Actually, the Catholics are the ones who DO know the difference: • When St. Matthew translated his Gospel into Greek, he knew his Greek readers might not know that the Aramaic name Jesus gave to Peter, “Kepha”, MEANT “Rock”. So to make the “Rock” image clear, he used the Greek word for rock, “petra”—as in “upon this ‘petra’ I will build My Church.” • But “Petra” is feminine; Peter was a man. So Matthew had to take “petra" & masculinize it to “Petros” (-‘os’ = masculine ending). He HAD to use “petra” for rock so his Greek readers would understand the Rock CONCEPT; but he COULDN’T use the feminine “petra” for Peter’s NAME. • The claim that “petra” means “rock” but “Petros” means “stone” was true at one time in ATTIC Greek—but NEVER in KOINE Greek, the Greek of the NT (different dialect). In Koine Greek, both “petra” & “petros” meant “rock” • And by Jesus’ time, any distinction between “petra” & “Petros” had ceased to exist EVEN IN Attic Greek. Between the 8th & 4th centuries BC they were used as “rock” & “stone” in Attic Greek poetry, but that distinction had long disappeared by the time Matthew was translated into Greek (Koine Greek having become widely used in the 4th century BC & continuing in widespread use until the 5th century AD). Greek scholars—even non-Catholic ones—admit that “petra” & “petros” were synonyms in 1st century Greek • If Matthew had wanted Peter to mean “stone”, not “rock”, he would’ve used the Greek word for stone: “Lithos”, or even clearer, “Psephos”, which means “small stone” (e.g., Rev 2:17). @Matthew56193629