Why is Simon called Peter?

[Canto]

This may sound like a silly question, but why do English Bibles call Simon, Peter.

Jesus spoke Aramaic and renamed Simon Cephas which means rock with evna meaning stone

John 1:42 “Thou shalt be called Cephas”

The Greek in translating Matthew’s Aramaic says

Matthew 16:18 “You are Petros and on this petra”

Petros (masculine) and petra (feminine) transalte as rock while stone is lithos.

The Latin is Petrus.

So Jesus renames Simon, Rock.

So why don’t our Bibles say Rock?
How do we get Peter?

Just curious.
You help would be appreciated.

 

[Verbum]

Hi Canto,

Petrus is the Latin for “stone”. Actually “stone” is “petra”. But it was masculinized to fit the male. English simply copied the Latin giving it an English ending. Obviously, this happened before any English translation of the Bible was ever done. The translators of the Bible just used the name “Peter” that was already in use.

Logicallly, the English should be : “Stone, you are stone and upon this stone I shall build my church.”

The French language happens to render best the original Aramaic, where it would be Kephas in both cases :

“Pierre tu es pierre et sur cette pierre je bâtirai mon église.”

Verbum

 

[Canto]

Thanks so much for the info.

Checked the French Jerusalem Bible online and yes it has Pierre…pierre. Very cool!

 

[Michael_Kirite]

This may sound like a silly question, but why do English Bibles call Simon, Peter.

Jesus spoke Aramaic and renamed Simon Cephas which means rock with evna meaning stone

John 1:42 “Thou shalt be called Cephas”

The Greek in translating Matthew’s Aramaic says

Matthew 16:18 “You are Petros and on this petra”

Petros (masculine) and petra (feminine) transalte as rock while stone is lithos.

The Latin is Petrus.

So Jesus renames Simon, Rock.

So why don’t our Bibles say Rock?
How do we get Peter?

Just curious.
You help would be appreciated.

 

[patrick457]

Hi Canto,

Petrus is the Latin for “stone”. Actually “stone” is “petra”. But it was masculinized to fit the male. English simply copied the Latin giving it an English ending. Obviously, this happened before any English translation of the Bible was ever done. The translators of the Bible just used the name “Peter” that was already in use.

Logicallly, the English should be : “Stone, you are stone and upon this stone I shall build my church.”

The French language happens to render best the original Aramaic, where it would be Kephas in both cases :

“Pierre tu es pierre et sur cette pierre je bâtirai mon église.”

Verbum

Actually, it should be “Rock.”

Then again, it may be quite a shock to a few if we produce a translation that says “You’re ‘Rock’, and upon this rock…” with the above rendering trying to preserve the original nuance of the (nick)name, since ‘Petros’ or ‘Kepha’ was a very uncommon name (there are no known pre-Christian usages of ‘Petros’ as a name, and there is only one instance of ‘Kepha’ being used as a name in antiquity apart from Simon Kepha).

But wouldn’t it rock to have a saint named ‘Simon Rocky’?

 

[Charlie_Zeaiter]

Hi Canto,

In English, “Rock” is not really a man’s name. (Although, I kind of like the idea of “Rocky”. )

“Peter” is an English spin of “Petros”. And I guess “Petros” is a Greek spin on some other ancient language. Words and names often get a new twist across generations and languages.

Did you know that Jesus is from Joshua. And Joshua is from Yahshua? That’s right; Our Saviour’s name is really Yahshua.

So, when Jesus changed Simon’s name, it really had to be a man’s name to make it appropriate.

Consider a lovely daughter that reminds you of a beautiful flower. You can’t really name her “Flower” - but you might call her “Rose”.

 

[Canto]

Thanks everyone.

Rocky - I like

Isn’t there a wrestler called ‘the Rock’?

Can you imagine picking up a bible and reading

You are Rock and on this rock

The orignal douay rheims from 1582 noted the above in the footnotes as well as…

you are Peter and on this peter