Everyone should know what the rock is. It isn't Peter.
Everyone should know what the rock is. It isn't Peter.I'm sure you've seen this post before, but evidently it needs repeating...
Grammatically speaking, petra in Mt16:18 cannot refer to anything but petros. (Citations used below are from the following reference works: (1) A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, DeBrunner (tr. Funk), University of Chicago Press (“Grammar”); (2) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Arndt & Gingrich, University of Chicago Press (“Lexicon”))1. petros"Hellenization of Semitic personal names.... By translation." Cf. Jn1:42 – “you will be called Kephas, which means Peter.” (Grammar, 53(2e)). The name Peter is a Hellenization by translation of Kephas.2. kai
“The use of the article with personal names is varied; as a general rule ... the absence of the article merely names him.” (Lexicon, o, h, to, II.b.) Note that there is no article before petros in Mt16:18. In this part of the verse, Jesus is merely giving Peter his new name.“Epexegetical kai ... Emphatic with demonstrative ...” (Grammar 442/9.) Note the demonstrative adjective tauth, a contraction for th auth. So the sentence that follows kai is epexegetical of “You are Peter.” This epexegetical use of kai is reinforced by the following: “Kai with the future ... is used to denote a further result” (Grammar, 442(3)). Note the use of the future: “I will build my church”. The building of the church is a further result of the name change. (See also, Lexicon, kai, 3 ("Other explicative uses are kai tauto ... ").)3. tauth.o auto: An idiom composed of two words with one meaning: “same”. This word modifies petra. What same rock? There is only one other word in the verse with the base petr-, and that is petros. (Note: A Greek noun comprises two parts: a base that indicates basic meaning, and an ending that indicates grammatical gender (among other things). Although there is not necessarily a correspondence between a noun's grammatical gender and a thing's actual sex (e.g., petra is feminine gender, even though a rock is sexless), the gender of a personal name virtually always corresponds with the person’s sex (e.g., petros is masculine gender, just as Peter is a man).)4. th:"In its individualizing use it focuses attention on a single thing or concept as already known or more definitely limited: things and persons that are unique in kind. " (Lexicon, o, ei, to, II.a.) Thus, petra is preceded by the article th to indicate it is already known (compare with petros, above, which is not preceded by a definite article). Moreover, when combined with the demonstrative adjective tauth (same), the definite article becomes emphatic (the very same rock).Summary: We know that petra refers to petros because (1) the demonstrative adjective and definite article that modify petra indicate that the identity of the rock is known; (2) petra and petros share the same base and thus the same basic meaning; and (3) the sentence following kai is epexegetical of the sentence that precedes kai, the further result being that Jesus will build his church on the very same rock.
"It isn't Peter."
I belive you are incorrect. It IS Peter. In Psalms, the only ONE referred to as "rock" was God. By changing Simon's name to Peter, Jesus was saying, "from now on Simon, you are me", meaning that Simon Peter had authority and that the Church was established by Christ but rested and was built on the authority of Peter.