What do the names of Peter and Paul Mean?

As the Imnarja feast gets closer, I curiously searched for the meanings of the names of these great apostles of the Church. I searched for the meaning of their given names (those given by their parents during the rite of circumcision eight days after their birth, we must keep in mind that they were both Jews). I also searched the names given to them after they had met Jesus.

We will start with Simon Peter. The name Simon, a popular and common Jewish name, has the same root as the verb shama’, which means ‘to hear’. Therefore, his name is associated with hearing. While Peter in Latin or Cephas in Greek both mean stone or a large rock. Peter received this name from Christ after he had declared his faith in Jesus as the Messiah, Son of the Living God, He whom the people of God were awaiting. He also declared Jesus to be God himself who had drawn close to humanity. Peter received this name and his mission to be the rock because he was capable of hearing (Simon) what the Father had placed in his heart through the Holy Spirit.

We now turn to Saul, which is also the Jewish name of the first king of Israel. The people of Israel requested that they have an earthly king and not be guided directly by God through his Judges and prophets. The name Saul literally implies ‘asked for from God’ as though someone praying for or asking for something from God.

At the outset, Saul, despite the meaning of his name, was not open to asking God for guidance, but believed that he possessed the whole truth. He was sure of himself and certain that the Nazarene’s sect had to be destroyed. But upon his encounter with Jesus, he became Paul—Paulus in Latin means small or little—because in his encounter with the Risen Christ he recognised his insignificance and his nothingness, so much so that he no longer boasted of himself but boasted of the Cross of Christ.

The name we received in Baptism also says something about us, it provides us with a mission. It may do you well to find out the meaning of your name, it may help you to find your place in the world according to your state in life. But most importantly, because some names have absolutely no meaning apart from the senseless sound they make when pronounced, today’s feast invites us to embrace our humanity because it is through our humanity that God begins His work in us. Let us walk the path taken by these two apostles that led them to Christian maturity: let’s begin with listening (listening to the Word of God, listening to the words of our neighbour, listening to what is in our hearts) so that we can become living stones in the building of the Kingdom of God because we recognise what God is asking from us today, now, in our time. At this time, we must also stand before God and pray, beg and intercede for our world, our society and our Church in which we live and of which we are part of. Not with a sense of superiority as if we have all the answers, but humbly clinging to the truth, which is not ours but is Truth itself, Jesus Christ.