explanation of the Second Article:  “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me,” the Lord would say the same thing as He did to Peter:  My child, yours is an excellent confession; there is nothing fickle or undecided in it like in the vague and changing opinions which worldly men form about Me.  Thank God that He has given you the grace to know Me as I ought to be known.

But did not the Lord proceed to declare Peter the rock on which He would build His Church?  That is what Catholics believe, in spite of the fact that this would be the only place in the whole Bible where a human being would be represented as the foundation of the Church, while there are scores of passages which name quite another person as the rock that supports the Church.  Catholics read this text thus:  “Thou art Peter, and on thee will I build My Church.”  That is precisely what Christ did not say, and what He was most careful not to express.  The words “Peter” and “rock” are plainly two different terms and denote two different objects.  That is the most natural view to take of the matter.  In the original Greek we find two words similar in sound, but distinct in meaning for the two objects to which Christ refers:  Peter’s name is Petros, which is a personal noun; the word for “rock” is petra, which is a common noun.  In the Greek, then, Christ’s answer reads thus:  “Thou art Petros, and on this petra will I build my Church.”  Catholics claim that Christ, in answering Peter, introduced a play upon words, such as a witty person will indulge in:  Petros, the apostle’s name, signifies a rock-man, a firm person, and from this meaning it is an easy step to petra, which is plain rock or stone.  If this interpretation is admitted, the expression “upon thee” may be substituted for the expression “on this rock.”  Yet not altogether.  By adopting the peculiar phraseology “upon this rock” in the place of “upon thee,” Christ avoids referring to the individual Peter, to the person known as Peter, and refers rather to a characteristic in him, namely, his firmness and boldness in confessing Christ.  This every careful interpreter of this text will admit.  Christ could easily have said:  Upon thee will I build My Church, if it had been His intention to say just that.  And we imagine on such a momentous occasion Christ would have used the plainest terms, containing no figure of speech, no ambiguities whatever; for was he not now introducing to the Church the distinguished person who was to preside over its affairs?  Catholics claim that when Christ spoke these words, “upon this rock,” He had extended His hand and was pointing to Peter.  That would help us considerably in the interpretation of the text.  The trouble is only that we are not told anything about such a gesture of Christ, and if a gesture must be invented, it is possible to invent an altogether different one,