“On This Rock I Will Build My Church:”

Reshaping African Evangelical Ecclesiology through a Philological Rereading of Matthew 16:16–19

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to offer a philological rereading of Matt 16:16–19 to reshape African Christology. Largely, African ecclesiology emphasizes tasks that disconnect denominations rather than creating a borderless community which shares mutual faith. Moreover, it highlights church structure, economic and human resources as well as nature, universality, content, and the mandate of mission. It should, therefore, be reshaped to appreciate ekklēsia as a borderless community which God initiated, called and designated to belong to, and gives loyalty to Christ. Remarkably, the link between Christology and ecclesiology in the text discloses that Christology nurtures and shapes ecclesiology. Yet missiology has perpetually nurtured and shaped ecclesiology, but the conversation between Jesus and Peter insinuates that ecclesiology grows from Christology. While Peter’s confession is Christological, Jesus’s riposte is not only ecclesiological, but it also demonstrates that God initiates missiological tasks of the ekklēsia. Besides, the interpretations and translation of the text’s key terms are contentious, and the misreading of their referents may have engendered weak ecclesiology. Philological criticism, which analyses the original languages with which a text was written, was used to analyse its key terms. Their translation and reinterpretation establishes that God through Christ initiates the ekklēsia’s missiological tasks, while the Holy Spirit empowers her to execute them. So, if African ekklēsia shall revive her missiological tasks, Christology must nurture and shape African evangelical ecclesiology.