Also, I say to you, You are Peter, and on this rock-mass I will build my congregation, and the gates of Haʹdes will not overpower it.

Peter’s name means “stone,” or “piece of rock.” But this did not mean that he was the “rock-mass” upon which Jesus would build his congregation. Neither was the “rock-mass” the confession that Peter had made: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The “rock-mass” was Jesus himself. Peter did not misinterpret Jesus’ words. Never did he claim to be the “rock-mass” (Greek, petra) according to 1 Peter 2:4-10. Furthermore, the apostle Paul, whose writings Peter recognized as part of the inspired Scriptures, wrote: “For they [the Israelites in the wilderness] used to drink from the spiritual rock-mass that followed them, and that rock-mass meant the Christ.”​—1 Corinthians 10:4; 2 Peter 3:15, 16.