Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 16:18

"And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." — Matthew 16:18 (ASV)

You are Peter, and upon this rock...

When dealing with a text that has been the subject of endless controversies for centuries, it is not easy to clear our minds of the "afterthoughts of theology" that have gathered around it and, at least in part, overlaid its meaning. However, it is clear that we can only reach the true meaning by setting those controversies aside, at least until we have tried to understand what the words actually meant to those who heard them at the time. Once we have grasped that meaning, we will be best prepared to determine what bearing they have on the later controversies of ancient or modern times.

1. It seems clear that the connection between Peter and the rock was meant to be especially prominent (the words in Greek differ in gender, petros and petra, but were identical in the Aramaic that our Lord likely used). By this confession of his faith, Peter had finally risen to the height of his new calling and was worthy of his new name.
2. However, whether he is to be identified with the rock of the next clause is a question on which people may legitimately differ. On one side is the probability that in the Aramaic that our Lord spoke, there would be no difference between the words in the two clauses. On the other is the possibility that He may have used the Greek words, or that the Evangelist may have intended to mark a distinction he perceived by using the two words, which undoubtedly differ in their meaning: petros being a "stone" or fragment of rock, while petra is the rock itself. It may be noted that the Aramaic Cepha has the former meaning rather than the latter.
3. Assuming a distinction, the question follows: What is the rock? Is it Peter’s faith (subjective), the truth he confessed (objective), or Christ Himself? Considering all the facts, the evidence seems to favor the last view.
   1. Christ and not Peter is the Rock in 1 Corinthians 10:4 and the Foundation in 1 Corinthians 3:11.
   2. The poetry of the Old Testament associated the idea of the Rock with the greatness and steadfastness of God, not with that of a man (Deuteronomy 32:4, 18; 2 Samuel 22:3; 2 Samuel 23:3; Psalms 18:2, 31, 46; Isaiah 17:10; Habakkuk 1:12, Hebrew text).
   3. Just as with the words, Destroy this temple (John 2:19), which present a parallel, we may believe the meaning here was also indicated by a significant look or gesture.

The Rock on which the Church was to be built was Christ Himself, in the mystery of that union of the divine and the human which was the subject of St. Peter’s confession. We may add that if Peter himself had been meant, the simpler form, "You are Peter, and on you I will build My Church," would have been clearer and more natural. As it is, the phrasing suggests an implied contrast: "You are the Rock-Apostle, and yet not the Rock on which the Church is to be built. It is enough for you to have found the Rock and to have built on the one Foundation." .

I will build my church

It is significant that this is the first appearance of the word "Church" (Ecclesia) in the New Testament, and one of only two passages (the other being Matthew 18:17) where it is found in the entire cycle of our Lord’s recorded teaching. Its use was significant in every way. It came partly with the associations it had in the Greek Old Testament, where it was used for the "assembly" or "congregation" of the Lord (Deuteronomy 18:16; Deuteronomy 23:1; Psalms 26:12). But it would also, at least as soon as the word came in its Greek form before Greek readers, bring with it the associations of Greek politics. The Ecclesia was the assembly of free citizens, which held judicial and legislative power, and from which aliens and slaves were both excluded. The mere use of the term was therefore a momentous step in the disciples' education. They had been looking for a kingdom with the King as its visible Head, sitting on an earthly throne. They were told that it was to be realized in a society, an assembly, like those we call popular or democratic in earthly politics. He, the King, claimed that society as His own. He was its real Head and Founder, but outwardly, it was to be what the word He now chose described.

And this Church He was about to build. It hardly needs to be said that the word ecclesia did not lend itself as readily as its English equivalent does to the idea of a building. The society and the fabric in which its members meet were not then described by the same term, as they are now. The metaphor was bolder than it seems to us. Like the "city set on a hill" of Matthew 5:14 or the "vine" of John 15:1, it may well have been suggested by the scenery in the midst of which the words were spoken. For there, upon one rock, rose the ruins of the old Canaanite city of Hazor, and on another, the stately palace built by the Herodian princes. Once started, the metaphor became the fruitful source of new thoughts and phrases. The ecclesia was the "house of God" (1 Timothy 3:15); it was a "holy temple" (Ephesians 2:21). All gifts were bestowed for the work of "edifying" or building it up (1 Corinthians 14:3–4; Ephesians 4:12). Those who labored in that work were like "wise architects or master builders" (1 Corinthians 3:10). But we must remember that Christ claims the work of building as His own. Whatever others may do, He is the supreme Master-builder. Just as in His priestly character He is at once Priest and Victim, so under this new aspect (where consistency of metaphors gives way to the necessities of spiritual truth) He is at once the Founder and the Foundation of the new society.

The gates of hell shall not prevail against it

The gates of Hades (see note on Matthew 11:23), not of Gehenna, the place of torment. Hades, as the shadow-world of the dead and the unseen counterpart of the visible grave, is all-absorbing and all-destructive. Into its jaws or gates all human things pass, and from it issue all forces that destroy. It is half-idealized, half-personified, as a power or polity of death. The very phrase, gates of the grave, or of Hades, meets us in Hezekiah’s lament (Isaiah 38:10) and in Wisdom 16:13. In Revelation 6:8, the personification is carried still further: Death rides upon a pale horse, and Hades follows him, and both are ultimately overthrown and cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14). And since the gates of an Eastern city were the scene of both kingly judgment (2 Samuel 15:2) and the council of the elders (Proverbs 31:23), they became the natural symbol of the governing power there. Thus, the promise declared that all the powers of Hades—all the forces of destruction that attack and, in the long run, overpower other societies—would attack but not overpower the ecclesia of which Christ was the Founder.

Nothing in our Lord’s teaching is, when measured by human judgment, more wonderful than the utterance of such a prophecy at such a time. It was, as has been noted, a time of apparent failure. He was about to announce His coming death as a criminal with a clarity unknown before. Yet it was at this very moment that He proclaimed the permanence and triumph of the society that, one might say, existed only in the seed of a half-realized concept. The history of the world offers hardly any serious parallel to such a prediction, and still less to its fulfillment, which has been witnessed through eighteen centuries of Christendom and which does not yet seem to be drawing to its close.