[B-Greek] noun gender question

Bill Barton phos at windstream.net
Sun Sep 27 21:39:35 EDT 2009


Fred Smith wrote (Sunday Sep 27, 2009, 7:47 PM):

>"The word Peter does equal Petros and it is masculine. The reason is 
>masculine is because it is talking about an individual. Jesus is talking
to Peter, and he refers to Peter in the masculine.>

My opinion:

1.  The Greek word for Peter in this passage is "Petros" and in context 
Petros is a proper name.  "Petros" would therefore be masculine since Peter 
is a male.

2.  It's also true that the Greek word "petros" (stone) is usually masculine 
(but Liddell and Scott says "[petros can be feminine] in later poets."

3.  The Greek word for "rock" in this verse is "petra" which is a different 
word from Petros and a different word from petros.  petra typically refers 
to something larger than petros, hence Liddell and Scott says, "rock; freq. 
of cliffs, ledges."  So for example, the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea was 
hewn out of rock ("petra").  And petra is feminine according to the 
dictionary.

> The word rock is indeed in the feminine. And I believe that it is in the 
> feminine because it refers to the statement Peter made. Because it was 
> referring to a
statement and not a human being it had to be said in the feminine.">

4.  I doubt whether anyone on the list would agree that petra is feminine 
because it refers to a statement.  Rather petra is feminine because the 
dictionary says it is feminine, not because of what petra refers to in this 
passage.

5.  I happen to agree with the idea that petra refers to Peter's statement 
of faith in Matthew 16:16.  However,
       a.  My opinion is not based on the gender of petra; rather it's 
simply how I would interpret.
       b.  The point can be argued.
       c.  The point is a hot button in a lot of circles.


Bill Barton
Layman 




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