Luke 9:18

κατὰ μόνας. ‘In private,’ as the context shews.

οἱ ὄχλοι. ‘The multitudes’; those whom Jesus had taught and healed and fed, or those who seem to have been always at no great distance. The two other Evangelists place this memorable scene in the neighbourhood of Caesarea Philippi. His life at this epoch had come to resemble a continuous flight. He did not enter Caesarea Philippi. He always avoided towns (with the single exception of Jerusalem), probably from His love for the sights and sounds of nature, and His dislike for the crowded squalor and worldly absorption of town-communities; and He specially avoided these Hellenic and hybrid cities (Jos. Vit. 13), with their idolatrous ornaments and corrupted population. This event may well be regarded as the culminating point in His ministry. He had now won the deliberate faith and conviction of those who had lived in close intercourse with Him, and who, in continuation of His ministry, were to evangelize the world. See Matthew 16:13-21; Mark 8:27-31. The depth and sincerity of the confession was more strongly tested by the fact that it was made, not in the joyous spring of the Galilean ministry, but in the year of persecution which drove our Lord into semi-heathen districts.

εἶναι. “That I, the Son of man, am?” Matthew 16:13.