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ArchivesHey, Yahalome-correction...
in reply to a message by Yahalome
Puns always lose a lot in the translation. Petra actually means *both* rock and stone, but is of feminine gender. So there is no way Christ could have dubbed his disciple "Petra" without making him the subject of ridicule and sophomoric hee-hawing (a la "a male disciple named Sue"). So he called him Petros (of masculine gender) instead, which also means *both* stone and rock (check out *Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon*).
But being a pre-Christian kinda guy, I'd like to point out that Yeshua Ben Panthera was not being all that original or witty for that matter; Homer used the name Petros for warriors in the Iliad (16.734) centuries before Yeshua was born :)
But being a pre-Christian kinda guy, I'd like to point out that Yeshua Ben Panthera was not being all that original or witty for that matter; Homer used the name Petros for warriors in the Iliad (16.734) centuries before Yeshua was born :)
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Replies
Good point Pav. Of course Christ was most likely speaking Aramaic when he renamed Simon, so Petros would have been a translation on the part of Greek-speaking disciples, or else the gospel-writers.
I don't think we will ever really know why Simon got his nickname (maybe he collected stones?), but the explanation given in Matthew 16:18 seems pretty clear to me. Even if, as Pavlos and Anneza said, it was just a pun.
I don't think we will ever really know why Simon got his nickname (maybe he collected stones?), but the explanation given in Matthew 16:18 seems pretty clear to me. Even if, as Pavlos and Anneza said, it was just a pun.
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