Thursday, April 18, 2024

Norbert H. O’ Duckwitz (LDS), "Peter and the Rock"

  

The identity of Peter the rock, Jesus the rock of the Church, and the Rock of Revelation involve an intricate paronomasia. When Jesus enters the regions of Caesarea Philippi with His disciples, the historical identity of the name change of the place from Baal Hermon and Baal Gad, to Paneas, to Caesarea, and most recently to Caesarea Philippi, its historical religious background may have stirred a question of name identification in the mind of Jesus. Here the idols of Canaanite Baal Hermon and Baal Gad have been worshipped in the Old Testament period, an ancient grove had been dedicated to the Greek rustic god Pan in the Hellenistic period, and perhaps now He and the apostles are walking past a temple dedicated to Roman Caesar Augustus, revered as a god. Most prominent features of the place are a towering massive rock formation and a deep cavern with a seemingly bottomless pit of water that flows out of the cave and supplies the springs of the Jordan River.

 

In this picturesque geological landscape, this history of varied nomenclature, and this environment of pagan sanctuaries and temples, Jesus asks His disciples, “Whom do men say that I am the Son of man am?” (Mt 16:13). After a variety of responses naming John the Baptist and some of the prophets of the Old Testament, He asks the disciples about His identity, testing them, “But whom say ye that I am?” (16:15).

 

Divinely inspired, peter proclaims: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16). In response to Peter’s answer Jesus calls him “blessed” because this was not a mortal inference but a spiritual revelation, saying “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father which is in heaven” (16:17). The patronymic Bar-jona, “son of Jona,” used only here, lends an air of solemnity on this revelatory occasion. On another solemn occasion when Andrew reveals the Messias as the Christ to his brother Simon, Jesus says: “Thou art Simon the son of Jona” (Jn 1:42).

 

This personal revelation from the Father to Peter rejects in sum al Canaanite idols, Greek pagan gods of the countryside, and Roman pretenders to be gods. Boldly Peter declares Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the True and Living God. Jesus responds to Peter: “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” (16:18).

 

When Jesus first meets Simon, He changes his name to peter, saying, “Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone” (Jn 1:42). Both the Aramaic and the Greek names mean “rock” so by assigning this name change Jesus inspires the impulsive peter to be firm. On this occasion Jesus says, “and upon this rock I will build my church” (Mt 16:18). The close collocation between Peter and the rock would suggest that Jesus will build His Church on Peter, but there is no Greek linguistic equivalence between the rock of Peter and the rock upon which He will build His church. The rock (petros [πετρος]) of Peter is a masculine singular concrete noun, meaning a small rock like those used by soldiers or shepherds in a sling. The rock of the church [petra [πετρα]) is a feminine singular abstraction of the noun “rock,” meaning, in contrast, a rocky peak, ridge, or mass of rock, or bedrock. The two nouns do not carry equivalent meanings.

 

The feminization of a concrete noun always connotes an abstraction. A concrete noun is identified through the five senses: one can touch it, see it, hear it, maybe even smell it or taste it. Neither Peter, the pebble, nor the rock of Peter is an abstraction. If Jesus means to say that Peter is the rock of the church, He could easily say it in the Greek, peeing to the same masculine gender: επι τουτο τω πετρω (epi touto to petro). Since the feminization of “rock” can’t refer to Peter nor a literal massive rock formation like Mt. Hermon, the context logically requires that the abstract metaphor refers back to revelation.

 

The context of the passage is decisive. The feminization or abstraction of the rock of the church refers linguistically back to the divine revelation that Peter receives when he says to Jesus, “Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16), and Jesus responds, “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Mt 16:17). The Greek word for revelation αποκαλυψις (apokalypsis), is a feminine abstract noun that means “unveiling, uncovering, revealing, revelation” and refers especially to the mysteries of God. Here is Peter’s personal revelation from God the father that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It is the universal requirement of every person who desires to come to know the Father and the Son and their divine workings to gain that personal revelation.

 

The concept of divine revelation is a foundational and eternal principle upon which the church is built. It has prominently existed from the time God has spoken to Adam and will continue to the end of time, coming from God or Christ through the operations of the Spirit of God: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit seracheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Cor 2:9-10). What mortal eyes have not seen nor ears have heard and what has not been captured by the imaginations of the heart, God manifests through revelation by the Holy Spirit who reveals even the mysteries of God to every person who lacks wisdom: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering” (Jas 1;5-6). Thus the abstract noun of revelation bespeaks a metaphor: the rock is revelation and the point of commonality is Jesus.

 

It is through the rock of revelation that Peter declares the reality of Christ, the Son of the Living God, but Jesus points to Himself as the cornerstone of the church. The word “my” in the statement “I will build my church” (Mt 16;18), a first person possessive adjective, leaves no question as to whose church it is: The Church of Jesus Christ. Peter himself identifies Jesus as the rock of the church, “the head of the corner.” He testifies publically to the leaders of the Jews when they ask Him by whose power and by what name he and John heal the lame man: “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at ought of your builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Ac 4:10-12).

 

Peter rejects the claim that the church is built on him. If the church is built on Peter, it is his church, and if others become the chief apostles, should then arguments arise as to whether the church should be called the church of Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas? Paul inveighs against it: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the sane mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by then which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor 1:10-13). Therefore, the rock of the church will be built not on the frailty of a human but on God, the Rock of Ages or the Rock of our Salvation, as Samuel calls him: “The Lord liveth; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation” (2 Sam 22:47).

 

While the position of Peter as the stone and the senior apostle is secure in the foundation of the church, Jesus is the head of the corner. Paul states, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Eph 2:19-20). As the leading apostle Peter receives from Jesus the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven: “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:19). With these keys securely in place, Peter and the apostles have the power to continue the work of the kingdom of heaven on earth after the mortal ministry of Jesus. (Norbert H. O’ Duckwitz, “Peter and the Rock,” The Infinite Exchange: Cruces and Insights in the Gospels [2021], 71-75)