Question on the scriptures of Matthew 16:17,18?

Question

17) And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18) And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I shall build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. My question is what exactly was Jesus saying unto Peter in these scriptures?

Jordon their is not enough letters for the hole scripture thing for that I wanted to bring for all the sciptures but space wouldn't allow it.

Answer 1

He is saying..Upon this Rock of Revelation Knowledge..given to you by the Holy Spirit...I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

Answer 2

Protestant Answer: Although Jesus originally spoke this to Peter in Aramaic, Matthew recounted it later in Greek. In the Greek Matthew uses two different words for "rock." The first one is a play on Peter's name, "pebble," and the second one is "boulder." Matthew was trying to draw a significant contrast for his original readers in the Greek language to show them that what Jesus was saying is that Peter was just a little pebble, but the magnitude of his confessional statement was the boulder on which the church would be built. The church would be built on the reality of Jesus' being who He is and the church's recognizing who He is and stating it clearly for the world to hear and understand.

My Catholic friends, like T-bone above, have a different answer.

Answer 3

This is the favourite verse for trying to base the papacy on Peter. Jesus clearly means himself as the rock. Peter himself testifies to that fact in 1Pet 2:4.

Every Bible-believer knows that Peter cannot be the "rock" spoken of in Matthew 16, since he is also addressed as Satan a few verses later.

Peter was a commercial fisherman, and he was married (Matthew 8:14), and he denied the Lord three times, and he had to be corrected on his doctrine by Paul (Gal 2:11).

Deut 32:4 refers to the LORD as the Rock, and Deut 32:31 says, "For their rock is not as our Rock, ..."

Answer 4

The debate rages over whether “the rock” on which Christ will build His church is Peter, or Peter’s confession that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:16). In all honesty, there is no way for us to be 100% sure which view is correct. The grammatical construction allows for either view. The first view is that Jesus was declaring that Peter would be the “rock” on which He would build His church. Jesus appears to be using a play on words. “You are Peter (petros) and on this rock (petra) I will build my church.” Since Peter’s name means rock, and Jesus is going to build His church on a rock – it appears that Christ is linking the two together. God used Peter greatly in the foundation of the church. It was Peter who first proclaimed the Gospel on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-47). Peter was also the first to take the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 10:1-48). In a sense, Peter was the rock “foundation” of the church.

The other popular interpretation of the rock is that Jesus was referring not to Peter, but to Peter’s confession of faith in verse 16: “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” Jesus had never explicitly taught Peter and the other disciples the fullness of His identity, and He recognized that God had sovereignly opened Peter’s eyes and revealed to him who Jesus really was. His confession of Christ as Messiah poured forth from him, a heart-felt declaration of Peter’s personal faith in Jesus. It is this personal faith in Christ which is the hallmark of the true Christian. Those who have placed their faith in Christ, as Peter did, are the church. Peter expresses this in 1 Peter 2:4 when he addressed the believers who had been dispersed around the ancient world: “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

At this point, Jesus declares that God had revealed this truth to Peter. The word for “Peter,” Petros, means a small stone (John 1:42). Jesus used a play on words here with petra (“on this rock”) which means a foundation boulder, as in Matthew 7:24, 25 when He described the rock upon which the wise man builds his house. Peter himself uses the same imagery in his first epistle: the church is built of numerous small petros “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5) who, like Peter, confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and those confessions of faith are the bedrock of the church.

In addition, the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that Christ is both the foundation (Acts 4:11, 12; 1 Corinthians 3:11) and the head (Ephesians 5:23) of the church. It is a mistake to think that here He is giving either of those roles to Peter. There is a sense in which the apostles played a foundational role in the building of the church (Ephesians 2:20), but the role of primacy is reserved for Christ alone, not assigned to Peter. So, Jesus’ words here are best interpreted as a simple play on words in that a boulder-like truth came from the mouth of one who was called a small stone. And Christ Himself is called the “chief cornerstone” (1 Peter 2:6, 7). The chief cornerstone of any building was that upon which the building was anchored. If Christ declared Himself to be the cornerstone, how could Peter be the rock upon which the church was built? It is more likely that the believers, of which Peter is one, are the stones which make up the church, anchored upon the Cornerstone “and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame” (1 Peter 2:6).

The Roman Catholic Church uses the argument that Peter is the rock to which Jesus referred as evidence that it is the one true church. As we have seen, Peter being the rock is not the only valid interpretation of this verse. Even if Peter is the rock in Matthew 16:18, this is meaningless in giving the Roman Catholic Church any authority. Scripture nowhere records Peter being in Rome. Scripture nowhere describes Peter as being supreme over the other apostles. The New Testament does not describe Peter as being the “all authoritative leader” of the early Christian church. Peter was not the first pope, and Peter did not start the Roman Catholic Church. The origin of the Catholic Church is not in the teachings of Peter, or any other apostle. If Peter truly was the founder of the Roman Catholic Church, it would be in full agreement with what Peter taught (Acts chapter 2, 1 Peter, 2 Peter).

Recommended Resource: Reasoning from the Scriptures with Catholics by Ron Rhodes.

Answer 5

Jesus is establishing a church(33AD) and He is placing it into Peter's hands to lead. Making Peter the first Pope of Jesus's Church the Catholic Church which Jesus left up to Peter to name.

Answer 6

Jesus was stating that the proclaimation of Jesus as the savior is what Jesus will build his church upon and this proclaimation of Jesus was revealed by God the Father to Peter: Matthew 16:15-16, "He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Then Jesus addresses what Peter declared:

Matthew 16:18-20, " 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. And 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. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus THE CHRIST."


Only those who are called by the Father in Heaven will understand this:

John 6:43-45, "Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me."

Read the entire text to understand its meaning....

Peter was NOT the "father of the church"--God, in heaven is the Father of us all--{Malachi 2:10, "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?"}

Jesus commanded this: Matthew 23:9, "And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven."

PSALM 111:9 ...Holy and Reverend is HIS name.

DEFINITIONS

REVEREND

1. Worthy of Reverence
2. Entitled to respect mingled with awe and affection

REVERENCE

1. To revere
2. To venerate
3. A feeling or attitude of deep respect, love, adoration, awe, and esteem, as for something sacred

REVERE

1. To reverence
2. To stand in awe of
3. To venerate

VENERATE

1. To worship
2. To regard as hallowed

WORSHIP

1. To adore or pay divine honors to as a deity
2. To idolize

HALLOW

1. To make Holy
2. To consecrate
3. To sanctify
4. To honor as sacred

No MAN is our "Father" or our "Reverend" on this Earth other than our Father who is LORD of Heaven and Earth.

When we proclaim that Jesus is THE CHRIST, the savior of the World, the son of God --the gates of hell can not stand against this proclaimation of truth!!!

Answer 7

As always, he was confused and didn't know what he was talking about.

Check out just a few verses earlier where Jesus calls Peter "Satan".

NT Jesus was a walking contradiction.