The true and living rock
Before this the impetuous disciple had been called
only by his common names, Simon Bar-jona, or son of
Jona; but now the Master gave him a spir-
itual name in these words: "And I say also
unto thee, That thou art Peter; and upon this rock [the
meaning of the Greek word petros, or stone] I will build
my church; and the gates of hell [hades, the under-
world, or the
grave] shall not prevail against it." In
other words, Jesus purposed founding his society, not
on the personal Peter as a mortal, but on the God-
power which lay behind Peter's confession of the true
Messiah.
