Translation choice · documented
What the source reads — Greek: 'You are Petros (a stone), and on this petra (bedrock) I will build my church' — two different words
What this version reads — Peshitta: 'You are Kepha, and on this Kepha I will build my church' (ܟܐܦܐ) — one word, the pun intact
The Greek splits the name Petros (masculine, 'stone') from petra (feminine, 'rock'); the Aramaic uses Kepha for both, so the wordplay is seamless — 'you are Rock, and on this rock…'. It is also the ordinary word the Peshitta uses for Peter's name throughout. A feature of the language, not a variant reading. The same verse hides a second flattening: its 'gates of Hades' — an old idiom for the gates of death — became the KJV's 'gates of hell', reading a fiery underworld into what only meant the grave.
Read this chapter side by side — Matthew 16:18 →