Evangelical NT Scholar Peter Stuhlmacher on the Petrine Implications of Matthew 16:18 ("Rock")

From: The Historical Jesus in Recent Research, edited by James D. G. Dunn and Scot McKnight, Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2005 (see many more books by Dr. Stuhlmacher).

These verses [Matthew 16:17-18] can easily be translated back into Aramaic. The formulations have close parallels in the Qumran texts, where we read for example that the Teacher of Righteousness was installed "to found the congregation" . . . similar expressions include "you [God] place the foundation upon rock" . . . and the plea "establish for them a rock from of old" . . . In this sense Matt 16:18 also resembles Isa 51:1-2, "Look to the rock from which you were hewn . . . Look to Abraham . . ." Peter is given the name Cephas (from the Aramaic kepha, "rock"). He is the foundation stone of Jesus' "church" (ekklesia) . . . The saying speaks of the structure of the messianic people of God to which Jesus saw himself called and for which Peter was supposed to play his literally foundational role. After Easter Matt 16:17-19 was applied to the founding of the early church through this "rock-man," Cephas (cf. 1 Cor 15:5).

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