As Jesus was catechizing* his inner core of disciples, he asked them, "Who say you that I am?" The apostle Peter answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).
The Lord's response: "Blessed art thou, Simon bar-Jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven." Then the Master made his major point: "and I say 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" (Matthew 16:17).
This prophetic blessing has mistakenly been construed to claim that Christ's church was constructed upon the foundation of the man Peter himself, but this is not so.
Jesus was simply employing a traditional Hebrew rhetorical device to emphasize his pronouncement.
"Peter," from the Latin petros ("Caphas" or Kepha in Aramaic) means "like a stone" or "Rocky," in current parlance*
The apostle Peter has been vilified as impetuous, probably for his brash attempt to walk on the water (Matthew 14:25-31) and his swift swordsmanship in Gethsemane (John 18:10). Later, he proved to be quite stable; yet it is to be doubted that Jesus would have meant for him to be the necessarily solid, immutable* foundation for the institution of his church on Earth.
Rather, Simon Peter was called "blessed" because he had come to the full knowledge of Jesus's deity though a divinely inspired revelation: spiritually, not through the flesh.
The rock, then, is not of any human origin; it is the experience or condition of direct revelation from God as to the nature of Jesus Christ, his Son- the rock of revelation. Upon this rock the church of Jesus Christ is built.
catechizing n.
par•lance n.
immutable adj.
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