Matthew 16:18
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter (Petros), and upon this rock (Petra)I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Petra - Petros Greek for stone or rock
Definition

1. a rock, cliff or ledge
1. a projecting rock, crag, rocky ground
2. a rock, a large stone
3. _meta_ph. a man like a rock, by reason of his firmness and strength of soul



John 1:42
And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said , Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation , A stone.


Kephas - of Aramaic origin
Definition
Cephas = "stone"

1. another name for the apostle Peter

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It is interesting that the only place that Peter is called Caphas is one time in John, above, and 5 times by Paul to the Corinthians and Galatians.


I am thinking there is a special reason for this. One is Greek, the one we are most familar with and the other, Kephas is Aramaic, more close to the Hebrew.

The word for stone or rock in Hebrew is 'eben'. We find this used many times in the 'OT'. It means a stone or rock, large or small. It is from the primitive root word 'Banah' which means to build, rebuild or establish.

It is one of the names for the Holy one of Israel (we can see this in Genesis 49 in the blessings that Jacob pronounces on his sons regarding the end of days)

22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: 23 The archers have sorely grieved him , and shot at him, and hated him : 24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd , the stone of Israel

We can see here the relationship between the stone and the shepherd which watches over the sheep. Could this be why John used the Aramaic Word for better understanding of this name given to Simon? Remember he told him:

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. This renaming is only found in Matthew.

The word translated archaically as 'art' means to 'be'.

This now will be tied in with what Yeshua told Peter (called Peter here, not Cephas, that is only used the one time at the renaming to show it was not a linguistic part of the original but an emphasis on what it's true meaning was) after his resurrection.

15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" "Yes, LORD," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." 16 Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, LORD, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." 17 The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "LORD, you know all things; you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep.

Lambs and sheep are certainly connected to a shepherd.

There are many words in Hebrew translated as rock or stone, such as Cela or Selah, Tzor, .

It is particularly interesting in the prophecy for Joseph that eben is used and not these others which relate to strongholds, cliffs, and other things that the L-RD is associated with.

Many of the uses (over 200) of the word 'Eben' are in relationship to shepherding or sheep. do a look up of the word, it is strongs 68 to see what I mean.


The tablets of the covenant, the ephod stones and the two stones with the twelve tribes names engraved on them that sat on the shoulders of the High Priest are all 'Eben'.

the most familiar to most is found in Psalms 118

22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.

It is interesting how this is interpreted in the NT.

I will list where this is quoted and insert the original word in there.

Romans 9:33 As it is written , Behold , I lay in Sion a stumblingstone (Lithos) and rock (Petra) of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed .


1 Peter 2:8 And a stone (lithos) of stumbling, and a rock (petros)of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient : whereunto * also they were appointed .



thoughts?