justinangel
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So the assertion that "kefa would have been in both places" is shortsighted, especially where the Greek uses two separate words – which would work nicely, given the pun.
If in fact there is a pun, which may serve as one plausible explanation. Biblical exegesis deals with what is plausible, not with what is certain, so the best that can be done is arrive at the most plausible explanation. And that requires looking at things from different angles.
Aramaic has only one word for "huge rock" and that is Kepha. The Gospels provide evidence that Jesus renamed Simon Kepha. In John 1:42, Jesus calls Simon "Chephas" which is the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic word. Paul also refers to Peter as Cephas in 1 Cor. 1:12; 3:22; 9:5; 15:5, and in Gal. 2:9. Thus, Peter is the huge or massive stone on which Jesus builds his Church. If Jesus wanted to distinguish Peter from the genuine rock of the Church, he would have used the word evna (little pebble). Evna would then have been translated as lithos, while Kepha would have been translated as Petros.
In the Greek language, nouns have a grammatical gender. Since petra ( a large immovable rock) is feminine, Matthew must have decided to record his name as Petros, if in fact he wrote his gospel in Greek instead of Hebrew. Greek requires a masculine noun to describe a man. So, Matthew chose Petros because the Greek grammatical rules required him to. Paul, moreover, identifies the proper masculine noun Christos with the feminine noun petra in 1 Cor. 10:4: "And they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ." This shows that Greek words do not have to match in gender when they are identified with each other. The masculine noun Petros can be identified with the feminine noun petra.
Hence, in Aramaic, Jesus told Simon bar Jonah: "You are Peter (Kepha) and upon this rock (kepha) I will build my Church." The metaphor could function well in Aramaic where nouns are neither feminine nor masculine, but in Greek, the noun "rock" was feminine and thus unsuitable as a name for Peter. So, the Aramaic word Kepha was translated to the masculine name Petros when it referred to Peter, and to the feminine noun petra when it referred to the rock.
I'm replying only because your post hasn't been removed by the moderator for being off-topic. So, I'll end it here out of respect for the house rules. Don't want to type too much for nothing, in case our posts are removed.
J.A.
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