Thank you for your post, Angela. I've addressed this topic in an earlier post and because you were traveling you may have missed it. The person I wrote it to definitely missed the point so I'll try to re-do now.
The key point to understand is that the Greek was a translation from the Aramaic that Jesus spoke. The word for Peter in Aramaic is Kepha (also means rock) and there is no masculine or feminine form. So what Jesus said to Peter is, "You are Kepha and on this kepha I will build My Church". That is not disputed by anyone. It is in the translation that those who hate the Catholic Church start to rear their ugly heads. And I am not saying you are one of those people as I'm sure you are just a victim of hate teaching.
When what Jesus said is translated to a language (like Greek) that does have a masculine and feminine form then things get interesting. Translations are done not with what was meant in mind, but rather through appropriate linguistic considerations. In Greek, the masculine of Peter is Petros and the feminine is Petra. Linguistically no one cares about what Jesus meant. However, to give Peter the masculine form Petros makes all the sense in the world. For example purposes, imagine the name Pat and if you would ever call a man Patricia. Of course not as the primary form of Pat for a man is Patrick but certainly not Patricia.
You are making your point based on a translation. That is the extent people will go to prove their point...misleading and dishonest. Again, I'm referring to those who label themselves as experts and put this garbage out there and not you. I'm OK with people saying Jesus didn't mean Peter was the rock even though He said Kepha/kepha (and I would vehemently disagree and prove it based on scripture and Church history), but to use a translation to prove a case is just wrong. And those experts should know better.
-Ernie-
Bolded, italicized words for emphasis by me!
The KEY thing for you to understand, is that you know
NOTHING of Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew or any other language.
I said it before, but perhaps I can say this more clearly:
ALL NOUNS in Aramaic and Hebrew, to say nothing of Greek, are either
masculine, feminine or neuter. In fact, the Western World, German has three genders, most of the Romance languages such as French (which I speak well!) Spanish, Portuguese, Italian have two genders - masculine and feminine.
Once more - Kephas has a gender. It is not unknown! It is
masculine. How do I know this? Because
Brown-Driver-Briggs, the best Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon lists it as masculine. (This is the lexicon used by ALL scholars!)
"כף which in Hebrew also has
tsere under the kph and a
Dagesh Lene in the middle of the kaph (so the
כ so the kaph is pronounced as a "hard" c,) (which I do not have Hebrew accents on my computer!) n. m. rock (As. kapu D) Aram. Then it has it in Hebrew and Arabic (?); - only pl. Je 4:29 as a place of refuge; Jb30:6 as a dwelling place."
That is what the real sources say!
Noun Masculine. IN Aramaic! So, if Jesus was really calling Peter a rock, Cephas, he did not have to change it from feminine. It was already MASCULINE, but he wanted to reflect that he was the bedrock, that he was, so he also used the feminine form of the word. To refer to himself, not Peter! Although this whole masculine/feminine stuff comes out of English, as people in their own languages know that a rock is not masculine, and bedrock is feminine, like people! Which you and the people you read do NOT understand!
Plus, you do not understand anything about "translations." The New Testament was written completely in Koine Greek. It was NOT written in Aramaic. (Although there are some places in Daniel and Ezra that use Aramaic). Jesus may have spoken in Aramaic, but he also spoke in Greek, as evidenced by the fact that there is no translator talking to Pontius Pilate. Therefore, we have no idea whether he spoke Greek or Aramaic when he said this.
What we do know for sure, is that the original, inspired autographs were
ALL written in Greek. The Greek is NOT a translation! The Greek was inspired by God in the NT, because that was the language spoken by the majority of the people, including the Jews. The Greek is NOT a translation!
In fact, 300 years earlier, scholars had to translate the Hebrew Bible into Greek, (the LXX or Septuagint) because so many Jews had lost their Hebrew and only spoke Greek. Everyone in the Roman empire, spoke Greek, after Alexander the Great in the 300's BC had insisted that everyone learn Greek, and adopt Greek culture. This clashed with the Jews' culture, which is in fact, why the Maccabees rebelled, and why we have 1 Maccabees, a record of rebeling against the Greeks - or in fact, those who inherited the empire, which I believe was the Hasmoneans. (Although Maccabees is good historical information, it is not inspired!)
I do not know which twisted, lying website or Romanish website you get your information, but the fact is,
Aramaic had genders for ALL nouns. All semitic languages do, which you would know had you studied them, like I have!
And the gender of Cephas or, Kep, in fact was
masculine.
Perhaps you need to study the original languages, before you come on here with your misinformation to support totally wrong Roman Catholic doctrine! When I see you defending this cult so vehemently, and yet you have never studied the original languages, and you parrot utter garbage, I'm afraid you have lost all credibility in my eyes. Well, the fact that you returned to the RCC after God led you out, means you had no credibility in the first place.
Kephas - Aramaic - MASCULINE NOUN! Got that?
