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Matthew 16:18
New Catholic Bible
Matthew 16:18
New Catholic Bible
18 And I say to you: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church,[a] and the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against it.
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- Matthew 16:18 You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church: the Aramaic word for “rock” (kepa) is transliterated into Greek as Cephas, the name used for Peter in the Pauline letters (1 Cor 1:12; Gal 1:18), and is translated as “Peter” in Jn 1:42. Church: a word that occurs only here and in Mt 18:17 (twice) in the New Testament. The Church will have Peter as her foundation stone. But of course her real foundation is faith in Jesus, the Son of God. Peter will have the primacy among all the apostles and be the visible head of the Church, as will his successors, the Popes. The gates of the netherworld designate the powers of death. The Church will resist all the vicissitudes of time because of her foundation on a rock.
