Protestants Identify Peter As Rock

I was having an exchange with a Protestant friend of mine on Facebook on whether Peter is the rock Jesus says He will build His church upon. I took the time to copy some choice quotations from the book Jesus, Peter, and the Keys  which I have been meaning to keep on file somewhere because they're useful, but I finally managed it, and I am copying them here for future reference. 

William Hendriksen, Th.D from Princeton, a Reformed Protestant Professor of New Testament Literature at Calvin Seminary writes, “The meaning is, ‘You are Peter, that is Rock, and upon this rock, that is, on you, Peter, I will build my church.’ Our Lord, speaking Aramaic, probably said, ‘And I say to you, you are Kepha,’ and on this kepha I will build my church.’ Jesus, then, is promising Peter that he is going to build his church on him! I accept this view.” - New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew, pg 647

Even some Lutherans, the original Protestants, have come to agree with us. As Raymond E. Brown, Karl P. Donfried, and John Reumann say in their book Peter in the New Testament, “On that level, precisely because of the Aramaic identity Kepha/kepha, there can be no doubt that the rock on which the church was to be built was Peter.” Pg. 92 

Leading Evangelical Lutheran scholar Gerhard Maier writes, “ Nowadays a broad consensus had emerged which- in accordance with the words of the text- applies the promise to Peter as a person. ON this point liberal (H.J. HOltzmann, E. Schweiger) and conservative (Cullman, Flew) theologians agree, as well as representatives of Roman Catholic Exegesis.” - Biblical Interpretation and Church Text and Context, pg 58 

He also writes in the same book, “With all due respect to the Reformers, we must admit that the promise in Matt 16:18 ff. is directed to Peter, and not to a Peter-like faith.” -pg 60

Another leading Evangelical scholar, Craig S. Keener, writes, “In Aramaic ‘Peter’ and Rock are the same word; in Greek (hear) they are cognate terms that were used interchangeably by this period. For the idea of a person as the foundation on which something is built, cf Isaiah 51:1-2; Ephesians 2:20 (the promise is made to Peter because Peter was the one who confessed Jesus v16).” - The IVP Bible Background Commentary New Testament pg 90

The great Baptist theologian D.A. Carson writes, “Although it is true that petros and petra can mean ‘stone’ and ‘rock’ respectively in earlier Greek, the distinction is largely confined to poetry. Moreover, the underlying Aramaic is in this case unquestionable; an most probably kepha was used in both clauses (‘you are kepha’ and ‘on this kepha’) since the word was used both for a name and for a ‘rock.’ The Peshitta (written in Syriac, a language cognate with Aramaic) makes no distinction between the two words in the two clauses. The Greek makes the distinction between petros and petra simply because it is trying to preserve the pun, and in Greek, the feminine petra could not very well serve as a masculine name.” - The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Volume 8 (Matthew Mark Luke) pg 368 

Carson also writes this in the Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary-New Testament, “The word Peter petros, meaning ‘rock,’ (Gk 4377) is masculine, and in Jesus’ follow-up statement he uses the feminine word petra (Gk 4376). ON the basis of this change, many have attempted to avoid identifying Peter as the rock on which Jesus builds his church yet if it were not for Protestant reactions against extremes of Roman Catholic interpretations, it is doubtful whether many would have taken ‘rock’ to be anything or anyone other than Peter.”- pg 78