In John 1:42, we read that Simon AKA Saint Peter is given a special “code name” by Jesus when he says, “Thou art Shemeun, (Simon,) the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Kepha.”

The above passage was said when Jesus first interviewed Saint Peter (Simon, Simeon or Symeon) to become his disciple (student) while teaching as part of John’s ministry (John 1:42). It was at this time that he gave him the surname “Kepha or Cepha.”

Later, Jesus tells Simon, “Thou art Kepha, and upon this kepha I will build my church.” (Matt, xvi, 18.)

A name and word that I believe is commonly misinterpreted by many theologians and authors to mean ‘rock’ and some could say is equivalent to “man of the rock.”

But I have found that this interpretation of the meaning is historically incorrect.

The reason I disagree is that you will not find the name Peter in the four Syriac Gospels, nor in the Epistles of Paul. The names that are found are “Shemeun (Simon) or Kepha, which answers to the English Cephas.

Also, if we are to research “true etymology” of the word Kepha, you will find that is is actually derived from the Greek words “kepha, kephas and or kephalé.”

Words that mean mainly – “the head,” but also denote esoterically in religion as, “Ruler, Lord or a Cornerstone (Masonic), uniting two walls.”

There are many words with kepha and or cepha which all denote head.

For example, we know that Simon, AKA Saint Peter, AKA Kepha was a fisherman and the great symbol of the Christians is a fish and interestingly we find the kephale (cephus, sefus) is a genus of the Cod-fishes, Cadidae, in which the head is remarkably large, depressed, and broad; the name also of a genus of Dipterous insects of the duck family.

A cephalla, se-fa’le-a, s. (kephale, Gr.) A genus of Dipterous insects, in which the fore part of the head is much prolonged, being without setae, and the palpi strongly dilated in the form of a spatula: Tribe, Musides.

This definition of the name Kephas for Simon makes perfect sense being that our Lord declared Peter as the “foundation for the church” and the leader of the 12 disciples and by the Roman Catholic Church as Prince of the Apostles and the first of its unbroken succession of popes.

It was for this reason that he was named the ‘head’ or should I say “Big head – as in wise ruler and or cornerstone – Kepha of the Church.”

Pin It on Pinterest