[B-Greek] Matthew 16:18 question

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed Feb 20 11:11:18 EST 2008


On Feb 20, 2008, at 10:45 AM, Gene Gardner wrote:

>  Is there anything grammatically that would not allow this phrase  
> found in Matthew 16:18:
>  su ei petros kai epi taute to petra oikodomeso mou ton ekklesian
>  To be written as this or something similar:
>  su ei petros kai epi petros oikodomeso mou ton ekklesian

i.e. Matt. 16:18 κἀγὼ δέ σοι λέγω ὅτι σὺ εἶ  
Πέτρος, καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέτρᾳ  
οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ...
= KAGW DE SOI LEGW hOTI SU EI PETROS, KAI EPI TAUTHi THi PETRAi  
OIKODOMHSW MOU THN EKKLHSIAN (our conventional B-Greek transliteration)

Your suggested version:
... ἐπὶ πέτρος (Πέτρος) οικοδομήσω μου  
τὴν ἐκκλησίαν
EPI PETROS OIKODOMHSW MOU THN EKKLHSIAN

It wouldn't work for (at least) two reasons:
(1) The word πέτρος (PETROS) means "a stone" whereas πέτρα  
(PETRA) means "bedrock" or a solid rock formation; I would not think  
that building a church on a "stone" would be much better than building  
it on sand;
(2) Even if we did want to build a church on a stone, the form used  
with the preposition EPI (ἐπὶ) would have to be the dative; I  
think we'd have to have ἐπὶ τούτῳ τῷ πέτρῳ (EPI  
TOUTWi TWi PETRWi).

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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