Names and Etymologies
His original name was Shimon or Simeon, Simon in modern English. He was later given the name Peter, a name derived from the Latin "Petrus" which is a masculinized form of the feminine petra (f) which means rock (cf. petroleum). In Greek, the same idea holds: "Πέτρος (Petros)" is derived from πέτρα (petra). The Latin word "petra" is a loanword from Greek. He has also been referred to as Simon Cephas (Greek: Σιμων Κηφᾶς Simōn Kēphas; Aramaic: Šimʻōn Kêfâ; Syriac: ܫܶܡܥܽܘܢ ܟ݁ܺܐܦ݂ܳܐ Sëmʻān Kêfâ), after his name in Hellenised Aramaic.
The English and German "Peter", the French "Pierre", the Italian "Pietro", the Spanish and Portuguese "Pedro", the Polish and Russian "Piotr" are derived from "Petrus". The pun with "rock" also works in Italian (pietra (f)), French (pierre (f)) and Portuguese (pedra (f)).
The Syriac or Aramaic word for "rock" is cephas, which became Greek: Πέτρος, also meaning "rock". He is also known as Simon Peter, Cephas (Greek: Κηφᾶς) and Kepha (Hebrew: כיפא). Both Cephas and Kepha also mean rock.
However, the Catholic theologian Rudolf Pesch argues that the Aramaic cepha means "stone, ball, clump, clew" and that "rock" is only a connotation; that the Greek petra denotes "grown rock, rocky range, cliff, grotto"; and that petros means "small stone, firestone, sling stone, moving boulder".
Read more about this topic: Apostle Peter
Famous quotes containing the words names and and/or names:
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—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“You shall see men you never heard of before, whose names you don’t know,... and many other wild and noble sights before night, such as they who sit in parlors never dream of.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)