The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

220 APOSTOLICITY, OR PETERS PRIMACY.therefore asauthoritative as the very words that Christ uttered.Now, it is not difficult to show that the most literaland correct rendering of the Greek would run thus :— " Thouart a stone (petros)^ and on this rock (petra) I will buildmy Church." When Peter was called to be an apostle, hisname was changed from Simon to Cephas. Cephas is aSyriac* word, and synonymous with Peter. This is indubitable,from the account we have of his call :" When Jesusbeheld him, He said, thou art Simon the son of Jona :thoushalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone /'for, as it is in the original, Peter. Both names (x>5pas andffsrgos) signify a stone,—a stone that may be rolled about,or shiftedfrom place to place, and therefore very proper tobe used in building, but altogether unsuitable for being builtupon.J But the word used in the second clause of the passage,and translated " rock," is the word that strictly signifiesa rock, or some mass which, from its immobility, is fittingfor a foundation. Two different words, then, are employed,each having its appropriate signification. Now, it may beasked, if one person only, namely, Peter, is meant, why isnot the same word employed in both clauses \ Why, in thefirst clause, employ that word which denotes the materialused in building ; and, in the second, that word which denotesthe foundation on which the building is placed \Thereis a nice grammatical distinction in the verse which the Protestantinterpretation preserves, but which the Romanist interpretationviolates. As Turrettine remarks,§ \X\q iMros ofthe first clause is masculine ; whereas the petra of the secondclause is feminine, and cannot, therefore, denote the person* For some centuries before and after our Saviour's time the vernaculardialect of Judea was a compound of Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Samaritan, witha slight intermixture of Persian, Egyptian, Greek, and Latin words.t John, i. 42.X Such is the rendering given to these terms by Stocklus and Schleusner,who quote, in support of their opinion, instances of this use of the terms bythe best Greek writers.§ Turrettine, vol. iv. p. 116.