[B-Greek] Matthew 16:18 - two questions

Eric S. Weiss papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Sun Jul 20 00:30:24 EDT 2008


Matthew 16:18 - KAGW DE SOI LEGW hOTI SU EI PETROS, KAI EPI TAUTHi THi 
PETRAi OIKODOMHSW MOU THN EKKLHSIAN KAI PULAI hADOU OU 
KATISCUSOUSIN AUTHS.

1. Most commentators (and BDAG) seem to take EKKLHSIAN to be the referent of AUTHS 
(i.e., the gates of hades will not prevail against Jesus's church). 

Is it possible that the referent for AUTHS is PETRAi - i.e., the gates of hades will not 
prevail against the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the 
confession upon which Jesus will build His church (assuming petra refers to what Peter 
confessed and not to Peter himself)?

2. Re: the gates of hades not prevailing: While BDAG seems to view the gates as being 
unable to defeat the church, is there a basis in the word meanings for thinking that Jesus is 
saying that it is the church that will be attacking the gates of hades (i.e., the power of 
death), and hades/death won't be able to withstand the church's onslaught?

Eric S. Weiss  


      


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