nd Syriac, are generally written
in Greek, with the terminations of that language, as _e. g._ Jesus, John,
James, Thomas, Judas, &c., and these terminations are _added_ to the
radical letters of the name, which are all retained. It is easy to see that
_Caphis_ would become _Caphisus_, while _Cepho_ (Syriac for _rock_) would
become _Cephas_, just as _Ehudo_ (Syriac, _Jude_) becomes _Judas_.

3. Still less likely would the name _Caphis_ be to lose a radical in its
transfer to the Syriac, where Cephos is represented by _Cepho_, without
_s_.

4. The paronomasia exhibited in the Latin, "Tu es _Petrus_, et super hanc
_petram_," also appears both in the Greek and the Syriac.

5. The difference of gender between the words _Petrus_ and _petra_,
moreover, is preserved in the Syriac and appears in the Greek.

6. The figure of binding and loosing (v. 19.) is one which was common to
the three languages, Greek, Chaldee, and Syriac, in all of which it denotes
"to remit or retain" sins, "to confirm or abolish" a law, &c.

7. The occurrence of this figure in ch. xviii. 18., where the reference is
not special to Peter, but general to all the apostles. (Compare John xx.
23.)

8. The Syriac uniformly translates the name Peter by Cepho (_i. e._
Cephas), except once or twice in Peter's epistles. This at least indicates
their view of its meaning.

On the whole I see no reason to suppose that Cephas means anything but
_stone_; certainly there is much less reason for the proposed signification
of _binder_.

In John i. 42., the clause which explains the name Cephas is absent from
the Syriac version in accordance with the regular and necessary practice of
the translators to avoid tautology: "Thou shalt be called _Stone_; which is
by interpretation _Stone!_" (See the _Journal of Sacred Literature_ for
January last, p. 457., for several examples of this.) There is here surely
sufficient reason to account for the omission of this clause, which, it
{501} appears, is supported by universal MS. authority, as well as by that
of the other versions.

B. H. C.

The paronomasia of _Kipho_ (=Rock) was made in the Syro-Chaldaic tongue,
the vernacular language of our Lord and his disciples. The apostle John,
writing in Greek (i. 43.), explains the meaning of _Kipho_ ([Greek:
Kephas]) by the usual Greek phrase [Greek: ho hermeneuetai Petros], which
phrase was necessarily omitted in the Syriac version, where this word
_Kipho_ was significant, in the