Matthew 16:18

"I say to you" (cf. Matthew 5:18; Matthew 5:20; Matthew 5:22; Matthew 5:28; Matthew 5:32; Matthew 5:34; Matthew 5:39; Matthew 5:44; Matthew 8:10) may imply that Jesus would continue the revelation the Father had begun. However the phrase occurs elsewhere where that contrast is not in view. Undoubtedly it means that Jesus was about to teach the disciples something, at least. Peter had made his declaration, and now Jesus would make His declaration.

Jesus drew attention to Peter’s name because He was about to make a pun on it. The English name "Peter" is a transliteration of the Greek name Petros. Petros translates the Aramaic word kepa. This word transliterated into Greek is Kephas from which we get "Cephas" in English (John 1:42; et al.). The Aramaic word kepa was a rare name in Jesus’ day (cf. Matthew 4:18). It means "rock." Peter’s nickname was "Rocky." Petros commonly meant "stone" in pre-Christian Greek, but kepa, which underlies the Greek, means "(massive) rock." [Note: Carson, "Matthew," p. 367.] It is incorrect to say that the name "Peter" describes a small stone.

There are three main views about the identity of "this rock." The first is that Jesus meant Peter was the rock. [Note: E.g., Plummer, pp. 228-29; Carson, "Matthew," p. 468; France, The Gospel . . ., p. 621-22; Edwin W. Rice, People’s Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, pp. 168-69; and most Roman Catholic interpreters.] Peter’s name meant "rock," so this identity seems natural in the context. Moreover, Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah and Jesus’ subsequent confirmation of his confession also point in that direction. Peter became the leading disciple in the early church (Acts 1-12), a third argument for this view.

However, Jesus used two different words for "Peter" and "rock." Matthew recorded the Aramaic distinction in Greek. If Jesus had wanted to identify Peter as the rock on which He would build the church, the clearest way to do this would have been to use the same word. Second, while Peter’s confession triggered Jesus’ comment about building His church on a rock, it did not place Peter in a privileged position among the disciples. Jesus never treated Peter as though he occupied a favored position in the church because he made this confession. Third, the New Testament writers never connected Peter’s leadership in the early church with his confession. That rested on divine election, Jesus’ command to strengthen his brethren (Luke 22:32), and Peter’s personality.

A second view is that Jesus meant the truth that Peter confessed, namely, that Jesus is the Messiah and God, was the rock. [Note: E.g., M’Neile, p. 241; Tasker, p. 158; and Toussaint, Behold the . . ., p. 202.] This position has in its favor the different words Jesus used for "rock" and the definite "this" before "rock" as identifying something in the immediately preceding context. Furthermore other New Testament references to the foundation of the church could refer to the truth concerning Jesus’ person and work (Romans 9:33; Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:5-8).

Nevertheless calling the truth about Jesus a rock when Jesus had just called Peter a rock seems unnecessarily confusing. The addition of "this" only compounds the confusion. Also, the other New Testament passages that refer to the foundation of the church never identify that foundation as the truth about Jesus. They point to something else.

This leads us to the third and what I believe is the best solution to this problem. Many interpreters believe that Jesus Himself is the Rock in view. [Note: E.g., Morgan, p. 211; Walvoord, Matthew: . . ., p. 123; Lenski, p. 626; Barbieri, p. 57; and Wiersbe, 1:57.] The Old Testament prophets likened Messiah to a stone (Psalms 118:22; Isaiah 28:16), and Jesus claimed to be that stone (Matthew 21:42). Peter himself identified Jesus as that stone (Acts 4:10-12; 1 Peter 2:5-8), as Paul did (Romans 9:32-33; 1 Corinthians 3:11; 1 Corinthians 10:4; Ephesians 2:20). Second, this interpretation explains the use of two different though related words for "rock." Third, this view accounts for the use of "this" since Jesus was present when He said these words. Fourth, the Old Testament used the figure of a rock to describe God (Deuteronomy 32:4; Deuteronomy 32:15; Deuteronomy 32:18; Deuteronomy 32:30-31; Deuteronomy 32:37; 2 Samuel 22:2; Psalms 18:2; Psalms 18:31; Psalms 18:46; Psalms 28:1). Since Peter had just confessed that Jesus was God, it would have been natural for Jesus to use this figure of God to picture Himself.

Critics of this view point out that this interpretation makes Jesus mix His metaphors. Jesus becomes the foundation of the church and the builder of the church. However the New Testament refers explicitly to Jesus as the church’s foundation elsewhere (Romans 9:33; 1 Corinthians 3:11; 1 Peter 2:5-8), and Jesus referred to Himself as the church’s builder here. Second, Paul’s statement that God builds the church on the apostles and prophets has ruled Jesus out as the foundation for some interpreters (Ephesians 2:20). However, the apostles and prophets were the foundation in a secondary sense, Jesus being the chief rock (cornerstone) around which they also provided a foundation (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:10-11). Third, Peter’s prominence among the disciples and in the early church seems to some to argue against Jesus being the foundation in view. Still Peter was only the first among equals. His leadership in the church was not essentially different from the other apostles as the New Testament writers present it.

The next key word in this important verse is "church." The only occurrences of this word (Gr. ekklesia) in all four Gospels are here and in Matthew 18:17. [Note: See Benjamin L. Merkle, "The Meaning of ’Ekklesia in Matthew 16:18; Matthew 18:17," Bibliotheca Sacra 167:667 (July-September 2010):281-91.] The Greek word refers to an assembly of people called out for a particular purpose. It comes from the verb ekkaleo, "to call out from." The Septuagint translators used it of Israel (Deuteronomy 4:10; Joshua 9:2; Judges 20:2; et al.; cf. Acts 7:38). [Note: See M’Neile, p. 241.] In the New Testament it also refers to an assembly of citizens with no religious significance (Acts 19:39). [Note: See Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, 1:93.] However, Jesus used it here with a new meaning.

". . . ekklesia was the only possible word to express the Christian body as distinct from Jews. . . . He had just ended His public ministry in Galilee, had taken the disciples on a long journey alone, and was about to go to Jerusalem with the avowed intention of being killed; no moment was more suitable for preparing His followers to become a new body, isolated both from the masses and from the civil and religious authorities." [Note: M’Neile, pp. 241-42.]

Jesus used the term ekklesia to refer to a new entity that was yet to come into existence. He said He would build it in the future. He would not yet establish His kingdom on earth, but He would build His church.

"The word build is also significant because it implies the gradual erection of the church under the symbolism of living stones being built upon Christ, the foundation stone, as indicated in 1 Peter 2:4-8. This was to be the purpose of God before the second coming, in contrast to the millennial kingdom, which would follow the second coming." [Note: Walvoord, Matthew: . . ., p. 124.]

Furthermore Jesus claimed the church as His own in a unique sense by calling it "my church." Jesus revealed the existence of this new organism here for the first time in history. There is no Old Testament revelation of its existence. Jesus brought it into being because Israel had rejected her Messiah, and consequently God would postpone the kingdom of God on earth. In the meantime Jesus would construct an entirely new entity. He Himself would be its foundation and its builder.

Jesus’ "church" is not the same as His "kingdom." It is interesting that even some scholars who were not dispensationalists acknowledged this. [Note: E.g., Carson, "Matthew," p. 369; and Plummer, p. 230.] Jesus would create a new entity (on the day of Pentecost), but He only postponed the kingdom, which will come into being at His second coming after He has taken the church to heaven (John 14:1-3). "Christians" (believers living in the church age) will return with Jesus Christ at His second coming and will participate in His messianic kingdom on the earth in glorified bodies (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:17).

"Gates" in biblical usage refer to fortifications (Genesis 22:17; Psalms 127:5). "Hades" is the place of departed spirits (cf. Matthew 5:22; Matthew 11:23). Together these terms refer to death and dying (Job 17:16; Job 38:17; Psalms 9:13; Psalms 107:18; Isaiah 38:10). [Note: See Jack P. Lewis, "’The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail Against It’ (Matthew 16:18): A Study of the History of Interpretation," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 38:3 (September 1996):349-67.] Jesus meant that the powers of death, Satan and his hosts doing their most powerful work of opposing life, would not prevail over the church. The church cannot die. This statement anticipated Jesus’ resurrection and the resurrection and translation of church saints. Even Jesus’ death would not prevent Him from building the church. Jesus’ church would be a living church just a Yahweh was the living God (cf. Matthew 16:16).

This is all that Jesus revealed about the church here. He simply introduced this new revelation to the disciples as a farmer plants a seed. All of their thinking had been about the kingdom. To say more about the church now would have confused them unnecessarily. Jesus would provide more revelation about the church later (ch. 18; John 14-16).