[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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