DAY 271
CHALLENGE
“Peter can’t be the rock in Matthew 16:18 because Scripture says God is the rock (Isa. 51:1). Further, Peter describes Jesus as a stone (1 Pet. 2:4–8). Therefore, Jesus must be the rock.”
DEFENSE
This challenge does not understand the way metaphors work.
Although Isaiah does refer to God as “the rock from which you were hewn,” there is nothing about this passage indicating that only God can be described as a rock.
If only God could be described as a rock then Jesus could not have given Simon bar-Jonah the nickname Cephas/Peter/Rock (John 1:42; Matt. 16:18). The fact that Jesus bestows this nickname means that the metaphor of a rock can be used to refer to non-divine individuals, so we must ask what metaphor is being used in any given passage.
When Peter refers to Jesus as a living stone, he uses the normal Greek word for stone: lithos. The fact that he uses this rather than petra or petros (see Day 282) indicates a different metaphor is being used than when he gave Peter his nickname.
Metaphors are not just used in a single way. Protestant scholar D.A. Carson notes:
The objection that Peter considers Jesus the rock is insubstantial because metaphors are commonly used variously, till they become stereotyped, and sometimes even then. Here [in Matt. 16:18] Jesus builds his church; in 1 Corinthians 3:10, Paul is “an expert builder.” In 1 Corinthians 3:11, Jesus is the church’s foundation; in Ephesians 2:19–20, the apostles and prophets are the foundation (cf. also Rev 21:14), and Jesus is the “cornerstone.” Here Peter has the keys; in Revelation 1:18; 3:7, Jesus has the keys. In John 9:5, Jesus is “the light of the world”; in Matthew 5:14, his disciples are. None of these pairs threatens Jesus’ uniqueness. They simply show how metaphors must be interpreted primarily with reference to their immediate contexts (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary on Matt. 16:18).
Carson also notes: “In this passage Jesus is the builder of the church and it would be a strange mixture of metaphors that also sees him within the same clauses as its foundation” (ibid.).
The challenge thus uses a simplistic understanding of how metaphors work and forces metaphors used elsewhere in Scripture into the text of Matthew 16:18.