Blood wrote:The question came up recently if the word Πέτρος (Petros, Peter) existed as a personal name prior to the gospels. I don't think anyone had a quick answer.
Here is Ulrich Luz, in his
Matthew 8-20 commentary (Hermeneia, 2001), page 358:
"Peter" (Πέτρος) did not exist as a pre-Christian Greek name; for an Aramaic name Kepha there is only one uncertain reference.
(The reference is from the Elephantine papyri.)
Dale Allison, in his 1992 article "Peter and Cephas: One and the Same" (JBL 111, 489-95), a response to an 1990 article by Ehrman, "Cephas and Peter" (JBL 109: 463-74), who had defended the perspective that Peter & Cephas were two different people, has these things to say about the subject you ask about:
1) known pre-Christian sources use Aramaic Kepa as a name only once,
2) known pre-Christian sources use Greek PETROS, whether as a name or nickname, not at all
3) that being said, however, he notes that C. C. Caragounis stated that "in view of the predilection of the ancients for names derived from PETROS/PETRA ... it is only natural to suppose that PETROS was in existence [in pre-Christian times], though no examples of it before the Christian era have turned up as yet", and to support this conclusion, he can "can demonstrate
pagan use of the name in the first and second centuries CE" ...
DCH
