Important reading: Appendix
Appendix: Two Viewpoints on Matthew 16: 18
Introduction
We offer four writers representing two major divisions within Christianity as they record their understanding of Matthew 16: 18. It is our belief that whilst we do not have to agree with each, we must learn to respect these different positions. Regardless of our personal beliefs, we consider each of the following to be very fine Christian literature.
Charles Erdman: Princetown Presbyterian Seminary
This truth is also a fundamental truth, "And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church," not merely on Peter, but a Peter confessing the deity of Christ; and not confessing it as a conclusion of his own reason, but upon Peter confessing his acceptance of the truth which God has revealed to his soul. Upon such a man, and such men, the church was founded; and of such men the church of all ages has been composed. Such a church, too, is imperishable; "the gates of Hades," i.e., "death," the entrance to the underworld, "shall not prevail against it."
(From The Gospel of Matthew, Westminster Press, 1966)
John Meier: St Joseph's R.C. Seminary New York
To his word of felicitation Jesus adds a word of promise, which takes the form of a conferral of a new title. Peter has addressed Jesus with certain titles; now Jesus reciprocates. But, while Peter was simply acknowledging what Jesus always was, Jesus confers a new title on Peter. Since the title will become a second name, this conferral of title recalls those instances in the OT when Yahweh conferred a new name on some important figure of salvation history, most notably Abraham.
Jesus acts with the same sovereign authority as Peter's Lord. It should be stressed that, up to this time in ancient Palestine, "Peter" (Petros in Greek, Kepha in Aramaic) had not been used as anyone's personal name. We should not think of "Peter" as a personal name with the secondary meaning "rock"; the word simply meant "rock" and nothing more. Jesus is not changing one first name to another; he is conferring on Simon a new title, "the Rock." The play on words is lost in English and slightly obscured in Greek. In Aramaic it would run: "You are the Rock (Kepha cf. 1 Cor 15: 5; Gal 2: 9, 11; Jn 1: 42), and upon this rock (kepha) I will build my church." The original Aramaic form makes clear that "this rock" refers to the person of Simon, and not to his faith or to Jesus. The significance of the rock is that it is firm, supplying a solid foundation for building (cf. Mt's perfect explanation of the image in 7: 24 — 25). Abraham was considered to be the rock from which the people Israel was hewn (Is 51: 1 — 2), and a rabbinic saying claims that Abraham was the rock on which God built the world. Similarly, Peter will be the human patriarch and foundation stone of the new people of God.
(From "Matthew" Veritas Publications 1980)
Richard France: London Bible College
Peter has declared Jesus' true significance; now Jesus in turn reveals where Peter stands in the working out of God's purpose. And as Peter's confession was encapsulated in a title, 'Messiah', so Jesus now sums up Peter's significance in a name, Peter. It is not now given for the first time, for Matthew has used it throughout in preference to 'Simon' (which never occurs without 'Peter' until v. 17) and Mark 3: 16 and John 1: 42 indicate that it was given at an earlier stage. What Jesus here reveals is its significance.
It was apparently an original choice by Jesus, for no other use of Petros (or the underlying Aramaic kepa, 'Cephas') as a personal name is known before this; now he reveals why he chose it. It describes not so much Peter's character (he did not prove to be 'rock-like' in terms of stability or reliability), but his function, as the foundation stone of Jesus' church. The feminine word for rock, petra, is necessarily changed to the masculine petros (stone) to give a man's name, but the word-play is unmistakable (and in Aramaic would be even more so, as the same form kepa would occur in both places). It is only Protestant overreaction to the Roman Catholic claim (which of course has no foundation in the text), that what is here said of Peter applies also to the later bishops of Rome, that has led some to claim that the 'rock' here is not Peter at all but the faith which he has just confessed. The word play, and the whole structure of the passage, demands that this verse is every bit as much Jesus' declaration about Peter as v. 16 was Peter's declaration about Jesus. Of course it is on the basis of Peter's confession that Jesus declares his role as the church's foundation, but it is to Peter, not to his confession, that the rock metaphor is applied. And it is, of course, a matter of historic fact that Peter was the acknowledged leader of the group of disciples, and of the developing church in its early years. The foundation-stone image is applied in the New Testament primarily to Christ himself.
(From The Gospel According to Matthew, Intervarsity Press, 1958)
St Cyprian (AD 195 - 258 approx) Bishop of Carthage
The Lord said to Peter: 'I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church... I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.'
To him again, after his resurrection, he says, Feed my sheep. Upon him being one he builds his Church; and though he gives to all the apostles an equal power, and says, As my Father sent me, even so send I you; receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye retain, they shall be retained; — yet in order to manifest unity, he has by his own authority so placed the source of the same unity, as to begin from one. Certainly the other apostles also were what Peter was, endued with an equal fellowship both of honour and power; but a commencement is made from unity, that the Church may be set before us as one; which one Church, in the Song of Songs, doth the Holy Spirit design and name in the person of our Lord: My dove, my spotless one, is but one; she is the only one of her mother, elect of her that bare her.
He who holds not this unity of the Church, does he think that he holds the faith? He who strives against and resists the Church, is he assured that he is in the Church? For the blessed apostle Paul teaches this same thing, and manifests the sacrament of unity thus speaking; There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God.
(St Cyprian, On the Unity of the Church)
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