tomawto - 🤷
 
If I had my druthers, it’d say “upon this stone” so to make easier the connection between Bible use of the term “cornerstone” and Peter’s status upgrade.

In my catechism class I spend a fair amount of time on these translation issues.
 
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