In Deuteronomy 32 there is recorded song in which Moses speaks of the God of Israel and Israel's future rebellion. In verse 3-4, Moses exclaims, "Ascribe ye greatness unto our God, He is the Rock." The words "He is" are in italics, signifying these two words are not in the original. Literally, then, it reads, "Ascribe greatness unto our God, the Rock." The Septuagint has the word Petra in the Greek. Petra means an immoveable mass of rock and its in the feminine gender. When Christ address Peter, after he confessed that Jesus was the Christ, He used the word Petros , "Thou art Petros", Peter, which is the masculine gender, and means a moveable rock. The Church of Rome claims that Peter is the rock upon which the Church is built. But Christ said, "upon this Petra I will build my Church". Many times in Scripture, especially in the Psalms, God is referred to as the Rock. Of the Roman Catholic Church it may truly be said; "For their Rock is not is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges". |