Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: Manfred the Wonder Dawg
It's not "truth from God," Manfred, it's error, upon error, upon error, heaped up with more error.

For example:

The use of the two different words `Petros' and 'Petra' evidently proves there is a difference in meaning.

What it proves is that the writer or translator of the Greek text knows better than to give a man a proper name with feminine gender. To make petra into a man's proper name, you have to switch it to a masculine declension, so it becomes "Petros". Jesus could not have named Simon "Petra" if he'd wanted to, so the argument that there's some significance in him not naming him "Petra" is completely moot.

"Petros" is not used to mean "little rock" or "pebble" in Koine. The only examples of that usage are from classical Greek poetry, written centuries before Matthew.

This is the position of Herman Ridderbos, Oscar Cullman, D.A. Carson, and many other Protestant scholars, BTW. I am not making it up. It is not a Catholic fairy tale.

The Holy Spirit chose the Greek language to accurately write God's truth. The argument of the Aramaic language is moot, since the apostles chose to write it in Greek and the original Greek is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

That's irrelevant, because the author's argument from the Greek is false.

However, even if it were relevant, the proposition that Matthew was originally written in Greek is not universally accepted or self-evident. Eusebius quotes Papias saying that Matthew wrote his Gospel in Jerusalem, in "Hebrew". Now "Hebrew" might be Hebrew, or it might the language of the Hebrews, which was at that time Aramaic. But whatever Papias meant by "Hebrew," he certainly didn't mean Greek.

And the proposition that Peter was never called "rock" by anyone else is also false, because "Cephas" either is the Greek transliteration of Aramaic "Kepha" ("rock"), or it's a derivative of the Greek kephalon ("head") which, from your perspective, is even worse.

7 posted on 01/31/2008 6:54:51 PM PST by Campion
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: Campion

Whenever I see a long Catholic bashing article, I usually skip to the replies to see if you’ve taken the time to review it.

Your replies are intelligent, respectful and well referenced.

You’ve saved me several hours of unnecessary reading. And I’ve learned a lot.

Thanks for your fine replies.


54 posted on 02/01/2008 6:09:17 AM PST by kidd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson