The Rock

[michaelgazin]

We all know the Greek distinction between petra and petros. There is no distinction like this in aramaic right? There is but one word and it is kepha. Well recently a “Church of Christ” apologist claimed there IS a distinction in aramaic as well, kepha and kephas. I have never heard this before. Does anyone have an answer?

 

[Della]

Did he back up this claim or did he invent this difference out of thin air? My bet is on the latter, although I know no Aramaic, which I rather think is true of this fellow, as well. I say this because I have been haunting Catholic apologetics sites for years and never heard of this one.

 

[VociMike]

The way I understand it, there was not even a distinction in Koine Greek during the era of Christ’s ministry. The Greek distinction came from an earlier era and had disappeared by Christ’s time.

 

[challenger]

To me, “Kepha” and “Kephas” look like inflections of the same lexical form. In any event, www.peshitta.org reads “Keepa” twice- the Peshitta is written in Syriac, a language cognate of Aramaic.