[B-Greek] petros and petras
Frankie Gonzalez
FGONZALEZ29 at carolina.rr.com
Thu Sep 4 23:39:55 EDT 2003
This translates the Greek word pe´tra (feminine gender), which designates a mass of rock (Mt 7:24, 25; 27:51, 60; Lu 6:48; 8:6, 13; Re 6:15, 16) and therefore differs from pe´tros (masculine gender and employed as a proper name, Peter), meaning "piece of rock."
In Jesus' illustration of the sower, the Greek adjective pe·tro´des (related to the noun pe´tros) is used to describe the rocky places upon which some of the seed fell. (Mt 13:3-5, 20) Pe´tros is used as a proper name, "Peter." (Joh 1:42) On the meaning of this term Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (1981, Vol. 4, p. 76) remarks: "Petros denotes a piece of a rock, a detached stone or boulder, in contrast to petra, a mass of rock." Word Studies in the New Testament says about pe´tros: "In classical Greek the word means a piece of rock, as in Homer, of Ajax throwing a stone at Hector, . . . or of Patroclus grasping and hiding in his hand a jagged stone."-By M. Vincent, 1957, Vol. I, p. 91.
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