Sal: But it has been preserved, after being translated into Greek and Latin, by Catholics.
So that means that it was the CATHOLIC CHURCH which used the words *petra* and *Petros* in Matthew there.
Making the word for *rock* mean small stone in one case and bedrock in another.
And then it was the CATHOLIC CHURCH which penned this, too, right?
http://biblehub.com/text/1_corinthians/10-4.htm
1 Corinthians 10:1-4 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock (petra) that followed them, and the Rock (petra) was Christ.
And then believe that the Catholic Church which they claim has unbroken lineage of the preservation of scripture lost the originals. And to top that all off believe they could consistently over millennium maintain an unchanging oral teaching. They can save dead bones but not God's original word.
As Catholics were responsible for writing the New Testament (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit), the Catholic Church doesn't "interpret" the Bible. We explain it. You should invest some time in learning more about the origins of the Bible. The original writings from the Apostles themselves (the autographs) no longer exist. This is due partly to the perishable material (papyrus) used by the writers, and partly to the fact that the Roman emperors decreed the destruction of the sacred books of the Christians (Edict of Diocletian, A.D. 303). Before translating the Bible into Latin, St. Jerome had already translated into more common languages enough books to fill a library. (Saint Jerome, Maisie Ward, Sheed & Ward; A Companion to Scripture Studies, Steinmuller.)