Himself, who is also called the Rock, could without the most important meaning have been bestowed on Peter, who in the list of the apostles is called first, and always put in the first place ; see Matt. x. 2 ; see also 1 Pet. ii. 4—7. All these things are said with safety, for what have they to do with Rome ?x Let the Roman rock beware, lest it fall under the censure of ver. 23. — xai, x.r.X., and, etc.) A most magnificent promise, including, in different ways, the gates of hell, the kingdom of heaven, and the earth. — o/V.o3o//,>;<r«, I will build} He does not say, on this rock I WILL FOUND ; for Peter, nevertheless, is not the foundation. The wise build on a rock; see ch. vii. 24. — Mou rqv JxxXjj<r/av, My ChwreK) A magnificent expression concerning Jesus, not occur ring elsewhere in the Gospels. — -ruXa/ aoov, the gates of hell) The word •ffu'Ka.i (gates) occurs here without the article. Heaven is in the next verse put in opposition to rti ydr,, hell, which occurs here, as in ch. xi. 23. Hell has no power against faith ; faith has power with reference to heaven.2 The gates of hell (as else where, the gates of death) are named also in Isa. xxxviii. 10 ; Wis. xvi. 13. Hell, adr,g, is exceedingly strong (see Cant. viii. 6) ; how much more its gates ? The metaphor in " gates" is of an architectural kind, as in the expressions, " / will build" and " the keys" The Christian Church is like a city without walls, and yet the gates of hell, which assail it, shall never prevail. The defences of hell, and the fortifications of the world, corre sponding to them, are here intended ; as, for instance, the Otto man Porte, and Rome, where Erasmus Schmidt3 thinks that the mouth of hell is ; that it was opened in the time of Marcus
1 Whether Peter was for any time at Rome, and that too not in imprison ment, is a matter full of doubt. Grant even that he was : he was so cer tainly in no other way save as an Apostle ; and the Church planted there was blessed with its own ordinary ministers. It was, therefore, to the place of these latter, not to his place, that the Bishops of subsequent ages suc ceeded, who afterwards degenerated into Lords and Popes. — V. g.
2 In the original, "Contra fidem nil potest infernus: fides potest in cesium :" where the preposition u in" implies also motion, or progress towards heaven. — (I. B.)
" Even to heaven." — ED.
8 ERASMUS SCHMIDT was a learned Philologist, born in Misnia in 1560. He became eminent for his skill in Greek and in Mathematics, of both of which he was Professor at Wittenberg, where he died in 1637. — (I. B.)