to John, two of the Baptist’s disciples left him to follow Jesus (John 1:35ff.). One of them was Andrew (the other is unnamed), who then brought his brother Simon to Jesus. Jesus gave Simon the cognomen Cephas, “Rock,” which became translated from the Greek as Peter. The giving of a cognomen was taken very seriously in those days, so it would seem that Jesus recognized Peter’s strength of character despite his flaws and was willing to establish him as a source of strength to the others. It is apparent