Tim’s Blog

Peter the Rock?

August 30, 2025

When Simon confesses that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, Jesus in turn calls him blessed and renames him “Peter” (petros, stone), and adds, “and upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:13–18).

Rome of course launches from this text to assert that Peter was the first Pope, upon whom the Church is built, which fits nicely with their notion of papal supremacy.

The problem is that their viewpoint is exegetically impossible.

Before getting to that, there are a couple of non sequiturs and logical problems with Rome’s view.

First, even if Jesus were saying that he was building his Church upon Peter, full stop, that is a far cry from suggesting that he was building his Church upon a whole succession of Peters. While we can say that Peter is a representative, we need some sort of indication regarding the significance of that representation, or the whole thing is arbitrary.

Second, Jesus is referring to a foundation upon which the Church will be built. A foundation is not a living organism that continues to grow indefinitely. It gets laid once for all.

So now let’s consider more exegetical issues. The first thing to notice is that Jesus calls Simon petros, but does not say he will build his Church upon “this petros.” Why not? The word Jesus actually uses is petra. There is obviously an intent to associate Peter with this petra (hence his new name, which is a cognate), but not the intent to identify him with it.

Where, then, is Jesus going with this?

As it turns out, Jesus has already talked about building upon petra in Matthew’s Gospel. In Matthew 7, after warning that those who do not bear the fruit of good works will be cast off and burned (7:16–20), Jesus goes on to warn further that there will be those who claim to have done wonderful things in his name, but he will cast them out as workers of iniquity (7:21–23). He continues (“Therefore”): “whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, will be compared to a prudent man, who built his house on a rock” (Mt 7:24). When the storms come this house stands, because its foundation was petra (7:25).

What becomes clear, then, is that petra is the words of Jesus. But if so, why does Jesus call Simon petros? How is Jesus associating Simon with “these sayings of mine”? Clearly, Jesus is intending to draw Simon into his own Word.

As it happens, Paul draws this all together for us in Ephesians 2:20. Speaking of the Church now comprised of Jew and Gentile, he writes that this new household of God is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus the Messiah himself being the cornerstone.”

The cornerstone, i.e. the architectural element which holds everything together, is Jesus himself. Uniquely, the cornerstone alone is larger than the foundation: “in whom” (i.e. in Jesus the Messiah) “the whole building is fitted together, growing into a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph 2:21). Jesus is truly the wise man who builds his house (his holy temple, the Church) upon the rock of his own words.

Of particular interest here is that the foundation is “the apostles and prophets.” In the verses immediately following, we learn that these apostles and prophets are those who have received the revelation of the Messiah, which was hidden through the ages (Eph 3:1–5).

Upon consideration, we should not be surprised that one of these apostles and prophets can be identified as a petros. The foundation is petra, the word of the Messiah, that word which is revealed to all these apostles and prophets. It is these together who serve as the foundation, and specifically in their role as those who have participated in receiving and communicating the revelation of the words of the Messiah. Peter, petros belongs to the foundation, the petra, along with the other apostles and prophets, specifically in their revelatory role.

Incidentally, this gives a devastating refutation of those who pit “the words of Jesus” over against the various writers of the New Testament, such as Paul. The apostolic and prophetic message which we have received as our foundation is the Word of Jesus. The commissioning Jesus gave Simon via his renaming was representative of all of those who would become this foundation, and when Paul or James or Peter speak, Jesus speaks.

[Note: This post was previously published on Twitter, May 10, 2024.]