On this Rock I will build my church (Teachings of the Orthodox Church)

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If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don't have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don't have love, I am nothing. If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don't have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient and is kind; love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud, doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with.

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	On this Rock I will build my church (Teachings of the Orthodox Church)

QUESTION:

Could you explain how the Orthodox interpret the "On this Rock I will build my church" scripture. I am not asking this with regard to papal
claims but, rather, to discover whether Jesus is referring to Peter, to Himself, or in some way to both.

ANSWER:

In Matthew 16:18, the word "rock" refers to Peter's confession of faith, and not to Peter himself, despite the fact that Peter/rock is a play on the word for rock in Aramaic [petros] and Greek [petra]. As we read in 1
Corinthians 10:4, "...they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ," Who alone is the very foundation, or true Rock, upon which stands the Church. It is on Jesus Christ, the Rock, that the Church's unchanging faith and confession is firmly rooted.

Published in January 2011.

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