The scenario: You participate in an employee Bible study every day on your lunch hour. This particular Monday, Fred, a new employee, is introduced to the group. He announces he’s a former Catholic and is also a part-time minister at a nondenominational “Bible church” in a nearby town. As you begin, Fred opens his Bible and begins to “explain” why the papacy is “unbiblical.” The other Catholics in the room look to you expectantly. They know you’ve been attending a Catholic apologetics training course at your parish, and as you look around, you realize you’re the only one in the room who is ready to respond.

Click on the link below to read the rest of the story….
A Bedrock Protestant argument against the Papacy gets reduced to rubble.

Q. If Jesus was making Peter His Prime Minister in the Church then why did He call Peter Satan a few verses later?
A. Peter was still very human, subject to sin, and the influence of Our Enemy. Because, Peter, in trying to dissuade Jesus from the cross, came under the influence of Satan and tempted Jesus not to take up His cross, Jesus clearly perceived the true source of Peter’s seemingly compassionate words and denounces Satan and his influence on Peter.

“Get behind me Satan”. He was addressing Satan not calling Peter Satan. Then, speaking to Peter, Jesus says,
You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

This was Peter’s first lesson in learning how to discern the voice of Satan and the Voice of Christ.

Q. So what is the support for the contention that the Catholic Church is the prescribed “organization of believers” despite their unchristian behavior over many centuries.

A. Well, we have 1500 more years of history as an organization than the Lutherans and Presbyterians. And there are more Catholics worldwide than all of the Protestant denominations put together. So, I do not doubt that we have logged a lot more unchristian behavior in the past 2000 years. But just wait until the Lutherans have been around for 2000 years and have as many members as we do, then we can compare fairly our records of sanctity and sinfulness?

Q. The origin of the belief in the papacy, appears to be the passage in Matthew 16:18 where Jesus says, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

A. Actually the origin of the papacy is not rooted/derived/ or founded upon the passage of Matthew 16. It is rooted in Christian history. But because Protestants have no regard for history and will only listen to evidence in Scripture, we do our best to give you the best Biblical evidence to support and explain our beliefs. Remember we do not derive our religion out of scripture alone like the Protestant sects do.

Q. There are two different viewpoints on what this scripture is saying. The Catholic Church, of course, says that Jesus is putting Peter in charge and he was therefore the first Pope. The other viewpoint is that Jesus was saying that the church was to be built upon Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question posed to Peter just preceding the passage in question. Peter’s response was that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

I cannot find any additional support that Jesus meant that Peter would be the foundation of the church (the rock Jesus would build his church on),

Q. In Matthew 16, is Jesus going to build His Church on Peter’s confession or on Peter?

A. Both, in one way, because certainly the Church is built on “Christ the Son of the living God”. However, the plain sense of Mt. 16 has to be speaking about Peter. Peter is the Rock on which the Church will be built. After all, Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter and what does the name Peter mean? Rock.

In addition to this, in v. 18 “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church”, the pronoun “this” must have a noun that it is referring to, an antecedent. Antecedents are usually 0ne of the closest nouns that came before the pronoun. In this case that noun would be Peter. Often, when trying to refute the Catholic use of this scripture to show that Peter is the rock on which Jesus will build His church some have said,

“No, the rock is not Peter it is Peter’s confession, that is the rock on which Christ will build His Church.”

That seems reasonable until you think about the rules of grammar. The pronoun “this” is in verse 18. Peter’s confession is in verse 16. That is two verses, three sentences and seven nouns away.

16: Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.“
17: And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
18: And I tell you, you are Peter, and on THIS rock I will build my church.

If pronouns in English or any other language could have seven nouns in between the pronoun and the antecedent it would be incomprehensible. For example:

And Tom said, my house is a two-story Victorian. John said,”You are lucky Tom.”
When I get a job, and make some money my father can take a vacation. And I tell you it may be a cave but THIS home is where my heart is.

Which home is where John’s heart is? The Cave? or the two-story Victorian.

or

I have a car and I love to drive. I also have a truck. My house has a two-car garage with a pool. IT is beautiful.

What does IT refer to? What is beautiful? The pool or maybe the whole house. Who would contend that the writer meant that the car was beautiful? And yet, that is the sort of grammatical gymnastics required to assert that Peter’s confession was the rock upon which Jesus would build His Church.

Q. It would seem that of first importance in this discussion is the proof of the primacy that the Catholic Church claims. Was Peter really made the rock on which the church would stand and did this establish an Apostolic legacy that the Catholic Church claims as its authoritative support. What about Peter ? And how has this played out in the church history?

I noticed in your quoting of the scripture from Matthew 16:18 where Jesus says,

“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church”

that where I have the word Peter you have the word Rock,

“And I tell you that you are Rock, and on this rock I will build my church.”

but in the Greek the first word is Petros and the second word is Petra. Petros is the word used elsewhere that is translated Peter and Petra is used elsewhere as rock (see Lk 8:6 for instance). I don’t believe your translation is correct and in fact my translation is the one I found in my official Catholic Bible issued by The Catholic Press, Inc. Copyright 1957.

A. Yes you are right that is the traditional translation but the Greek word for Peter is the word for rock. Using Peter obscures what it actually was that Jesus said. At this time there was not a name, Peter. These days we are used to it as a name and don’t get the significance of Jesus naming him Rock.

And I do have a post on this:

Petros/Petra vs. Rocky/ Rockelle

Q. Isn’t the problem, with the Catholic argument that Peter is the Rock of Matthew 16, that the Greek word used by Jesus for the Rock foundation of His Church is petra but the name He uses for Peter is Petros? Doesn’t Petra, meaning a BIG rock refer to Peter’s confession whereas, petros, Jesus’ name for Simon, means small stone.

A. This is a valiant attempt by non-Catholic apologists to explain away Biblical evidence that Jesus founded His Church on Peter. However, it simply is not convincing when one looks at the facts.
First, most scholars believe that Jesus spoke Aramaic. In Aramaic there is only ONE word for rock. Kepha. So what Jesus actually said would have been:

You are Kepha, and on this kepha I will build my Church.

Jesus was not making any distinctions, after all, between Simon Kepha/Rock and the Kepha/Rock that Christ would build His Church upon. But obviously Peter comes from the Greek word petros. So, of course, one would tend to wonder about the strength of this argument since we now call Simon–Peter and not Kepha/Cephas. The explanation is simple. There actually are several places in the New Testament where the Aramaic IS used for Simon.

John 1:42
And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas, which, when translated, is Peter.”

This is very early on.

1 Corinthians 1:12
What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas “; still another, “I follow Christ.”

1 Corinthians 3:22
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,
1 Corinthians 9:5
Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?

So Simon was at this time called Cephas in Aramaic. Simon’s new name has come down to us as Peter because the Greek translation of the New Testament is the stronger traditional translation used by the Church when translating into Latin and English, and other vernacular languages. Petros/Petra is the Greek from which Peter is derived. There was a time when these two Greek words did denote different types of rocks but by the first century AD they were synonyms.

Second-When the translation of the original Aramaic ( You are Kepha and on this kepha…) was made into Greek, the word Kepha which denoted Peter’s new name, became petros because petra has a feminine ending and petros has the masculine ending. It would not be fitting to call the Prince of the Apostles by a girl’s name like Rockelle. In English we use the name Peter which is a Greek name but if we were to make a strict translation into English it would be Rock or Rocky. A man’s name.

Q. Isn’t the problem, with the Catholic argument that Peter is the Rock of Matthew 16, that the Greek word used by Jesus for the Rock foundation of His Church is petra but the name He uses for Peter is Petros? Doesn’t Petra, meaning a BIG rock refer to Peter’s confession whereas, petros, Jesus’ name for Simon, means small stone.

A. This is a valiant attempt by non-Catholics to explain away Biblical evidence that Jesus founded His Church on Peter. However, it simply is not convincing when one looks at the facts.

First, most scholars believe that Jesus spoke Aramaic. In Aramaic there is only ONE word for rock. Kepha. So what Jesus actually said would have been:

You are Kepha, and on this kepha I will build my Church.

Jesus was not making any distinctions, after all, between Peter and the petra that Christ would build His Church upon. But obviously Peter comes from the Greek word petros. So, of course, one would tend to wonder about the strength of this argument since we now call Simon–Peter and not Kepha. The explanation is simple. There actually are several places in the New Testament where the Aramaic IS used for Simon.

John 1:42
And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas, which, when translated, is Peter.”

1 Corinthians 1:12
What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas “; still another, “I follow Christ.”

1 Corinthians 3:22
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,

1 Corinthians 9:5
Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?

Simon’s new name has come down to us as Peter because the Greek translation of the New Testament is the stronger traditional translation used by the Church when translating into Latin and English, and other vernacular languages.
Second-When the translation of the original Aramaic was made into Greek the word petra which denoted Peter was simply changed by the translator to petros because petra has a feminine ending and petros has the masculine ending. It would not be fitting to call the Prince of the Apostles by a girl’s name like Rockelle. In English we use the name Peter which is a Greek name but if we were to make a strict translation into English it would be Rock or Rocky. A man’s name.

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