Resources Q&A Roman Catholic Church Peter the Rock/ Matthew 16:18-19
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:18-19.
These words
have been variously interpreted: (1) that Peter is “this rock,” (2) that
Peter’s faith in Jesus as the Christ is “this rock,” (3) that Christ Himself is
“this rock.” Persuasive reasons have been set forth in favor of each of the
three explanations. The best way to determine what Christ meant is to inquire
of the Scriptures. The testimony of the writings of the disciples will
determine the unequivocal truth to what Jesus meant.
By his
teachings, Peter emphatically disclaims that the “rock” of which Jesus spoke
referred to him (Acts 4:8-12; 1 Peter 2:4-8). Matthew records the fact that
Jesus used the same figure of speech to refer to Himself (Matthew 21:42).
From very early
times the figure of a rock was used by the Hebrew people as a specific term for
God (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalms 18:2). The prophet Isaiah speaks of Christ as “a
great rock in a weary land” (Isaiah 32:2), and as “a precious corner stone, a
sure foundation (Isaiah 28:16).
Paul affirms
that Christ was the “rock” that went with His people in ancient times (1
Corinthians 10:4). In a secondary sense the truths Jesus spoke are also a
“rock” on which men may build safely and securely (Matthew 7:24, 25), for He
Himself is the living “Word” “made flesh” (John 1:1, 14).
Jesus Christ is
the “rock of our salvation” (Psalms 95:1). He alone is the foundation of the
church, for “other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11), “neither is there salvation in any other” (Acts
4:12). Closely associated with Jesus Christ is “the chief corner stone” in the
foundation of the church are “the apostles and prophets” (Ephesians 2:20). In
the same sense that Christ is the
Rock, “a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God,” all who
believe in Him, “as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house” (1 Peter
2:4, 5), “fitly framed together… an holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21).
But Jesus is ever and only the “Rock”
on which the entire structure rests, for without Him there would be no church
at all. Faith in Him as the Son of
God makes it possible for us also to become sons of God (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1,
2). The realization that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God, as Peter
emphatically affirmed upon this occasion (Matthew 16:16), is the key to the
door of salvation. But it is incidental, not fundamental, that Peter was the
first to recognize and declare his faith.
Augustine (C.
A.D 400), the greatest of Catholic theologians of the early Christian
centuries, leaves it for his readers to decide whether Christ here designated
Himself or Peter as “the rock” (Retractiones
i. 21. 1). Chrysostom, the “golden-tongued” preacher, another Father of the
early centuries, says that Jesus promised to lay the foundation of the church
upon Peter’s confession [not on Peter], but elsewhere calls Christ Himself
truly our foundation (Commentary on
Galatians, ch. 1:1-3; Homilies on 1
Timothy, No. xviii, ch. 6:21). Eusebius, the early church historian, quotes
Clement of Alexandria as declaring that Peter and James and John did not strive
for supremacy in the church at
It was only when scriptural support was sought
in behalf of the claims of the bishop of Rome to the primacy of the church that
the words of Christ upon this occasion were taken from their original context
and interpreted to mean that Peter was “this rock.” Leo I was the first Roman
pontiff to claim (about A.D 445) that his authority came from Christ through
Peter. Of him, Kenneth Scott Latourette, a leading church historian, says: “He
insisted that by Christ’s decree Peter was the rock, the foundation, the
doorkeeper of the kingdom of heaven, set to bind and loose, whose judgments
retained their validity in heaven, and that through the Pope, as his successor,
Peter continued to perform the assignment which had been entrusted to him” (A History of Christianity [1953], p.
186).
Strange indeed
it is that if this is really what Christ mean, neither Peter nor any other of
the disciples, nor the other Christians for four centuries thereafter,
discovered the fact! How extraordinary that no Roman bishop discovered this
meaning in Christ’s words until the fifth-century bishop considered it
necessary to find some Biblical support for papal primacy. The significance attributed
to Christ’s words, by which they are made to confer primacy upon the so-called
successors of Peter, the bishops of Rome, is completely at variance, with all
the teachings Christ gave to His followers (Matthew 23:8, 10).
Perhaps the
best evidence that Christ did not appoint Peter as the “rock” on which He would
build His church is the fact that none of those who heard Christ upon this
occasion – not even Peter – so construed His words, either during the time that
Christ was on earth or later. Had Christ made Peter chief among the disciples,
they would not thereafter have been involved in repeated arguments about which
of them “should be accounted the greatest” (Luke 22:24; Matthew 18:1; Mark
9:33-35).
The name of
Peter is derived from the Gr. petros,
a “stone,” generally a small slab of stone. The word “rock” is the Gr.
Obviously a petros, or small stone, would make an
impossible foundation for any edifice, and Jesus here affirms that nothing less
than a
Now, referring
to Matthew 16:19, the “keys” to the kingdom of heaven are the words of Christ
(*John 1:12; 17:3). *It is important to note that Christ Himself speaks of the
“key” here referred to as “the key of knowledge” of how to enter the kingdom
(Luke 11:52). The words of Jesus are “spirit” and life to all who receive them
(John 6:63). It is the words of Christ that bring eternal life (John 6:68). The
word of God is the key to the new birth experience (1 Peter 1:23).
As the words
spoken by Jesus convinced the disciples of His divinity, so their repeating of
His words to other men, as His ambassadors, was to “reconcile” them to God (2
Corinthians 5:18-20). The saving power of the gospel is the only thing that
admits men and women into the kingdom of heaven. Christ simply bestowed upon
Peter and all the other disciples the authority and power to bring men into the
kingdom. It was Peter’s perception of the truth that Jesus is indeed the Christ
that placed the “keys” of the kingdom in his possession and let him into the
kingdom, and the same may be said of all Christ’s followers to the very close
of time.
The argument
that Christ bestowed upon Peter a degree of authority greater than, or
different from, that which He have to the other disciples, is without
scriptural basis. As a matter of fact, among the apostles, it was James and not
Peter who exercised administrative functions over the early church in Jerusalem
(Acts 15:13, 19; 1 Corinthians 15:7; Galatians 2:9, 12). Upon at least one
occasion Paul “withstood” Peter “to the face” for a wrong course of action
(Galatians 2:11-14), which he certainly would not have done had he known
anything about Peter’s enjoying the rights and prerogatives that some now claim
for him upon the basis of Matthew 16:18, 19.
As for the
significance of the word “bind,” the entire statement reads, “Whatever you bind on
earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall
have been loosed in heaven.” The meaning evidently is this, that the church on earth
will require only what heaven required and will prohibit only what heaven
prohibits. This seems to be the clear teaching of the Scriptures (Matthew
7:21-27; Mark 7:6-13). As the apostles went forth to proclaim the gospel,
according to the commission entrusted to them (Matthew 28:19, 20), they were to teach converts “to
observe all things whatsoever” Christ had commanded—no more and no less.
To extend the meaning of
“bind” and “loose” to the authority to dictate what members of the church may
believe and what they may do, in matters of faith and practice, is to read into
the words of Christ more than He meant by them, and more than the disciples
understood by them. Such a claim God does not sanction. Christ’s
representatives on earth have the right and the responsibility to “bind”
whatever has been “bound in heaven” and to “loose” whatever has been “loosed in
heaven,” that is, to require or to prohibit whatever Inspiration clearly
reveals. But to go beyond this is to substitute human authority for the
authority of Christ (Mark 7:7-9), a tendency that Heaven will not tolerate in
those who have been appointed to the oversight of the citizens of the kingdom
of heaven on earth.
To summarize the above on Matthew 16:18-19 there are several points to consider:
1. Peter, to whom
these words were addressed, emphatically disclaims by his teachings that the “rock”
of which Jesus spoke referred to him.
(Acts 4:8-12; 1 Peter 2:4)
2. Jesus used the
same figure of speech to refer to Himself.
(Matthew 21:42; Luke 20:17)
3. From very early
times the figure of rock was used by the Hebrew people as a specific term for
God.
(Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalms 18:2)
4. Paul affirms
that Christ was the Rock.
(1Corinthinas 10:4; 1 Corinthians 3:11)
5. It is the faith
in Jesus that saves.
(John 1:12)
6.
Had Christ made Peter chief among
the disciples, they would not thereafter have been involved in repeated
arguments about which of them “should be accounted the greatest".
(Luke 22:24, Matthew 18:1)
Was
Peter the Rock that the church of God was built on? No, here is why:
“And
I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18.
- The gates of Hell
prevailed against Peter when He allowed Satan to speak through him
(Matthew16:22). Then Jesus answered Peter saying "Get thee behind me,
Satan thou art an offense unto me" (Matthew.16:23)
- The gates of Hell
prevailed again against Peter when he thrice denied his Lord (John 18:25).
Peter
Himself was an erring agent but the church of God was built rather on
the faith in Jesus.
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