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Daily Defense Podcast
#282 Petros versus Petra - Jimmy Akin
Oct 9, 2023
Jimmy Akin and Protestant scholar D.A. Carson discuss the challenge of distinguishing between 'Petros' and 'Petra' in Matthew 16:18. They argue that the difference in gender is largely poetic and both words stem from the Aramaic word 'Kepha'. The use of synonyms in the Greek translation and the interpretation of the parallelism in the passage are also discussed.
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Quick takeaways
- The distinction between 'Petros' and 'Petra' is largely confined to poetry, and in the underlying Aramaic language, Kepha was used for both cases.
- Even if 'Petros' and 'Petra' were to refer to small and large stones respectively, it does not undermine the interpretation of Peter as the rock; Jesus may acknowledge that Peter appears to be a small stone, but affirms that he is truly the rock on which the Church will be built.
Deep dives
Distinction between Petros and Petra
In Matthew 16:18, Jesus refers to Peter as 'Petros', meaning small stone, and uses 'Petra', meaning large rock, for the term rock. This has led to the question of why Jesus would change the word if he was referring to Peter both times. However, the distinction between Petros and Petra is largely confined to poetry, and in the underlying Aramaic language, Kepha was used for both cases. The Pshitta, written in Syriac, which is cognate with Aramaic, makes no distinction between the words. The Greek translation makes the distinction to preserve the pun and to allow for grammatical gender agreement.
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