Study of the Readings
Ed. by
Joyce Ann Zimmerman,
et al
• Words, Phrases
• To the point
• First Two Readings
• Experience
Dennis
Hamm, SJ
Peter was not a personal name in first-century Palestine. Petros, the masculine form of the Greek word petra (“rock”—reflected in our English words “petrify” and “petroleum,” oil from rock rather than olives), translates the Aramaic kepha (“rock”).
John Kavanaugh, SJ
What kind of “rock” was Peter when only moments after his great profession, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus would say, “Get behind me, you have the thoughts of Satan”?
John J. Pilch
Jesus’ disciples tell him what others are saying about him, and how others are perceiving him: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, another of the prophets. All of these are honorable if mistaken perceptions.
The Gospel relates that on the night that Christ was betrayed Peter went indoors and was standing by the fire warming himself when a girl accosted him: “You too were with that man yesterday,” she said.
Reginald H. Fuller
It is significant that on all sides there is growing Christian
awareness that one aspect of the Petrine office—
witness to the resurrection
—belongs to the events of the Christian beginnings and is therefore
inalienable.